Bitcoin Could Be a Catalyst to Revolutionize "Global South" If... \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Bitcoin Could Be a Catalyst to Revolutionize "Global South" If...

777 sats \ 21 comments \ @Wakingseason 17 Sep bitcoin

As a person who lives in a country that is under sanction, corruption, environmental crisis and hyper inflation, woke up some day ago and saw a billboard about implementation of CBDC as a new money formation. Fortunately during these years I've learned to be less dependent on governmental services and banks but unfortunately there are two factors that are concrete obstacles on the way to be a liberty warrior in "Global South":

Lack of content in regional languages
Problem of building communities

Economical crisis and hyper inflation force people to work more in order to earn more money, and there is no leisure time to focus on learning, providing content and building communities. People prefer to rely on banks instead of each other. Every action will be perished by economic shocks and the absence of strong communities. Surely tyrants are the main danger. According to this socio-political circumstances it is so hard to talk about decentralized systems but as a person who works on a small scale permaculture project and building communities to loan money out of banking systems, I should confess BITCOIN can revolutionize "Global South" if focus on regional languages. Surely I know it is a decentralized system and Bitcoiners must be responsible about their national languages. As an example major part of my knowledge about Bitcoin is taken from my mother-tongue resources while I can read English.

In addition censorship could be main barrier for community builders. Governments all around the world has tendency to monitor network activities of their citizens but in "Global South" it is a different issue. There is no need to explain about killing journalists and truth tellers which is accepted as a new normal. Bitcoin community can more invest in decentralized services that help communities to communicate privately. They should find new solutions in order to bypass new governmental firewalls and spread the seeds of free access to the web.

I'll be glad to read your comments and recommendations.

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107 sats \ 2 replies \ @TheBTCManual 17 Sep

South African here, Bitcoin does indeed solve a lot of the problems the global south faces in terms of currency debasement, access to financial tools etc, but the major issue here is liquidity and opportunity cost.

To stack sats you NEED to have a surplus in productivity, aka generating savings, if you don't have anything to save why bother with Bitcoin? Industry powered by Bitcoin will take time to permeate in these regions but as more liquidity and savings flow into the asset class, the early adopters who did have savings can now pull from their greater purchasing power to attack high profit opportunties in their region

Second issue is even if the person does have savings, it might not be large enough to handle volatility, if you've only got a few bucks to put away and its moving up and down 10, 20, 50% at a time, you have to manage that opportunity cost, the mind is geared to discount upside and value possible downside risk higher, which is why stablecoins are popular in these regions

Education is great, but we have to be realistic about the situations people face and trust the process! If you're a free market guy understand the invisible hand works on its own time frame, not yours

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Wakingseason OP 17 Sep

What's your idea about English language as an official in your country? Does it ease the process? I do not believe in any kind of semi-science ideas! But I do believe in visible hand which works.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheBTCManual 18 Sep

Lol we've got 11 official languages, how many more do you want and theres an estimated 10% penetration in ownership. Most people can't be arsed to read, they learn from others!

Well if you ever do take the time to read some Austrian economics, it might put your mind at ease about these things

21 sats \ 6 replies \ @sancristrader 17 Sep

The problem with "Global South" is low average IQ. Possibly lower than the current OpenAi's o1 LLMs. How would bitcoin solve that?

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheBTCManual 17 Sep

Incentives presented over a long enough time frame don't require a high IQ, if something solves a need in a cost-effective manner it will take hold, the same way feature phones and later smartphones did in the global south vs landlines and wired internet

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Wakingseason OP 17 Sep

Sorry buddy but I think this kind of ideas contains a supremacist connotation.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @sancristrader 17 Sep

How do you define supremacism, @buddy?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder 18 Sep

he's just saying incentives trump formal education.

22 sats \ 1 reply \ @398ja 17 Sep

If low iq people can't use bitcoin then we have all failed as a community. We don't expect the masses to be experts in cryptography, reading and writing should suffice.

