BlockChain Technology

Every single year there are millions of start-ups that come up. But more often than not only a handful of these start-ups go on to redefine the progress of the entire civilization. The leaders who give rise to these kinds of start-ups are known as the greatest leaders of all time. When 99 percent of the world did not even know how that technology worked in the first place in the 21st century, these legends were none other than the internet enthusiasts which includes legends like jack Ma Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos etc. Now this is happening again with the blockchain technology.

About Cryptocurrencies, the most common point that everybody puts forth is about the volatility of crypto currencies. If you buy10, 000 rupees worth of bitcoin, tomorrow it might go down to just 8,000 rupees. So, the question always pops up why on earth we would use a currency that is so volatile in order to make daily transactions.

Let’s take the example of Venezuela in the 1950s. It was one of the richest countries in the world because of the biggest oil reserves in the world. The biggest problem was that their leaders started taking oil export income for granted. The leaders used most of the incoming money (from oil exports) in order to give unrealistic subsidies to their citizens. In order to pay for those subsidies the government became more and more dependent on oil resulting in exorbitant government expenditure and losses for the companies that made food and medicine. Slowly and steadily all the companies started moving out of the country. Since the government took very less efforts to build another stream of income for the country's economy, this put Venezuela in a very vulnerable position.

Finally, from 2014 onwards the oil prices started crashing. The oil price went from $100 per barrel in 2014 to just $30 a barrel in 2016. As expected the economy collapsed so what they did, they started printing money to tackle the debt. What followed next was one of the worst economic nightmares and now rotten meat is being sold in the market, murder rates have shot up and most people can offer to eat only once a day.As a Venezuelan citizen compared to our currency does ether look volatile, this is what world class leader says when the governments act irresponsibly.

Venezuelans have started using cryptocurrencies in order to exchange their day-to-day products without depending on the government. There is a person named Carlos who said to the New York Times that he does not own a bolivar at all, he keeps all his money in bitcoin, he does not have a bank account abroad. With Venezuela's currency controls there is no easy way for him to use a conventional foreign currency like dollars, so before buying milk he needs to convert his bitcoins into bolivars. He goes through a website called localbitcoins.com where he can find people who can buy his bitcoins so when the other person accepts the offer the bitcoin gets deducted from Carlos's wallet. It is called the escrow account by the website as in it is a third-party account wherein the amount is stored before it is transferred to the other party.So, Carlos sends his banking information to the buyer and then he waits after the buyer sends in the bolivars via wire-transfer. Carlos releases the bitcoins from the escrow account and then they are transferred to the buyer’s bitcoin wallet. After the transaction is done they give each other a positive score at the website and the transaction comes to an end. This whole process even with a very slow internet connection in Venezuela takes about 10 minutes.

Bitcoin is gaining more and more popularity in Venezuela with each passing day. According to a Bloomberg report the local market for bitcoin broke a record on 17th of April 2019 reaching 1 million dollars’ worth on that day alone. It's not just bitcoin but the concept of cryptocurrency and blockchain itself.

The true test of any system or technology is often determined by their consistency and functioning during the times of extremities. It is the basic human nature to try everything in our capacity in order to exploit the system just for the sake of our survival.Therefore, the technologies that can function during such extremities are bound to become general purpose technologies in no time in this case.