BCH in Caracas

It is still a long way from the massive adoption of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin Cash. Of course, the hardest thing is to start, and in this sense, I attest that Bitcoin Cash is going well in the capital of my country.

Last Thursday and Friday, taking advantage of the week of flexibilization of the measures against Covid, we went to the Technological Shopping Center in the capital. My daughter returned from abroad last week; like many now works online on a streaming platform and needed some devices to broadcast.

We have had internet at home since 2006. Unfortunately, the country's political, social, and economic problems affected the development and updating of services. Consequently, the slowness of the connection is unbearable for those who are streaming.

In my case, I have been an amateur blogger since mid-2019 thanks to the crisis. I wonder, are there professional bloggers?

Well, I think I've read or heard somewhere in the digital space that this way of expressing oneself (Blogging) is getting old giving way to audiovisual content. However, I think they are wrong.

On the internet, there is still room for the coexistence of both preferences. Reading is a way to set the imagination rolling, something that audiovisual content cannot replicate. Sure, the adage says that an image can express more than a thousand words, but a word in a context can acquire different meanings depending on the subject and change over time.

To write to read.cash, my slow connection is enough for me, but my daughter needs more bandwidth. So we are looking for solutions to the problem. Perhaps a satellite device is a solution, although it is expensive.

Coming back to the point, I said to myself, "This is a good opportunity to take a look and corroborate the adoption of BCH." Who better to spread BCH than tech merchants.

Let's be honest. You will hardly see the green sticker with the BCH QR code near your house. Of course, I hope that sooner rather than later, this image will be more frequent.

In old posts, I discuss the adoption of BCH, some of my readers commented that the use of cryptocurrencies is prohibited in their countries. Measures that do not surprise me at all, the status quo does not want to lose the money's monopoly.

At the moment, in my country, after years of tight exchange control, the government was forced to look aside and allow the circulation of cash dollars in stores. Another trick question, where did so many cash dollars come from?

Thus, gradually people began to use other means of digital payments for international use despite the sanctions of the US government against the current regime.

People are not to blame for those who oppress them. Well, maybe he has a part for being fooled more than twenty years ago. There is another adage that says that peoples have the rulers they deserve.

Finally, the prices of goods and services are constantly adjusted according to the dollar, while the local currency devalues ​​against it.

I notice; the danger of anchoring an economy to a currency that will soon enter a spiral of induced inflation to burn the US debt. Well, that's another topic for a new article.

I think you will understand why the described scenario enables the adoption of BCH. It is only a matter of time and push by those who aspire for Bitcoin Cash to succeed.

After so much spiel, let me tell you how it went this time. First, I looked at map.bitcoin.com for restaurants. In particular, fast food stalls test the payment and other stores selling electronic devices.

Source: Screenshot Bitcoin.com Map / Sabana Grande - Caracas

Consequently, I transferred about 0.07 BCH of the tips received in read.cash to my Electron Cash wallet downloaded to my old 2014 Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo.

Yes, I know it was not a large amount, but the objective was to test how the merchants operate, not to squander the valuable BCH during the downturn.

Despite social distancing measures, the mall was full of people, and the previously empty windows now displayed a variety of products, usually from Chinese brands.

We stopped at each store where saw the BCH sticker to ask about the devices: a ring of light and a speaker. I asked them; how many sales on BCH did they take? Without surprise, I heard very few. Who in their right mind would buy with BCH in full price decline? Well me. LOL.

BCH, for me, is a currency, not a useless asset to save value, as the BTC maximalists say.

Something that I also noticed, the clerks do not run point of sale with BCH. They always call someone who authorizes them to accept the transaction.

In the place where we found the best price for the products my daughter was looking for, despite having the BCH sticker, I could not pay because the person who authorizes this type of transaction was not available. A very crude excuse; since my daughter then said, will pay with PayPal, and then the clerk called from your cell phone to validate the transaction.

I noted with disgust the commission of 5 % of PayPal. The clerk asks to add the amount above the price of the product. So the price savings vanished.

Here's another reason to push the massive adoption of BCH; the transaction fee is in US cents.

Everything related happened on the afternoon of last Thursday. The worst was later when at night we realized when we got home that one of the boxes was empty. For this reason, we return the next day to claim the product.

Friday was a rainy day, and this time we were accompanied by a neighbor and her teenage daughter, who was going to buy a SIM card from a cell phone operator.

Back in the shopping center, we looked for the saleswoman, she very sadly accepted the error and without delay gave us the product.

After poking around the windows for a while and buying a wireless router in another store, which by the way, although it did not have the BCH sticker, the owner of it, a young man, said that he received cryptos through the Binance App. However, I didn't have enough BCH in my wallet to pay, so my daughter paid again with PayPal.

Then we got to the restaurant area, and there was the booth with the BCH Sticker. We opted for burgers and hot dogs, except my daughter, who is a vegetarian.

So when I placed the order, I paid almost instantly with my Electron Cash wallet. Another aspect that caught my attention was hearing the cashier call out to someone. Yes, Like you are listening! Suddenly another young man appeared, who searched at your cell phone among many digital wallets, Trust Wallet to confirm receipt of payment.

Source: The photo was taken by me

Yes, the massive adoption of BCH is progressing. But as I said paragraphs ago, we are still far from consolidating the objective of making Bitcoin Cash a means of payment integrated into the mentality of consumers and merchants.

Meanwhile, I believe that to the extent that those who own BCH make payments like the one just reported, it will contribute to the desired success. So don't be greedy, just waiting for BCH to make it to the Moon; remember that you should also contribute to making it possible.

An original article by @Jnavedan

The cover photo was taken by me.