Lebanon: Bitcoin is gaining massively in popularity due to economic crisis
Of Lebanon through the worst economic lives currently in crisis for decades. The local banks have to withdraw begun introducing, informal capital controls and increased restrictions for foreign currency movements, whereby people are forced to keep their savings in Lebanese pounds at the official exchange rate – which reduces your savings to 40%.
Worse still, the citizens are now limited to foreign exchange withdrawals between 50 and a few hundred dollars per month. Remittances from the country to $ 50,000 per year, and only for so-called “necessary matters”.
It is not surprising that those looking for financial freedom, had to look elsewhere. At the Moment, the Lebanese are keen to escape the strict restrictions on cash withdrawals and transfers. You want to basically financial freedom,“ said Mahmoud Dgheim, of the acts for 2015 with Bitcoin, compared to Al Jazeera:
At the Moment, the Lebanese are keen to escape the strict restrictions on cash withdrawals and Transfers. You want to basically financial freedom. If you want to bypass the banking system, Bitcoin is a solution.
Al Jazeera notes that Bitcoin has gained in Lebanon has never really been a significant popularity. The restrictions of the Central Bank when buying crypto-currencies with local credit cards, the slow Internet and unreliable electricity supply has hampered the adoption of Bitcoin is strong – until now. Today, the value of transactions reached in Lebanon, allegedly, millions of dollars per month, as stated in the article from Al Jazeera. A Lebanese trader named Maher said that Bitcoin, while it struggled at the beginning, therefore, to enforce, to “exponentially” grow.
Another noted that Bitcoin helped him in the past, an additional source of income has now become his main income. Furthermore, Maher noted, has asked the news Agency to conceal his identity:
Suddenly, everything is upside down and all options are open.
In view of the tense situation of the Lebanese pound, the Central bankers have lost their luster. The lack of confidence that provides an Opening for discussions on Peer-to-Peer cryptocurrency networks that allow people to send each other money, or to pay for services, without being subject to any currency restrictions, the transactions over 50 dollars or a few hundred dollars prohibit. Bitcoin users can also handle the foreign exchange conversion rates and other monetary policy measures that devalue their government-sponsored Fiat currency.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, several Millennials stated to have taken the slow road to the introduction of the Bitcoin in search of a safe place for the storage of money and transactions. Omar, a 24-year-old Bitcoin trader from Beirut, said:
Before the uprising Bitcoin gave me extra income, but now it is become definitely the main income.
The founder of a Lebanon-based technology company said that their lack of confidence in the banking system has to perform causes their salary payments in Bitcoin. The founder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that you can transfer each month Bitcoin is worth about $ 30,000 in Lebanon in order to pay the employees. The Bitcoin can be purchased from a foreign account, and then ‘over the counter’ in Lebanon to established buyers sold.
The IMF is trying to save Lebanon from the brink of collapse, as bond threaten investors to plunge the country into the debt-to-service – a potential first step for Lebanon, after he was hit by both Moody’s and S&P’s Global credit Ratings downgraded at the weekend, the long-term foreign currency rating of the country down. A S&P Global in the last week, a published report revealed a bleak picture for Lebanon, which is a lower rating than Argentina and the democratic Republic of the Congo, according to CNBC.
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