How are you doing, beautiful people of Read.Cash?
Today, I have a lot of thoughts in my mind that I want to express. So I'm going to follow @Jane 's example in Let Everything Flow. And I'm going to let my thoughts flow a little bit.
Today, my son went to receive his first on-site classes. And although, I'm happy because it is his last year of high school, and he and his friends are eager to be together again. Here Covid cases are on the rise again. So we will see how things go in that sense. But without a doubt, what we have most pending this week is the new currency conversion that will take effect on Friday.
A new conversion - 6 zeros minus
If you've followed me for a while, you'll have read some of the things I've written about the economic situation in my country. In Venezuela, we have been living in hyperinflation for the last 4 years. And in the last 13 years, we've had two currency conversions. Our currency has lost 8 zeros in the process. The last one in which the coin lost 5 zeros was in the year 2018. Well, as of next Friday, the currency will lose 6 more zeros. So we will have lost 14 zeros in almost 14 years, a zero per year.
This new conversion will give us a new monetary cone that the government has decided to call Bolivar Digital. The previous reconversions were the Bolivar Fuerte and then the Bolivar Soberano. The new bills will be of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 bolivares. And in theory, it's expected that a 1 bolivar digital coin will circulate. Although, given the shortage of cash, I suppose it's unlikely that any of them will reach my hands anytime soon.
At today's exchange rate, 1 dollar is 4,142,727 bolivares. So with the new currency, it will be 4.14. Will this solve the problem of hyperinflation in the country? The answer is no. But it would somehow relieve the payment platforms and credit card machines that are already about to be collapsed by the figures in millions. I remember when the conversion in 2018, the situation had reached the point that every time you were going to make a payment, the card had to be passed through the credit card machines more than once because the amounts exceeded what the bank platforms could handle. This congested the entire payment system and the banks' platforms. Although we haven't yet reached that point, we aren't far from it. And in that sense, a new conversion is needed.
The country where there isn't change
In Venezuela, most of the cash that is circulating on the streets is dollars. But since this isn't our legal tender, it's sometimes hard to find low denomination bills, 10, 5, 1. And the dollar cents coins aren't used. So one of the problems you face when you want to pay with cash dollars is that there is no change.
In some places like supermarkets, they used to try to convince you to take something else to round the amount of the purchase. On more than one occasion, I had to add some bananas or some other fruit to the purchase to complete the amount. Now, some stores give you the change in bolivars but deposit in your account by mobile payment. Many merchants accept payments in Zelle and PayPal. But these have the disadvantage that you must have an account in the US for the first one. And a verified account for the second, so you need an international credit card. Both services, although they work very well, aren't accessible to most people. And this is where there is a great opportunity for cryptocurrencies.
Where to spend the BCH
And thinking about all this, of how hard is to get change sometimes. And that many times, I don't have bolivares available in the account, because that of keeping only just enough to buy what is needed and that they don't lose value due to inflation. I started to look again for new options to use my BCH nearby.
I didn't find new merchants. But I did find a YouTube video of someone buying a Coke at a newsstand in Caracas, similar to the one I posted on Noise a few days ago. And I would love for kiosks near my house to start accepting BCH.
And I also keep wondering, when will be the day that those behind the adoption of BCH in the country sit down to negotiate with the payment platform that covers most of the big merchants that accept cryptocurrencies here. It's a company called Cryptobuyer. It has a service called Criptopay.
Supermarket chains, a chain of retail stores, Burger King, one of the satellite television services, among others, accept cryptocurrencies using this platform. The accepted currencies are Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, BNB, BUSD, Tether and even Tron was recently added. And I wonder what about the BCH, why isn't there?
What's new in Smart BCH
Recently, I knew about a new Dex in SmartBCH called MuesliSwap, thanks to the articles of @MoreGainStrategies, My Interview With the MuesliSwap Developers Part 1 of 2, and @annayks, MuesliSwap, New Defi/DEX - BenSwap Finds Competition. The native token of the exchange is called Milk. And those who are behind the project have announced that a pre-sale will take place in the next few days.
So Benswap will have some competition which seems to be good news for the growth of the SmartBCH ecosystem.
Another thing, I recently knew about SmartBCH, is that you can have NFTs on the smartBCH sidechain. I knew it thanks to my friend @Just1dood. So if you are interested in NFT and SmartBCH, and want to know more, I recommend that you read A smartBCH Torpedo: How to get one of the first NFTs on the smartBCH s...
Disclaimer: This isn't financial advice and in any case, always remember DYOR.
A lucky find
Yesterday ordering some things, I found by chance in a book a paper with the seed phrases of a Blockchain wallet that I had given up for lost. It's a wallet I had for the profits of some faucets that I used when I began to be interested in cryptocurrencies. And it turns out that I have there a little more than a million satoshis in BTC. They aren't my friend @FarmGirl 's imaginary 590K portfolio. But they are real and unexpected, so more than welcome.
Earlier today, I asked in Noise what should I do with them. And now, I ask you. Would you keep them in BTC? Would you change them to another crypto? Would you invest them in tokens or NFT? I'm curious to know, what would you do?
Final thoughts
For now, I will have to do tomorrow the purchases of groceries for the rest of the week and the weekend. Since in the next few days, there will be some adjustments in the payment systems in bolivars. Banks have already informed, some services will be suspended on Thursday night and Friday. So the next weekend can be an opportunity to find where to use some BCH.
If you want to read other articles in which I talk about some particularities of the Venezuelan economy. You can read:
My first steps into Smart BCH and some financial thoughts
These are just some of the things that have been going around in my head these days. The photos I posted here are from this morning. The first was on the way to take my son to school and the second was when I was returning home after visiting the bakery where the topic that joined most of the coffees was the proximity of the conversion of the currency. But that shouldn't be a cause for concern if this is the third time already, right?
To all my dear readers and wonderful sponsors, thank you so much!
All images and writings are my own unless anything different is stated.
© CoquiCoin
Let's go for a #BetterSeptember
Until next time! ;)
September 28, 2021
Yeah, the reduction of zeros certainly makes transactions easier, and other record keeping easier. But you are right, it's the macroeconomic problems that need to be addressed there if anyone wants to get this mess straightened out. Inflation in your country is at almost 2000%, and that's just not sustainable.
It is just a horrible situation there and I am afraid it will only get worse before it gets better.