I've been hearing about this for the last few weeks. As I understand it, this would be a good move for Zimbabwe simply because the currency isn't being controlled by a centralized authority.
On the other hand, it will not solve their problems immediately. I love that you sourced this article, gonna have to look into this a bit more!
Keep up
aTone
Yes, it is helping local citizens preserve more of their wealth.
I think this is currently one of a few arguments to buy bitcoin/cryptocurrencies and the fact that you can hide it much better then gold or any other "stable" asset.