NEWS
IBS Journal July 2018
7
Could cryptocurrency cure Venezuela’s economic blight?
A
new cryptocurrency called Dash is being introduced to Venezuela in a bid to avert the crippling effects of its stagnating economy.
Since 2008, Venezuela has experienced spiralling recession with skyrocketing hyperinflation rates averaging 13,000%. Venezuelan citizens cannot rely on the national currency for a stable store of value, and a majority are unbanked or underbanked. Many Venezuelans struggle to purchase basic necessities, such as food or shelter. Dash has partnered with businesses in Venezuela and other South American countries to make the currency more accessible to those who need it as a stable store of value.
A recent partnership with Mercury Cash provided users with an easier way to acquire Dash with a linked debit or credit card at 35 banks across 12 countries. It has also linked with BitINKA, a South American exchange, to allow users to buy and sell Dash using their local fiat currency in 12 countries including Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Spain.
It’s about providing citizens with a secure and decentralised alternative to government currencies, said Dash founder and CEO Ryan Taylor: “We’re helping people provide for themselves and their families. In Latin America, digital currencies are increasingly being viewed as a superior store of value. It is a major goal for us to forge new partnerships in Venezuela… to provide the everyday consumer with a stable and reliable payments option.”
Making a Dash for cryptocurrency in Venezuela
There are more than 300 Dash-accepting merchants in Venezuela and a rapidly growing user base that currently stands at 20,000.
“Dash can not only serve as a better store of value in financially strained economies like Venezuela, but also as a reliable and inexpensive means of exchange,” said Taylor. “Many members of our community in these countries are helping educate their friends and family on how they can use Dash to help alleviate the economic hardships they are facing. It really is a grassroots effort we are witnessing.”
Cryptocurrencies ripe for plunder S
ecurity experts are predicting that cryptocurrencies could soon deteriorate into curruptocurrencies, thanks to the lack of standards, compliance and security disciplines.
Even the name of the electronic currency is a misnomer, according to Ofer Israeli, financial cybersecurity expert and CEO of Illusive Networks. The word crypt refers to something hidden and secretive. The world’s cryptocurrencies are wide open, according to Israeli.
“It’s no wonder that cryptocurrency exchanges continue to get hacked,” he said. “They have barely been around five minutes and most aren’t regulated. That makes them highly vulnerable to attackers.”
On Wednesday South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb revealed that $31.5 million (35 billion won) in virtual coinage was
robbed by hackers. The news of the robbery came in the same week that a smaller exchange in the same country, Coinrail, announced that it has been broken into. In a website announcement, Bithumb warned that it had postponed all trading after discovering that “some cryptocurrencies worth about 35 billion won” had been seized.
The exchange, which is the sixth busiest in the world according to Coin Market Cap, said it would fully compensate customers.
The reassurance that it stored all clients’ assets in ‘safe cold wallets’, which run on computers not directly connected to the internet, did not impress Israeli. “Even with decades of compliance and experience, traditional banks still struggle to secure their networks and systems in today’s world of sophisticated cyber warfare,” he said. It is vital that new approaches are taken, he added.
www.ibsintelligence.com
skeeze/pixabay
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
