I was listening to a podcast this morning and the fellow was talking about Latin America, bitcoin adoption, Bukele. He noted how it seems that developing and pre-developed nations seem to jump into bitcoin or crypto more eagerly than the comfortable wealthy nations. That, and those nations with political and/or economic unrest are getting in. Likely he's correct. Of course, Milei came up.
As far as I can tell, Milei hasn't said too much about bitcoin or cryptocurrency but has more of a use-whatever-money-you-want mentality. I guess, money-neutral might be a phrase to apply. The podcast speaker mentioned that Argentinians might well use bitcoin or a stablecoin (Tether was mentioned).
This made me wonder:
  1. What is the bitcoin/stablecoin/cryptocurrency usage in Argentina now?
  2. Will Milei's open door will see an increase?
Anyone know of any stat sources on this?
351 sats \ 12 replies \ @davidw 8 Feb
It’s kind of ridiculous to say but a lot of people are using Tether on Tron these days. See link here.
It’s insecure as hell, but cheap and a way to get in and out of dollars quickly.
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264 sats \ 1 reply \ @hueso 8 Feb
Can confirm. Buenos Aires is a big bitcoiner hub since the early days but the USDT/TRX nested scam has become wildly popular here. Even with 200% inflation the normies are reluctant to buy BTC and prefer StAbLeCoInS.
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Also confirm. Sad. And lots of people who bought BTC still keep them on Binance
Ask any cueva to trade BTC/ARS and they will turn it down... although I understand their margins are super low so any volatily in USD terms is risky for them
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @franzap 8 Feb
It's even worse: Tether on Tron on Binance
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23 sats \ 0 replies \ @hueso 8 Feb
LOL true. Remeber Binance was one of the main sponsors of the national football team and the national league was renamed "Torneo Binance" during the last 2 years.
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Ahh, Justin Sun. I find Tron weird.
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I haven't looked at it in over a year, but the content is one thing. Perhaps it's a cultural difference. Also, I had a Steemit account, then Justin Sun tried to take it over (and did) and nearly everyone on Steemit forked over to the Hive blockchain (which I like). In the process, somewhere, Tron emerged. I assume it's a fork of Steemit, because ultimately Steemit and Tron and Hive private keys were all identical which is not healthy.
Well, the YouTube AI people is using it. I really dont know why .
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His goal is to dollarize Argentina so I imagine stable coins like tether will become more popular
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1-a_ the majority of the bitcoiners hold it as an investment, later they will sell it to take profits. In my case I will spend my SATs in 30+ years. 1-b_people who knows about crypto buys stables so they don't need to buy them with physical money in the black market. 1-c_ people who have crypto use them for specific things (gas) of for investment, they think in fiat or stables in the bull run.
2- milei doesn't know what's a Blockchain, as always he only copied pasted the "BTC is the natural answer to the central bank" cause he wants to "close the central bank" but he will leave a regulator entity, meaning he won't print (cause he wants us under the Fed) but he will leave the insurance of the banks to bail out if they f*ck up. He talks cause he wants us to use our BTC and crypto so he can tax us for holding, you can find the article in the "omnibus" law.
We don't use our BTC and crypto, we invest. In my case my SATs are for the last part of my life, the cryptos are for taking profits to buy more SATs, the stables are for the moment when the BTC and crypto are cheap af. There are places where we can use our BTC and crypto but it's in specific places/shops and they are doing it way before milei's lies. I'm not a politician, economist or media so I can explain the reality. It's my pov so please don't trust me 100%, doubt is always good to find the reality
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Thanks for your thoughtful perspective. It's appreciated.
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Milei doesn't know what's a Blockchain. He only knows that it's something he can tax
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