Comment by monero-xmr

The US is blessed with stable laws, individualism as an ethos, and a culture that asks for forgiveness over asking for permission. Corruption is less overt here.

In less developed countries, it's the opposite. Wise and other centralized money transmission platforms are ripe targets to apply government pressure, with capital limits, currency conversion games, freezing accounts, and so on.

Cryptocurrency inverts the whole process. Having a crypto wallet is like having an offshore bank account, or perhaps a vault in your house. You can also send money peer-to-peer over the internet very quickly. It's just like cash, except you can make purchases (even huge purchases) without needing the danger of physically holding a lot of money.

Of course there are many downsides. You can be hacked, you can forget your password / seed phrase, you can send money to the wrong place, the whole thing is cumbersome. These downsides are being worked on in various ways, but there are some permanent downsides to holding bearer instruments that fiat accounts held by regulated financial institutions don't have.

The downsides of countries like Venezuela, Lebanon, and Argentina for trying to build businesses and accumulate savings are larger than the downsides of cryptocurrency. Entrepreneurs and normal, everyday citizens are embracing crypto from the bottom-up because governments obviously hate the freedom crypto provides their citizens. It makes collecting taxes and doing the fiat-inflation theft game harder. It requires citizens to self-report rather than automatic-deduction, which reduces government revenue.

Argentina is a de facto USD-based economy. All property purchases are conducted with United States $100 bills, with entire companies whose job is to safely transport a life savings' worth of cash to the real estate closing, where the cash is then scrupulously assessed for counterfeiting. In an economy like this, you can imagine how stablecoins can be useful, despite the cumbersome and risky nature. It's still 10 to 100x safer and better than suitcases of cash.

> In Argentina, most transactions are conducted using cash, primarily in the form of $100 US bills. This may seem somewhat traditional, but it's the prevailing practice in this country.

> Particularly when purchasing property, you typically need to make your payment in US dollars because property prices are consistently quoted in this currency.

> You can opt to bring cash or utilize a financial service to obtain the required US dollars in cash, although this may involve a fee.

> So, if you're planning a purchase, be prepared to carry a substantial amount of US dollar bills into the country, possibly up to $500,000. However, keep in mind that this process isn't straightforward, and you will likely incur a commission fee.

https://thelatinvestor.com/blogs/news/buying-process-propert...