Venezuela: Some comments (and images) about (hyper)inflation and crypto usage.

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Hi fellow redditors, As you probably know, I have been posting in this sub for years. Mostly keeping track of the traded BTC weekly measured using LocalBitcoin. I live here, love crypto and I think (and wish) this will help me get through. Today I want to share some points about the inflation here (I think it shouldn't be called hyperinflation already, for the last 6 months it has been under 10% month to month) and comment about a new "law" the government wants to implement when it comes to foreign exchanges (like Binance). Months ago government ordered by law to remove six zeroes from the currency, inflation was that high and they were printing new banknotes with the exact same design only changing the colors, it was a really nightmare for old people, recently I know someone that committed suicide because we didn't comprehend how after having million "old" Bs. (Bolivares, our currency) suddenly one day it would be a few "new" Bs. by the way, purchasing power would be the same because prices would be also be divided by 6 zeroes. I think one of the mistakes (one of a few) is keep calling the "new" currency Bolivares again. By the way, these banknotes have the "new" Simon Bolivar image ordered by Chavez, the "OG" Simon Bolivar is this one. So, at the supermarket you could have the prices: "old" Bs., "new" Bs. and USD. Like this: After government removed the six zeroes they started to supply USD to the market to keep the exchange rate stable and they have succeeded so far, this has made the inflation go down. At this point, you can say, well that is normal, these prices are ok. BUT, problem here is the monthly minimum wage is around 25 USD! Average monthly wage is around 80 USD and a "good" wage is 300 USD. Remember all the values are monthly. And according to some NGO, a 5 members family needs 600 USD monthly to live "ok". When it comes with crypto, government has a love-hate relationship because years ago they promoted their own crypto called the "Petro" (Petro V1 was a total scam) the current version somehow "works" but they hate economic freedom, they like to control everything and make people depend on them to live. Now they have released a new law there technically all the exchanges besides a few "puppet" exchanges probably owned by the government itself are in theory illegal. Don't get me wrong this is not for a good cause, so help people to avoid scams and so on, this is with the only objective of knowing how much money you trade and not to tax you, probably to make you a target of ransom and kidnap, similar what happens with miners here. Let see what happens, people here use (A LOT) Binance, it's the king as they allow the usage of Bs. with P2P. LocalBitcoin trades around 25 BTC weekly and respectable amount. Last week it was 28 BTC. About me? A lot of redditors have help me in different ways (And I have helped people here too, people that is in a worse than me) and moons helped me a lot (not so much last months). I need to secure a extra income of around 500 USD monthly to be "ok", mining is something I have been thinking as electricity is almost free (like 1 USD for 3 months of service for a house) but if your power consumption is high they will suspect you are doing something and could be victim of ransom, GPU mining is good (under 1000W) but now with ETH 2.0…. And staking to generate 500 USD monthly is out of order… Any question even if you think it's silly, let me know! As a treat, I give you the McDonald's prices in Venezuela (All in USD) Some good reads: https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2022/04/21/is-venezuela-doing-better/ https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2022/04/20/the-bizarre-figures-of-venezuelas-economic-recovery/ https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins/VED/BTC https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins/VED https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-venezuela-cafe-con-leche-index/ submitted by /u/WorkingLime |