Key facts:
In Cuenca, in southern Ecuador, a Bitcoin ATM is installed.
In Uruguay they launch an information campaign to prevent scams with cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin in Spanish is the weekly newsletter of CriptoNoticias in which we review the most important facts related to bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains in the Hispanic world.
The information related to the ecosystems of Argentina, Mexico and El Salvador were among the most outstanding of the week.
First of all, it is worth mentioning the recommendations given by Latin American bitcoiners during a virtual meeting, in relation to the best way to face the fall in the prices of cryptocurrencies. It also highlights the personnel reduction recently announced by the Argentine broker Buenbit.
Elsewhere in the region, El Salvador improves the inflation rate despite the fall of bitcoin. This, while in Mexico the plans to grant credits to mine cryptocurrencies are advancing.
To go to the detail of the news of each Spanish-speaking country, during the past week, we leave you the most recent Bitcoin in Spanish.
Argentina
The Argentine bitcoin broker Buenbit announced that it is in the process of reducing personnel and that they will temporarily stop their international expansion plan.
The objective, according to the founder and CEO of the company, Federico Ogue, is to focus on the operation of the countries where the broker is already established today (Argentina, Peru and Mexico) in order to “maintain a self-sustaining and efficient structure”.
Buenbit denies that the collapse of Terra and the crash of the cryptocurrency market played a role in the decision. “This has nothing to do with what happened with UST and Terra”, explains Ogue and adds: “it is a decision that we have been working on for months”.
And precisely about the fall in prices, Rodolfo Andragnes, from the NGO Bitcoin Argentina; Iván Tello, co-founder of the Decrypto exchange; and Matías Bari, CEO of SatoshiTango. The executives participated in a talk called “How to survive the crypto winter”, organized by the Alianza Blockchain Iberoamérica.
During the virtual meeting, Andragnes, Tello and Bari spoke about the need to “de-dramatize” the general fall in prices. They remembered that East It’s not Bitcoin’s first winter and advise investors to “become aware” of how the market works.
CriptoNoticias consulted different specialists to find out their impressions regarding whether or not it is convenient to save in dollars. In response, the economist Natalia Motyl said that “it is not convenient to save in dollars with inflation in the United States of 8.3%.” The highest price increase rate in 41 years.
The specialist estimates that the dollar begins to lose its value reserve function. Given this, he pointed out that the acceleration of the adoption of cryptocurrencies worldwide is not a coincidence.
Meanwhile, the popular non-fungible token (NFT)-based video game, Axie Infinity, had among the finalists of its AIR22 Championship Series global competition, Argentina’s Darío “Rupert Rosty” Ternengo.
Ternengo faced the elite players of the video game in an event that took place in the city of Las Vegas, United States, on May 21 and 22.
In those same days, Bitcoiners from all over the world celebrated Bitcoin Pizza Daycommemorating the twelfth anniversary of the first purchase paid with BTC in history.
Several personalities from the Latin American ecosystem gave statements to CriptoNoticias, expressing the meaning of this date, including spokespersons from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela were included. Within the framework of the celebration, the non-governmental organization Bitcoin Argentina held a new day of solidarity with local companies, offering donations and free delivery.
Colombia
This week Bitso started operations in Colombia. The initiative is part of the expansion strategy to promote the use of cryptocurrencies. On this, Daniel Vogel, co-founder and CEO of the exchange, highlighted the high level of adoption that exists in the South American country.
Vogel reported that currently in Colombia Around USD 70,000 million are traded per month in cryptocurrencies. For this reason, he affirmed that the company arrives with the objective of accompanying all Colombians on their path towards digitization and financial inclusion, to become a market leader in 2022.
Chili
In Chile, the profitability of mining Bitcoin (BTC) and other protocols such as Ethereum (ETH) varies depending on different factors.
According to the information compiled by CriptoNoticias in the series of publications on mining in Latin America, in the South American country it is important to consider the price of the coin being mined. This, in addition to the model of the device that is being used to mine.
In the precise case of Bitcoin, computers with a low hash rate are destined to respond with red numbers while mining cryptocurrency. This is due to the high energy costs that must be paid in Chile, and that mainly affect older equipment.
Ecuador
The General Bytes company installed a new ATM for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the city of Cuenca, in the south of the country.
Machine started operating from last Saturday, May 21 for visitors and residents of the area, characterized by its tourist attraction. It was specifically installed in a commercial space called “La Cigale”.
