Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the role of Greece and its influence on increasing the popularity of Bitocin and its exchange rate. However, there is a whole continent where this influence can be much greater - it is South America. Recently there has been a lot of talk about the role of Greece and its influence on increasing the popularity of Bitocin and its exchange rate. However, there is a whole continent where this influence can be much greater - it is South America. Greece is not the only country that is experiencing an economic and currency crisis. Greeks can benefit from the bitcoin experience of a region where crises, bank crashes and even military coups are - ironically enough - part of the tradition. That region is South America, and the situation of bitcoin in that part of the world was described by Pablo Margo, head of development for South America at BitPay, in the pages of International Business Times. This year has been a year of growth in Bitcoin's popularity, despite a falling rate for several months. The growth has been particularly robust in South America. For example, Pablo Margo's parent company, the well-known US operator BitPay, has seen a 510% increase in transactions in the region, compared to a modest 70% in Europe. This difference is due to the volatility of most South American currencies and significant inflation, often in excess of 20% per year. In such conditions, storing savings in the local currency does not make sense, inflation destroys any deposit. The natural alternative in such cases usually becomes the US dollar. It is no different in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico or Venezuela, where the dollar is the unofficial second currency, especially in the informal economy. We know it well from our own history, in the People's Republic of Poland the unofficial circulation of "greens" was excellent. Of course, just like in the past, South American governments are administratively trying to limit the circulation of dollars, imposing restrictions on the purchase of dollars by their citizens, or banning it altogether. There can be only one result - a black market with rates half the official rate. In spite of this, Argentinean citizens buy about 60 million dollars a month only through official channels. This is where Bitcoin enters the scene in a dual role. First, although its exchange rate is not yet very stable, it is still often more stable than local currencies. Second, Bitcoin gives access to financial services to people who don't have bank accounts, and in South America, more than half of citizens don't. Greeks at the moment, probably temporarily, are completely cut off from their bank accounts but the problem could return suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas about the Greek government switching to Bitcoin appearing on the web should be put between fairy tales, especially after Cipras bowed to pressure from "Eurobull" and unblocked loans to repay loans, however Greek citizens are becoming more and more interested in Bitcoin (as seen in google trends). Granted, the specter of a short-term financial apocalypse has been pushed back, but the outlook is still dim, and the timing of when the banks will open is still unknown. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin network is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, access to it requires only a smartphone and the Internet, which is not that hard to come by in Greece. Bitcoin is also immune to governments and politics and cannot be blocked, thus depriving its owners of access to their funds. Bitcoin can, on the one hand, save the savings of Greeks from freezing or "shearing" bank deposits (the threat has receded for the time being, but all is still ahead), and on the other hand liquidate the economy, especially in the small business sector, which is somewhat paralyzed by capital flow controls. The same is also true in South America, where Bitcoin is gaining popularity. The local portal Taringa! - an equivalent of Facebook which is even more popular there, accepts Bitcoins. So does the airline TAR Aerolineas. Brazil's Senate has ruled that Bitcoin does not require regulation. Honduras is experimenting with using blockchain to record land records. There, more and more bitcoin exchanges are being established which are very popular. Don't expect a sudden revolution, the Greek outpost may be another step on the long road to bitcoin's universal acceptance but certainly not the only one. Don't forget there are regions where the growth of Bitcoin is incomparably greater than in Greece itself, South America is a great example. Remember that there are regions of the world such as Africa where most people don't have access to a bank account and that's where Bitcoin can spread the fastest. Photo under Creative Commons license: flickr.com Tags South America bitco
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