While blockchain and cryptocurrency have been pegged as a potential solution to a number of issues, and a disruptive technology to the finance realm and many other sectors, it is also seen as a way to escape financial ruin.

We have seen a few economies start to struggle and stutters. It is the banking system that collapses like a house of cards that leaves the citizens without very much option. Currencies devalue, savings disappear, and countries are sent back in time where cash no longer functions.

In these areas, Bitcoin has emerged as one way to avoid geopolitical turmoil and for the financial ruin of one country not to affect its citizens. Because Bitcoin is borderless and decentralized, a lot of power is handed back to the people.

Of course, Bitcoin is a good store of value, and allows for citizens in strife to maintain their wealth and store its value away from the political and financial turmoil surrounding them. But, Bitcoin is not the best at being a functioning currency.

Others, like Litecoin and Dash, are far more suited to be a financial system for transacting, and this has seen Dash try and position itself as a cryptocurrency that can offer a system of transacting in a country under threat.

In fact its has done so well at positioning itself in the South American country that it is being preferred over Bitcoin, the local currency, and even the Petro, which was an attempt by the president to launch a cryptocurrency tied to oil.

The degree of Dash’s growth was pointed out on Twitter by Mark Mason, who stated: From May to November there has been a 410% increase in active android devices using Dash wallet app in Venezuela. Growth for November was 27.3%”

He also went on to differentiate between downloads and active users.

“This is NOT total installs, ‘active devices’ shows how many devices that have been online at least once in the past 30 days,” he said, showing that the Dash growth is for people using the wallets, rather than just downloading them out of curiosity.

As Mason points out, in May there were only 7,597 active wallets, but that number has since shot up 410% to 38,759. Given this trajectory and the fact that in November alone the wallet usage saw a 27% increase, there is a good chance that this number will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.