Why Latin America is betting on Bitcoin

The political instability that prevails in several Latin American countries together with the collapse of markets such as oil and other raw materials is constantly decreasing the value of local currencies. This situation, however, is being exploited by some entrepreneurs to adopt the use of cryptocurrency as Bitcoin in Latin America.

In mid-2015, the BitPay payment system reported an increase in its 510 percent market transactions during that year, a growth that despite not having exact values, has continued its progression during the last months of the year -state and as explained in an extensive article published by TechCrunch. In Brazil, for example, the foreign exchange market grew 322 percent, an increase exceeded by Mexico and its 600 percent growth.

Historically, Argentina has been the reference country in terms of the use of Bitcoin in Latin America, but the economic situation in the region is changing this trend. During the past year, the owners of this cryptocurrency have seen their value increase 400 percent above the Venezuelan Bolivar and 92 percent with respect to the Brazilian Real among others.

This increase in the value of Bitcoin with respect to local currencies is in some way also due to the high inflation suffered by these economies with a rate of 275 percent, such as the exorbitant case of Venezuela, 30 percent in Argentina and a 10.4 percent in Brazil that make the Latin American region an area full of opportunities for cryptocurrency:

As it is a universal currency, it can be used to carry out transactions in international companies located in Latin American countries that decide to stop accepting local currencies because of their low value.
Tourism will be another of the sectors that can take advantage of Bitcoin by not requiring visitors to carry physical money or credit cards, they will only require an Internet connection to make their purchases.
International companies with offices in South American countries can benefit from the disappearance of the bureaucracy when making payments to their employees since cryptocurrency can be transferred quickly and efficiently.