[brianbreslin]

I have a few friends who hired programmers remotely, they had to fly down with cash to pay them, no other way to get them money. Eventually the situation got too dangerous despite the incredible wage arbitrage they were getting by paying in US dollars. (too dangerous for the employees who were getting robbed frequently, and the bosses to carry the cash down there)

[modeless]

Did they look into Bitcoin? It seems tailor made for this situation. Immune to hyperinflation, difficult for offline criminals to steal, and difficult for the government to block. There is a Venezuelan Bitcoin exchange SurBitcoin and also LocalBitcoins.com, though I don't know the feasibility of using either right now. But at least the initial payment would be no problem.

[derekdahmer]

Depends on the BTC / VEF exchange rate inside the country.

$100 -> .17BTC -> 102 VEF -> $10.25. So you'd lose 90% of the dollar value even at the generous official VEF/USD exchange rate.

https://surbitcoin.com/#market

[rafaelm]

I've never really looked in to BTC because here you can sell dollars much easier. Although I can see that as a good way to receive dollars for those that do not have any other way.

Right now, $1 = $1004 VEF I see that 1 BTC = $583.79

From localbitcoin.com I see people selling in Venezuela at around 628000.00 VEF / BTC. So the price is the same.

I think what's going on, is they are calculating the price of the dollar at one of the govt rates of 645 VEF per dollar.

That's not realistic. Anyone with dollars in Venezuela is going to sell them at the black market rate of VEF 1000 per dollar.

Of course, the black market rate is illegal here and the government even went so far as blocking the black market rate information websites here. That's their idea of economic policy.

EDIT: Just realized, surbitcoin rate is around BsF 600k per Bitcoin. We use the dot (.) as the thousands separator.

[LyndsySimon]

If anyone is interested in trying to convert BTC to VEF, I'll be happy to send them enough to make it worthwhile.

ETA: rafaelm, I'll send you $50 worth of bitcoin if you'll post an address :)

[rafaelm]

I know Huawei and ZTE pay the very first employees they hired when they first setup offices here in Venezuela in USD and they are all paid in accounts in the US.

It used to be pretty easy to open an account in Panama or the US from Venezuela, don't know if that has changed. The thing is getting the funds for the initial deposit.