Bitcoin [BTC] transaction numbers in Venezuela nosedive as country goes through acute power outage
The turmoil suffered by the citizens of Venezuela continued to increase in momentum with the latest power outage in the country, hurting the population and the barely functioning economy. Venezuela captured multiple headlines over the past couple of months, with issues ranging from the introduction of Petro and the skyrocketing inflation rate to the internal political crisis between incumbent President Nicolas Maduro and the current interim President Juan Guaido.
Latest reports show that amid the power and communications outage in the country, the transaction rate of bitcoin [BTC] plunged significantly from 370,000 to 240,000. The fall of more than 100,000 transactions caught the eye of analysts because of Venezuela’s heavy usage of cryptocurrencies, a usage rate comparable with Europe and the United States.
Santiment, a blockchain analysis company, gave a detailed breakdown of the transaction numbers in the country, revealing that the numbers dropped from 500,000 to 400,000 on March 9. The volume deficit was spotted on LocalBitcoin, an exchange popular with the Venezuelans. On LocalBitcoin, Venezuela recorded $8 million worth of BTC transactions compared to the total $4 million generated from Europe and $3 million from the UK.
It has not been proven that the power outage contributed to the fall in BTC transaction numbers, but many speculate it to be so. The outage has been deemed as a failure of the Maduro government by half of the population, while others think that it is a ploy by the US’ tie-up with Guaido to ruin the reputation of the existing government.
Guaido stated:
“We have been reporting the electrical crisis for years, and now, we have to alert in a responsible manner that this could also become the gasoline crisis, in addition to the water crisis we already have.”
Venezuela was also in the news earlier when there were reports of a new remittance service called Patria being launched in the country. The platform aimed to allow citizens to receive bitcoin and Litecoin payments from anywhere in the world. The platform and the exchange is not without rules as the government has laid down specific regulations to control the crypto flow. This ranges from being a citizen to using wallets indicated by the Patria platform.
Coinjournal First Ever Public Crypto Brokerage Desk Announced By TMX & Paycase TMX Group and Paycase Financial have partnered to announce the launch of a new brokerage service, the Shorcan Digital Currency Network (Shorcan DCN). […]
On today’s show I interview Joachim de Koning the founder of Internet of Coins.
The goal of Internet of Coins is to create a comprehensive environment for personal finance that gives everyone access to all of the world?’?s Digital value systems. The platform is designed to connect all cryptographic ledgers and to integrate all token systems into an interconnected web through an open source financial networking agent, called hybridd.
Joachim does a great job of explaining all aspects of Internet of coins and it was a genuine pleasure speaking with him! And good news listeners, yes there is a token native to their system! It’s called HYBRID. By the end of this interview the idea of owning some HYBRID of your very own will seem to make a lot of sense.
Even as many governments, including the EU, act to regulate the exchange of cryptocurrencies, de Koning’s Internet of Coins aims to deploy a decentralized autonomous system that can support trading without any trusted third party being regulated by a government.
Joachim’s team has been laying the groundwork for this platform for more than two years and in 2015 they received financial support from the SIDN Fund which was established by the independent non-profit foundation that manages the .nl domain in The Netherlands. The .nl domain happens to be the first country code top-level domain given to an organization outside of the U.S.
Today, after substantial development, the Internet of Coins team, has announced plans to hold a fundraising campaign to help pay for additional development and to kickstart the distribution of its native token called HYBRID. The crowd sale is scheduled to begin THIS Tuesday March 21st 2017 and will be supervised by the innovation fund of the Internet pioneer, NLnet Foundation, the country?’?s first Internet Service Provider that will act as the project?’?s financial and legal advisor.
In addition to being founder of Coinstorm and Internet of Coins, Joachim is CEO of the crypto and security company Metasync. He is also a developer for the NetAidKit, an open-source USB-powered router that protects online privacy, and was showcased at CCC. Next to that he is working on a system to counter large-scale DDOS attacks for Radically Open Security. He has extensive experience in financial markets, including foreign exchange, commodity trading, and automated accounting systems, and is an early adopter of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
CREDITS, ARTICLES AND VALUABLE LINKS:
WEBSITE:
PRESS RELEASE 2017-03-07:
ENGLISH ARTICLES 2017-02-23: 2017-02-27: 2017-02-27: 2017-02-27: 2017-03-07: 2017-03-07: 2017-03-07: 2017-03-07:
MEDIA CONTACTS Company name: Internet of Coins Contact: info@internetofcoins.org Twitter: @internetofcoins Developer blog: Company site: Joachim de Koning: joachim@internetofcoins.org Robert de Groot: robert@internetofcoins.org Email: joachim@sheraga.net
TRANSCRIPTIONS:
Great news listeners! Our transcription page is now live on the website thanks to the continuing hard work of one of our loyal listeners who is also a consultant to the show.
Ode To Satoshi
Ode to Satoshi lyrics & melody by John Barrett Copyright 2014 RJM Publishing – BMI Nashville.
Lead Vocal, Harmony Vocals, Harmonica, Snare Drum: John Barrett Harmony vocals: John Barrett, Connie Sinclair and Lij Shaw Guitar: Jonathan Brown Mandolin: Ben Miller Bass Guitar: Michael Rinne
Initial tracks recorded by Mark Thornton of Sidekick Sound Studios, Madison, TN. All other tracks Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at The Toy Box Studio, Nashville, Tennessee Engineer: Lij Shaw. Assistant to engineer: Don “The Don” Bates Produced by John Barrett & Elijah “Lij” Shaw
Special thanks to Alan Baird for his dobro, guitar and mandolin playing on many of the shows. Now that?’?s some pickin man! Thanks also to Alex Munoz Guijarro for his excellent pedal steel playing on many of our shows.
Interviews for this episode were recorded and edited by John Barrett at The Tree House Studio – Nashville, Tennessee. All shows are produced by John Barrett with the moral support of his trusty sidekick Maxwell Rascalnikov CoyoTe Rex, aka Max.
And if you don’t feel like contacting me, just kick back, relax and enjoy the show.I hope you enjoy listening to my guests as much as I enjoy talking with them!