Yeah that would be great, there are quite a lot of wonderful people from Venezuela very active in the Natural Medicine community, which was started by one of our tribe members and I know that they get a lot of support from that community. Being able to make a positive difference in someone's life is a wonderful thing to do and I know Hive certainly does that over there. @drrune is someone to reach out to and talk about this with also, he is a tribe member and wonderful content creator on here xxxx
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Hey @drrune, I was curious about some things in regards to the Bolivar, on what scale is Hive currency being used by Venezuelans to live, the realities of using hive on real life there. Risks?
I was looking into some key things like an estimated cost of living chart for a single Venezuelan to live. Is this a fair approximation?
Also its seems binance is primarily used. Are you aware of the fees one is too expect from transferring hive to BTC to bolivar?
Hey, @dynamichivers! Well, I wish I could confirm or deny estimates, but things vary widely here from town to town, city to city and even between different areas. These estimates, although possible for some families or individuals, are untenable for most inhabitants. There are really few key points that I could establish as reference for how much a family requires to live, or how costly life is here. Even US dollars experience serious inflation here, which is unheard of anywhere else. The Bolívar itself is still in use both digitally and in cash, as crazy as it may sound, and yes, Binance accepts Bolivars and that makes it very popular. These transactions are carried out through individuals whom the platform has vetted, it's the only way to truly trade Bolivars in this country because everything has to be handled through State or private banks and the infrastructure's really bad. Uphold also has its reach, and Coinbase is starting to gain a foothold. A lot of people use AirTM and Zelle is even more common, but again, only in some areas, most citizens are either too far from any decent internet, plagued by constant blackouts (or worse, organized crime syndicates) or just lack the necessary equipment to access these services, most of which also require access to accounts abroad.
According to NASDAQ, Venezuela's the third country with the most crypto transactions, and I think that's about right. There's another aspect to account for, that I mentioned above: crime. This country's teeming with all kinds of corrupt bureaucrats, shady businessmen and just plain armed thugs (regime cronies or connected to them), most of whom are forced to stay here because they'd be jailed immediately if they left the country. A lot of the heaviest fishes are also sanctioned so they literally can't do anything else with their money. So they have to spend their fortunes in the country they ruined. Quite poetic. They open a bunch of crazy shops that sell a bunch of foreign products at rather affordable prices, even by US standards.
At the same time, we thrive in so many ways that can't be measured in estimates or through the lens of politics. It's a deeply societal phenomenon. People in the Caracas subway have dollars to spend on trinkets and snacks that the ubiquitous hawkers sell at ridiculously low prices. They also serve as exchangers, they have their own exchange rates and everything. Bus drivers too, when they can. There are new shops and businesses everywhere. The flow of foreign currency is so steady that there are businesses and startups flourishing all about. Each community has developed its own trade over the years, a trend which the pandemic must've surely spurred all over the world already.
There's a lot more I could say about this, but I have other responsibilities to attend to at the moment. I hope this is helpful!