[Hernanaracena]

Venezuelans cannot accept USD without a bank account. You can use paypal but its hard to exchange from paypal USD to the venezuelan currency (Bolivares)

[vkou]

How, and why is it easier to exchange BTC for Bolivars, then Paypal dollars for Bolivars?

[ekianjo]

I thought holding USD was outlawed in Venezuela now?

[make3]

can't imagine it's easy to exchange bitcoins to bolivars, though I may be wrong if course

[orev]

Why not exchange bitcoins for stuff, like an actual currency and not just a method of transfer?

[tdb7893]

Are the transaction fees still ridiculous and is it any faster? I thought it's generally too expensive or slow for most normal transactions

[1996]

No, at the moment the fees are quite low.

Maybe you could trust the person asking for crypto instead of showing an anti-crypto bias?

[ebikelaw]

Coin Metrics says the transaction fee stands at $7.67 which is astronomical. ETH is a bit lower at $1.39 but that is still far far higher than most payment instruments.

[xur17]

I'm not sure where you are getting those figures from, Coin Metrics shows fees under $1 for both for me [0]. The two sites I've used in the past that have been pretty accurate show ~$0.10 for both [1] [2].

[0] https://coinmetrics.io/charts/#assets=btc,eth_left=averageFe...

[1] https://ethgasstation.info/index.php

[2] https://bitcoinfees.info/

[micahriggan]

https://ethgasstation.info/ shows $0.092 (3 minutes) for an eth transfer and https://bitcoinfees.info/ shows $0.13 for a bitcoin transaction in the next block (10 minutes)

I have a feeling what you're looking at is old data? Transfers are cheap right now

[jMyles]

I don't use BTC much these days, but if you're paying $1.39 for an ETH transaction you're most certainly paying too much.

The StdCost right now is a dime. You can get away with less if you're willing to wait for confirmation (which is possible if you're transacting locally with neighbors).

https://ethgasstation.info/

[1996]

Check western union.

[ebikelaw]

That's what I am getting at. To pervert the old saying, you can't eat a Bitcoin. Presumably what this person wants is some instrument that can be exchanged for, say, 50 kilos of rice. Are Bitcoin and Ethereum really the best such instruments within Venezuela?