Bitcoin is now an integral part of the daily life of many Venezuelans

they buy food, plane tickets, or even pay employees, Bitcoin is now a common payment method for Venezuelans. Frankly, many people in the country rely on cryptocurrencies to survive.

Survival of fittest

The hyperinflation of Venezuela has made the national currency, the Bolivar, almost worthless. Thousands of ordinary people have started to turn to the world of cryptocurrency to save the little value that remains in their savings.

A Venezuelan, John Villar, knows the struggle to have a worthless national currency. with Bitcoin for all its transactions. He said that his situation, choosing digital currency is not a matter of politics but of survival. Bitcoin transactions are relatively fast for anyone with a smartphone: Websites like LocalBitcoin and Colibit work as exchanges where Venezuelans can buy and sell bitcoins using a local bank account.

Government Relocation

Crypto-currencies became fashionable as even President Nicolas Maduro proposed a government-backed version called Petro. Members of his administration met with Venezuelan entrepreneurs Bitcoin to determine how such a currency could work. Although few details have been published, many in the world of Bitcoin have responded skeptically to the idea. It seems unlikely that Venezuelans trust a digital currency issued by a government in which they have little confidence.

In Venezuela, the so-called "crisis currency" allows desperate Venezuelans to make potentially vital purchases.

Villar had been unable to find many of the medications needed to treat his wife's multiple sclerosis in Venezuela in the last two years, a fairly common situation in a country whose public health system was paralyzed by shortages. Instead, he bought them abroad with Bitcoin and used courier services to deliver them to Venezuela.

The authorities have largely authorized the Bitcoin trade in Venezuela. For Villar, the stakes are particularly high, not just for his company. An engineer who once ran a biometrics business, he throws his financial future on the development of a game involving an alternative cryptocurrency called PepeCash

A dozen employees operate from 39, a small office filled with computers in an industrial community is. from the capital. All receive part of their salary in Bitcoin. His wife, also an engineer, is now largely attached to a wheelchair.

"At this moment, I do not have a single bolivar."

Ambassadors of other digital currency projects, such as Dash, have tried to familiarize Venezuelans with a range of crypto-currencies. Earlier this fall, Dash sponsored 12 free lectures in the country to raise awareness.