I take your TND, and then I give you BTC which I've purchased. I will also buy your BTC, but I'll likely rely on BTC purchased from foreign exchanges. You then use that BTC for whatever. The problem is that it becomes difficult to bring in casual customers due to the overhead introduced by Bitcoin, as Bitcoin is virtually unknown in Tunisia.
A common issue in Tunisia especially is sending money to relatives in France. I want to give them the end-to-end experience in one place: you send me TND, I send your relative EUR. But everything I've thought of to accomplish that is just too complex.
So right now my idea is just to give users BTC in an online wallet and let them do whatever they want with it. That means I'll need to effectively educate users about the basics of Bitcoin at the very least.
> I take your TND, and then I give you BTC which I've purchased.
In that case you end up holding TND and need to purchase the bitcoin to give to your customers in another currency. You would have an easier result if you just directly exchanged TND to EUR without putting BTC in between. Likely that's about as legal as your solution. Just because at some point the value is hold in BTC doesn't mean currency controls cease to exist.
I don't see the value Bitcoin provides here at all except for the fact that the government agency that should enforce currency controls is likely not competent enough yet to spot what you are doing. I'd place a bet that as soon as you start advertising your transparent TND-EUR conversion scheme that they'll shut you down as fast as if you wouldn't use BTC.
I agree, it's quite risky and can easily be shut down by the authorities if they catch wind of it. I think the simplest way to avoid the risk is to setup a decentralized exchange that connects buyers to sellers. But that means it becomes much more difficult to take a cut, as people will just meet face-to-face.
You would end up with several different exchange rates with TND > BTC quickly hitting ~3x what the 'official' exchange rates suggest. The basic problem is the country does not have enough exports, currency controls simply prop up the currency.
Yes, but why can't you just connect TND sellers and EUR sellers? Why insert all the complexity and risk BTC provides? The end result for both parties would be exactly the same.
The current "low-tech" solution used by Tunisians to transfer money abroad is to get in contact with someone who has a relative living say in France. You give the person living in Tunisia the money, and the relative in France will transfer that same amount to the person of interest.
The key selling point for BTC is that it is completely digital. Think of it this way: if I have TND and would like to buy some EUR, how do I "store" the EUR I get? I only have a Tunisian bank account, so the EUR I receive from say a German account will still be stuck inside Tunisia. And if I receive cash, it won't do me much good. Not to mention the inherent risk involved in doing bank transfers.
But if I use my TND to buy BTC, I can store that BTC in an online wallet, or completely offline. I can easily transfer it to anyone anywhere in the world, or use it buy goods online. The simple act of getting your hands on BTC means that currency controls, transfer fees, etc. are completely circumvented. As for security and accountability, it becomes much easier to control given Bitcoin's digital nature.
I can't reply to Cyphons coment for some reason, but there seems to be a problem with setting up the trade he describes. If it's succesful, he will then be stuck with a large amount of TND, which he has no use for and, due to the currency controls, can't convert to a currency that is useful for him.
That is leaving out the point that both the operators and the clients are willfully circumventing the law, which most governments don't appreciate.
Actually I'm a Tunisian, so the TND will be useful in the long run as an investment. But that still prevents me from reinvesting it into the business i.e. buying more BTC.
One way is to simply buy BTC from local sellers who perhaps bring BTC from outside the country. They take a cut and I add a markup before selling it back.
But there's another advantage I have. I'm currently residing outside the country, and if I do setup the business it will be funded using outside money. Because the company is funded externally, I can actually transfer any revenue it generates outside of the country.
As for your last point, that is in fact my biggest concern. The government could easily close down the company and its bank accounts at its pleasure. To avoid this, I think the safest option is to go with a purely decentralized market that simply connects buyers with sellers, but that will make it much harder to take a cut.
Anyways, I'm still thinking about the whole thing, and as you noted, it's not that straightforward.
You'd require some (substantial) investment, but you can always just mine them. Tunisia should have some fairly cheap electricity. Not sure how you can get the Asics there though. Maybe contact one of the sellers directly. They'll probably accept btc.
A common issue in Tunisia especially is sending money to relatives in France. I want to give them the end-to-end experience in one place: you send me TND, I send your relative EUR. But everything I've thought of to accomplish that is just too complex.
So right now my idea is just to give users BTC in an online wallet and let them do whatever they want with it. That means I'll need to effectively educate users about the basics of Bitcoin at the very least.