Bitcoin's Defense Against Fiat Hyperinflation

The serial entrepreneur's first experience with bitcoin occurred in 2011 at the suggestion of his friend, he used bitcoin to send $2000 from the US to Argentina.

Normally a very difficult process with fees, the ease of transferring money into Argentina through bitcoin prompted Wences to further investigate the digital currency.

With a fixed total of 21 million bitcoin ever to be created and no central authority, bitcoin can never suffer the same extensive inflation and devaluation.

According to data from the Crescent Electric Supply Company, those government electricity subsidies make Venezuela the cheapest place to mine bitcoin in the world at $531 per bitcoin.

Even notorious bitcoin skeptic and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who described bitcoin as "Worse than tulip bulbs," admitted that "The only good argument that I've ever heardis that if you were in Venezuela, Ecuador or North Korea."

Zimbabwe is another country that has suffered colossal inflation in recent years and citizens have begun to migrate towards bitcoin.

The Zimbabwe Dollar inflation was so severe, at its peak, $1 USD was equivalent to 2,621,984,228 ZWD. Combined with the reluctance to accept ZWD outside of Zimbabwe's borders, bitcoin has become one of the only avenues to pay for international transactions, allowing people "To purchase goods on Amazon or pay for vehicles from international suppliers and traders."

In 2017, demand for bitcoin was so strong that it traded for over $3000 more dollars per bitcoin on Zimbabwe's Golix exchange than it did in the rest of the world.

Perhaps, the best choice for Zimbabwe moving forward would be to make the historic leap of making bitcoin its national currency.

While citizens witnessed the value of buying and using bitcoin amidst a crumbling currency, the question is, will a country take a leap of faith and do the same?