In the winter time with autumn weather it is sometimes nice to read about warm countries, for example Caribbean islands. An opportunity for such reading is provided by another report of an international organization on Bitcoin. In the document entitled "Opportunities and Risks Associated with the Emergence of Digital Currencies in the Caribbean," the United Nations itself, or more precisely one of its myriad committees, has expressed its opinion on the subject. In the winter time, when the weather is autumn, it is sometimes nice to read about warm countries, for example, Caribbean islands. An opportunity for such reading is provided by another report of an international organization on Bitcoin. In the document titled "Opportunities and Risks Associated with the Emergence of Digital Currencies in the Caribbean," the United Nations itself, or more precisely one of its myriad committees, has expressed its opinion on the subject. Small Caribbean countries such as the Bahamas, Cayman Islands and the Netherlands Antilles are usually associated with tax havens, semi-legal businesses and drug smuggling to the US. Additionally, because the United States and the European Union have recently been pushing these countries quite hard to prosecute tax dodgers, attitudes towards Bitcoin in these countries are not very warm. On the other hand, we have some pretty poor countries out there, such as Haiti, Dominican Republic and Guyana, which were almost razed to the ground in 2010 by a catastrophic earthquake. The report traditionally begins with a brief introduction to cryptocurrencies, the next chapter is a review of the achievements of legislators of developed countries in regulating bitcoin. Readers of bitcoin.pl are informed about them on a regular basis, so we can move on to the next, much more interesting chapter describing the current state of adoption of cryptocurrencies (actually Bitcoin, because only it is mentioned in the report) in this beautiful part of the world. The situation is not rosy, although the Caribbean is a region that could benefit a lot from the widespread acceptance of BTC. The report even suggests that a global center for modern finance based on cryptocurrencies could be established there. The report contains many interesting facts that are not widely known in our country. For example, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname are mentioned as countries where large bitcoin mines could be located due to low electricity prices, below $0.05 per kWh. Trinidad and Tobago has energy based on oil and natural gas, of which it is a large producer and exporter. Suriname's power generation is based on hydropower. However, entrepreneurs trying to launch bitcoin businesses in the Caribbean face outdated regulations, clerical inertia and reluctance from bankers, including refusal to open accounts. The authors of the report sent out a survey on cryptocurrencies to the central banks of countries in the region. Out of thirteen banks, only two deigned to respond after extending the deadline and telephone inquiries. The rest simply ignored the issue. This is sad, especially since the level of banking in many of these countries is similar to that in Africa. As there, the gap is being attempted to be filled by mobile operators with systems modeled on Kenya's M-Pesa. Attempts to bring Bitcoin directly to the people unfortunately face not only an official-banking barrier, but also a barrier of mistrust from the population. An example is the Dominican Republic, where in August 2014 there were plans to do a bitcoin "drop" for 70,000 people via cell phones. However, the operation was stopped before it really began, one reason being the misunderstanding and reluctance of the Dominican government. Attempts to install bitcoin machines have been similarly reluctant. It seems that the position of cash, especially dollar cash, will remain intact in the Caribbean for a long time to come. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of wage-earning emigrants sending money to their families back home incur an average cost of 6% of their hard-earned money. Barbados is the record holder on this list, sending money there incurs a cost of over 11%. This is a textbook case for the use of BTC. In its conclusions, the report encourages governments to be open to Bitcoin, seeing it as an opportunity for the region. It also suggests cooperation between countries on the subject within existing organizations. The approach of the United Kingdom and Canada is cited as a model. But will small Caribbean countries full of lazy bureaucrats, conservative bankers, additionally subjected to US pressure on tax issues, want to take advantage of the opportunity, as e.g. Singapore did? As usual, time will tell. Photo under Creative Commons license:Flickr.com Tags bitcoin btc Caribbean UN money government
No comments:
Post a Comment