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @jerrybature 18 Sep

There are things or people in this life that only PAIN can cause them to change. The fiat monetary system has made most citizens of the world lazy and complacent. Take a look at most of the inventions made under fiat, they can not stand the test of time. And, instead of focusing on manipulating the non-human aspect of the world for the benefits of all humans, we have created monster technology companies in the names of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc., for the sake of hacking and manipulating the human brain/mind, for profits and power. And, very few powerful people gets to enjoy all the profits and power, creating so much inequality in the world today. This comes with so such much pain and misery for those (the masses) who are ignorant of the inner workings of the fiat systems in place.

Citizens of the world were not taught how the use technologies to survive the harsh realities of life, instead were taught how to become slaves to the system. There are technologies that are considered "too technical" for the "average" person to comprehend or use. Over the years, since the invention and implementation of the fiat systems, it seems to me like, the human brain has been shrinking and becoming shallow in terms of functional capacity. In order words, humans can no longer THINK DEEPLY. This effect has caused most people to surrender themselves to the powers that be, and now these powers, with the best technologies at their disposal, are constantly taking advantage of the ignorant masses.

Now what can reverse these trends and problems? PAIN. As a result of the decaying, immoral, collapsing fiat world, people will be forced to come out of their "comfort zones and/or shells" to seek and learn what they've outsourced to the powers that be. What were once considered "too technical" will no longer be seen as such, because "necessity is the mother of invention." The majority of people living "comfortably" in this fiat world will not abandon their comfort until "there is a need for them to know." And that need will be triggered by PAIN.

Maybe this note is coming from experience. Who knows?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 17 Sep

I think the benefit to the global south will be more indirect, and that's where the left-coded get confused and start running into walls and get mad about scaling etc..

"The Global South" is a euphemism for poorer countries, countries that are poor for lots of reasons, some which Bitcoin may help but some it may not. Poor people cannot save their way into prosperity, and with Bitcoin's primary use being a savings vehicle that's probably a bad strategy.

Bitcoin can benefit those countries by effecting trade and currency policies at a geopolitical level, and it can provide efficient infrastructure where it's otherwise lacking to make the world overall more productive and efficient... but that means appealing directly to the retail saver is extremely low leverage by comparison.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @jerrybature 17 Sep

Nice piece.

But I must say, I'm a citizen of a country in the global, so I know exactly the pain that ordinary people go through on a daily basis. I feel it to.

The masses are easy pray to propaganda. Most citizens are educated by via the government-established schools or currriculum. Majority of the citizens believe in government and government programmes, that government can solve almost all their problems if it so wishes. How? By printing more "money."

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Wakingseason OP 17 Sep

Sure. People are the products of this huge machine. But I think they will be left alone soon by coming decline of governmental support.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @bitalion 17 Sep

I understand you, it is difficult to create communities of this type in countries where freedom of expression is not a right. As a general rule we do not talk about politics in our community even if we wanted to, only in this way we go unnoticed and continue with our educational work of teaching bitcoin to anyone who wants a change in their life.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Wakingseason OP 17 Sep

Smart approach. So what do you do if government see a bitcoiner as a criminal?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @16d86e9daa 18 Sep

While there are challenges—such as internet access, regulatory environments, and volatility—Bitcoin holds promise as a tool for economic empowerment and development in the Global South. Its adoption could pave the way for more inclusive financial systems and greater economic resilience

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @BTCLNAT 18 Sep

Language is a very important factor in the development of a project. Most of the information about Bitcoin is in English, certainly everyone should be responsible for their education, but if we want to educate everyone, because Bitcoin is for everyone, we should have information in native languages. Of course, it doesn't make sense for an English-speaking person to prepare information in Spanish, but why don't those in the Spanish-speaking world do it in Spanish?

SN is a good example of this. But then there is the other factor, the community. While a good part of English-speaking people are taking advantage of the benefits of this platform, I have noticed people in Spanish-speaking communities looking for where to stack SATs and looking for 100% scam platforms because they are not sustainable and are not PoW.

Bitcoin is the solution to everything. But communities in each region must work hard on education. In principle it will take sacrifice, but there will be rewards.

Smart people strive to do good for others and this pays off in a greater good.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @teemupleb 18 Sep

AI translations can fill this language gap so it won’t be much of an excuse in the future