According to data from the Coin ATM Radar website, Ecuador only register so far this ATM installed by General Bytesalthough in 2018 the operation of other ATMs was announced, which, apparently, would no longer be operational.
The Savior
El Salvador managed to slow down its inflation rates between the months of March and April. It even improved one position among the Central American nations to rank as the third economy with the lowest year-on-year inflation rate in the area.
According to data from the Central American Monetary Council (SECMCA), Salvadoran year-on-year inflation went from 6.7% to 6.5% from one month to the next.
Statistics indicate that no other country in the region managed to lower its inflation rate in April, although there were two that remained at levels lower than those of El Salvador: Guatemala and Panama, with 4.6% and 3. 7%, respectively.
Additionally, the couple of American journalists residing in El Salvador, Max Keizer and Stacy Herbert, reported that the Bitfinex exchange made a significant investment in El Zonte Capital. This is the fund created by the couple to promote the hyperbitcoinization of the country.
Mexico
The crowdfunding company RedGirasol plans to grant credits to mine Bitcoin in Mexico. The idea is to take advantage of the more than 100 solar panels (61.03 kW) that it has unused.
your plan is install a mining farm in the city of Pueblasoutheast of the country’s capital, in addition to financing the acquisition of ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) and offering accommodation services and equipment operation with clean energy.
The plans were announced in a webinar she attended as a guest Senator Indira Kempiswho promotes a regulation of bitcoin in Mexico.
Kempis applauded the initiative for offering a sustainable alternative to Bitcoin miningprecisely at a time when the industry is being questioned for its alleged negative climate impact due to high energy consumption.
In a similar line of action, the cybersecurity company Hackmetrix advances in its plans to consolidate in Latin America. It already operates in Chile, Colombia, Argentina and plans to strengthen its presence in Mexico, where he will offer courses for white hat hackers.
The Aztec territory appears as a key factor to materialize its plans, taking into account that it appears as the second country with the highest number of cyberattacks after Brazil.
On the other hand, it was learned that the program Summer of Bitcoin The selection period for the 83 developers who will do this summer course this year 2022 has closed.
This year more than 80 students will take a summer course to learn how to develop Bitcoin-based tools, including some from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
Uruguay
The Uruguayan government, through the Ministry of the Interior, began an information campaign this week that seeks to raise public awareness and help them identify the different forms of cryptocurrency scams.
The campaign is part of the program called “EL PAcCTO” initiated in the European Union, which aims to help fight, together with Latin American countries, international organized crime. The project recently began disseminating data about the threats detected in the cryptocurrency market.
Under the name “Fake Coins: Cryptocurrency Scams”, the messages presented in the campaign address the six most common crimes that have been detected in 17 countries of Latin America and the European Union.
Panama
The president of Panama, Laurentino Cortizo, said that he will not sign the bill that regulates bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, if the text is not rigorous in the rules against money launderingalthough he confirmed that he was not fully aware of the legislation.
Cortizo indicated that anti-money laundering activities are very important to his government.
“With the information I have, which is not enough, I am not going to sign that law. I have to be very careful if the law has clauses related to the control of money laundering activities, “said the Panamanian president during his participation in the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Latin America conference.
events of the week
Among the events related to bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains in the region for this week, the following stand out in the CriptoNoticias calendar:
- Thursday May 26: Streaming webinar “Introductory talk on bitcoin and blockchain 2022”, organized by NGO Bitcoin Argentina.
- Friday May 27: Free Webinar: “First steps of an artist in the crypto industry and NFTs”, organized by NGO Bitcoin Argentina.
Businesses that accept cryptocurrencies in Spanish-speaking countries
- SOCIETYFARM (Pharmacy in Arequipa, Peru)
- Boutique Hotel(San Bernardo Del Tuyu, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
- Video Marketing Agency (Store in Chile)
- Ceci’s Grilled Delights (restaurant, Salinas, Ecuador)
- Destinations Tours travel and ecotourism (travel agency, Colombia)
- JAM Services (Maxikiosko in Misiones, Argentina)
- Taqueria Cinco The Downtown (Restaurant, Veracruz, Mexico)
- intuition (Clothing store in Caracas, Venezuela)
- Congo monkey (Coffee in Dominical, Costa Rica)
- farm (Pharmacy in Dominical, Costa Rica)
- The Seventy Crepes (restaurant in Bogota, Colombia)
Do you know or have a small business that accepts bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for its products and services?
We invite you to share the information with us through [email protected]. We will inform about the adoption of cryptocurrencies of that business in some of the Spanish-speaking countries.