Lebanon, once known by many names like "The Paris of the Middle-East" or "The Switzerland of the Middle-East" finds itself today on the brink of total economic collapse.
Decades of civil war turned what was once the country with the most developed banking sector in the region to a failed state hanging by a thread, but it didn't happen overnight.
What did happen overnight however, is the Dollar deposits of every single Lebanese citizen got frozen in the banks, and the currency of the country lost about 90% of its value. To add salt to the wound, they made up a fake exchange rate for withdrawals that forces withdrawers to withdraw at a very serious loss.
This was due to decades of corruption, theft, and horrible economic policies that allowed for reckless spending and irresponsible amounts of imports.
This resulted in the economic crisis we see today, and without the subsidization of essential goods, the country would collapse under these circumstances.
Those who were lucky enough to keep their jobs weren't as fortunate as you might think, as their salaries have worsened with the rising prices of all imported goods. Basic imported household items have more than doubled in price and non essential imported item prices now cost as much as 5 times more.
This has reduced the quality of life tremendously in the country, and has kept morale very low. Pair this with a horrible pandemic that the government did a poor job of managing, and it is no wonder why so many skilled people are fleeing the country.
Known as a "brain drain", it is when skilled and educated people leave a country due to horrible conditions. This, unfortunately, in turn, strips a country of its innovators, essentially hindering progress, and causing more people to flee.
Lebanon used to have one of the strongest education systems in the region, and this has produced a lot of open minded, creative and talented people that for a while had the means to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. While a lot of them have left the country, some still remain with the hopes of making a change.
Crypto and online work in Lebanon in the present
Lebanon still possesses a good amount of skilled workers who can export their labor and services.
Under the current circumstances, you cannot directly buy crypto from apps with Lebanese credit or debit cards, crypto as a whole is not supported by the government. Likewise, you cannot sell crypto through apps for other currencies.
Furthermore, a handful of businesses accept crypto as a form of payment, thus, people tend to avoid working for crypto simply because it would be difficult to spend them here.
Services like PayPal do not operate in Lebanon, so users have to resort to other, slower services, that is, assuming their potential employers agree to pay through those platforms.
Once paid, Lebanese workers have to find a way to wire themselves the money in order to receive them in cash USD, because as mentioned earlier, banks do not allow the withdrawal of cash Dollars to most accounts.
In order to withdraw cash Dollars from banks, one must open a "Fresh Dollar" account, which requires cash Dollars to do so, however, the fees they charge for such accounts are outrageous.
The solution
If the Lebanese government recognizes crypto as a legitimate form of currency, then it can open the gates for its skillful and talented unemployed who would be willing to work for crypto.
The ability to finally buy and sell crypto directly will create incentives for many businesses to start accepting different forms of crypto, and that, in turn, will incentivize individuals to accept it as well.
I strongly believe crypto is the solution for Lebanon, because the alternatives we have are borderline impossible to achieve, and as time goes by, as the situation gets more dire, the need for a decision grows, and an easy one awaits us right around the corner.
Image credits: Jo Kassis from Pexels.com