Key facts:
Banks started giving dollars in cash in Venezuela, but it doesn’t always work.
With bitcoin, I don’t have to wait for anyone to be able or willing to give me my money.
Lately I have been withdrawing dollars in cash directly at a bank office in Venezuela. Until recently, this story would seem like something out of a science fiction story, after a long time in which the word “dollar” was synonymous with crime in the country. But now yes, banks are authorized to execute foreign exchange operations and deliver foreign banknotes to customers.
Under normal circumstances, I avoid cash at all costs. Nothing more comfortable than digital and even better if it is with bitcoin (BTC). But a recent move has forced me to resort to dollars regularly: The landlord only accepts payments with cash or via Zelle. To use the second, you would need an account in a US bank or depend on a third party.
From the moment I first paid the deposit for the place I opted for cash. And when I discovered that through my bank’s online service I could exchange bolívares (local currency) for dollars and pick them up at the box officeit became much easier… until it was time for this month’s payment.
Normally, I prepare ahead of time. This time was no exception, and I started the process with more than a week to go before the payment date: I exchanged the bolivars for the dollar amount I needed plus the commission (less than 1%), which seems quite reasonable to me.
Once with the dollars credited in my account, I proceeded to schedule the withdrawal. Because It is also not as simple as going to a box office and asking for the amount you want.: touch «notify» from the web page that one will go to withdraw the cash, selecting the branch that one prefers. In my case, the first time I tried, the one of my convenience did not appear available (a few blocks from my new residence). But I had time, so I decided to try again the next day.
Scheduled withdrawal, everything in order?
Indeed, my preferred office appeared without problems the next day. I applied very early (it wasn’t even 8 AM when I managed to do it) and planned to go to the office in the middle of tomorrow.
The bank gives you one day to withdraw the cash at the selected branch, does not indicate that you should go the next day. But when I got to the office they told me that my application did not appear. After a brief complaint on my part, the girl who attended me rectified: «yes, here she is, but you did it today. You must come tomorrow.”
He wasn’t so happy anymore. I had taken time off from work and even though the office is close, between the walk there and back and the time waiting at the bank, in total I lost more than an hour. And I had to repeat the process the next day, to withdraw my own money. “And people still don’t understand why we need bitcoin so much?” he asked me on the way back.
Despite my annoyance, I decided not to make too much of it. The next day I would come back, they would give me my tickets as they had been doing before and that was it, the case would go down in history. But the new response was even worse: “hey, we’re out of cash right now.”
I was attended by another person, who, when faced with my complaint, only knew how to say: “Come in during the day to see if it arrived.” It was past mid-morning, he had already lost an hour of work again; after noon I had to go out to take my daughter to a class; and the bank closes at 3 in the afternoon. And she’s supposed to drop by “in the course of the day”? Well no. After confirming that by not withdrawing that day the balance was again available in the account, I decided to go back to the “past” and look for someone who would sell me that cash outside.
The solution and a final reflection
Not everything is bad, although the situation in general ends up being. My search was short, as one of my closest friends had just received cash and made it available to me. Also, he has been using cryptocurrencies for a short time and it seemed like a good idea to him to exchange that cash for its equivalent in the USDT currency of Tether.
So the ticket problem was solved, not without a negative balance: about 5% loss on my part for the difference between the official dollar exchange rates (Central Bank of Venezuela) and the parallel market. I had to change the dollars in the account to bolivars and then convert them to USDT. My bank’s denial cost me not only time. I also lost money.
I know that at this point there is still a majority of people who do not accept bitcoin, do not understand it or are not interested in it. For this reason, cash and other methods still dominate payments, in Venezuela and abroad.
But for me, everything that has happened in recent days only consolidates my notion regarding the value of Bitcoin: with this network, I do not depend on a bank willing or able to give me my money, because As long as I control the keys of my wallet, I can move my BTC whenever I want and to whomever I want. This is another clear case of one of the bitcoiners mottos: bitcoin fixes this.
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