The Nation of Cuba is dealing with a national food crisis, asVenezuela has stopped offering aid to the small island nation.
Moreover, the coronavirus outbreak has caused a shortage of cash
couriers called “mules” and everyday items are becoming scarcer. Amid
the crisis, a number of Cubans are resorting to leveraging
cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to curb inflationary pressure, and the
country’s first peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Qbita launched last April.
The Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged the Cuban economy just like it has
throughout the globe. However, Cuba has been hit much harder because of
the country’s socialist regime. Cuba is located in the northern
Caribbean region and the state adheres to Communism and central
planning. This gives the government an authoritarian position over the
entire Cuban work force and the country’s means of production.
Leadership
is quite tricky in Cuba, as Miguel Díaz-Canel is the President of the
nation, but the people follow the rule of Raúl Castro’s guidelines. Raúl
Castro is the official first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba,
and to this day, the first secretary is the most powerful leader in
Cuba.
post-Covid-19 economy in Cuba is not looking good as Venezuela has
stopped offering the island nation support. The Cuban Communist Party
has told all Cubans to start growing food in every empty space they own.
The country also is suffering from the lack of “Mules” or “Mulas” who
deliver cash and products to the island from other countries.
has stopped offering the country assistance. The Venezuelan government
used to be a lifeline for Cubans when it came to financial assistance.
The lack of help from Venezuela invoked the Communist Party to tell all Cuban residents to grow as much food
as they can in order to survive. “Cuba can and must develop its program
of municipal self-sustainability definitively and with urgency, in the
face of the obsessive and tightened U.S. blockade and the food crisis
COVID-19 will leave,” José Ramón Machado Ventura, deputy leader of the
Cuban Communist Party, recently told the media.
addition to the possible food crisis, Cubans have been seeing a
shortage of “mules.” “Mules,” otherwise known as “Mulas,” are not delivering much-needed goods and cash to Cubans.
There’s
an estimated 50,000 Cubans who consider themselves Mules, and they
travel all around the world to bring cash and certain products. Mules
account for close to half of the cash remittances in Cuba as well. Since
Covid-19, however, Mules are now scarcer than the products and cash, as
the outbreak has pretty much halted the Mule supply chain.
In order to curb the economic turmoil, a number of Cubans are resorting to bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. For instance, there are traders on the platform Localbitcoins stemming from Havana and Holguín.
Mazzola has detailed that peer-to-peer marketplaces like Paxful and
Localbitcoins have been hard for Cubans to leverage. Paxful allegedly
geo-blocks Cubans due to U.S. sanctions and Localbitcoins has KYC
issues, according to Mazzola.
Further, a number of reports over the last two years show that a number
of Cubans have been seeking out cryptocurrency solutions.
In September 2019, Reuters reported
on Cuban residents “skirting U.S. sanctions by flocking to
cryptocurrency, in order to shop online and send funds.” There is also a
popular Telegram channel with thousands of Cubans called “Cubacripto,”
where citizens gather to trade or discuss digital assets.
On April 23, 2020, Italian-Cuban entrepreneur, Mario Mazzola launched the country’s first peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) exchange qbita.org.
Mazzola has detailed that Cubans find the platform Localbitcoin’s Know
Your Customer (KYC) rules too strict, and Paxful geo-blocks citizens
from Cuba. Last April, Mazzola discussed the qbita launch with
Decrypt.co columnist Jose Antonio Lanz.
“I think that in the future we’re going to see fewer people coming to crypto just to make some easy money,” Mazzola explained
during the interview. “We’re going to see more people using Bitcoin for
its true purpose: the freedom to move money and to have total control
of your funds.”
source link : https://news.bitcoin.com/food-and-cash-shortages-push-cubans-toward-permissionless-cryptocurrencies/
