[pedalpete]

My understanding, and I haven't been there in a while, but apparently Argentinians were using Bitcoin and other crypto's to store currency because the government had made it difficult to trade US dollars for Argentinian pesos. Even when I was there, a grey market existed for trading dollars. The gov't tried to keep very tight controls on exchange of currency.

However, recently Argentina has banned banks from converting crypto to pesos.

So, I think we can say that it was happening enough that the gov't took action. If it wasn't happening at all, they wouldn't have done anything.

[aordano]

Very few people here in Argentina actually hedged against inflation with cryptocurrency, it's always USD, EUR, precious metals or high-ticket items (like guns). Regarding the subset of people that actually engages with cryptocurrency, most of them are in it to make a buck, not prevent their money from losing value. Similar story for some Venezuelan folks i know.

To be fair, cryptocurrency as a way for transferring money is excellent; people here move money with Bitcoin, which can be immediately converted into foreign fiat, avoiding the absurd exchange rates and taxes the government imposes. In my opinion that is something that could be done with any black/grey market tool for transferring value, and as I see it, currently cryptocurrency is filling that niche because of network effects, not because of its inherent properties.

[BlueTemplar]

Not if you want to transfer value to the other side of the world..? (which admittedly is quite a niche use case)

[Daishiman]

There's a ton of people in those countries offering financial services that consist of triangulating operations inside and out of the country.

Within the crazy insanity that's the system, it does end up working out somehow.

[BlueTemplar]

I literally meant countries far enough that most physical ways to do so are prohibitive.