Inflation eased in March, but consumers are still paying more for goods and services compared to a few years ago.The cost of goods and services for U.S.consumers fell in March for the first time in more than a year, reflecting a decline in gasoline prices that’s put a halt, for now, to rising inflation.The consumer-price index, or cost of living, fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.3% last month, the government said Friday.Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 0.1% decline.Inflation at the consumer level has stabilized in the past two months, mostly because of the lower cost of gasoline and other fuels.House prices have also tapered.Opnion: Hidden in weird CPI report, housing costs are moderating The rate of inflation over the past 12 months slowed to 2.4% in March from a five-year high of 2.7% in the prior month.Still, inflation more broadly is significantly higher now compared to a few years ago when it was almost nonexistent and there’s little evidence the decline in March is anything but temporary.

“One very soft month does not make a new trend,” said chief economist Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroconomics, “so we will be looking for a clear rebound in April.” Rising inflation fed into the decision by the Federal Reserve last month to raise U.S.interest rates again, a move that makes it more costly for businesses and households to borrow money.The Fed could raise rates even more rapidly unless inflationary pressures level off.A stripped-down measure of inflation that excludes the volatile food and energy categories suggests prices are still relatively stable.The so-called core CPI slipped 0.1% in March.Read: Rents are collapsing in the oil patch and slowing for the 1% The core rate has risen 2% in the past 12 months, the smallest gain since the fall of 2015.A rapid increase in rent over the past few years appears to be slowing, grocery costs have fallen, auto dealers have marked down prices and wireless-phone carriers saw the biggest decline in monthly charges in March in the history of the index.

Read: How the Fed will read the soft CPI and retail sales reports The core rate is viewed by the Fed and Wall Street as a better gauge of underlying inflationary trends, given the frequent the monthly ups and downs in food and energy prices.bitcoin mining iranAdjusting for inflation, hourly wages for U.S.bitcoin mining luckworkers rose 0.5% in March.ethereal money maneReal hourly pay is up just 0.3% in the past year, however.dogecoin chartWhen it comes to adopting Bitcoin as money, it’s always been known that there are certain countries where adoption makes a lot more sense than it does in a place like the United States.bitcoin sender ip

There are nearly 200 fiat currencies in the world today, and it makes sense that Bitcoin would compete with the most unstable currencies before it could go up against the big boys.This brings us to Venezuela.bitcoin ios tickerAlthough the official annual inflation rate in the country is hovering around 60%, the Cato Institute estimates that the real rate of inflation in the South American country is closer to 140% per year.We all know that Bitcoin has been prone to volatility over the years, but is it really too volatile to compete with a currency losing more than half of its value over the course of 12 months?One of the main properties of money is that it needs to be a good store of value.Short term stability is great for planning daily expenditures, but it also makes sense for the money to hold its value over a long period of time.It would not make sense to hold and asset that lost value over time as savings.Some economists believe that it’s better for the economy if a money is inflationary because people will tend to spend more and stimulate growth, but this has nothing to do with how different forms of money compete in a free market.

People don’t care about what helps or hurts the economy as a whole when they’re trying to figure out what they should use as money.To figure out whether bitcoins or Venezuelan bolivars are the better form of money, we must first take a look at the relative stability of each option over a certain period of time.Due to the fact that we can’t be sure that the trades associated with MtGox were actually legitimate up to the point when the exchange collapsed, it makes sense to compare these two forms of money only after that whole fiasco finally ended.Although the effects of the MtGox debacle did not allow Bitcoin to find a new bottom nearly a month after the exchange filed for bankruptcy in Japan, let’s go ahead and use March 1, 2014 as the starting point of the window.We can then compare the nearly six months of data up to the time of writing this article to see which currency is the better form of money.Since there is no Bitcoin CPI, we will be using the exchange rate with dollars to compare bitcoins and bolivars.

Although bitcoins turned out to be a much better store of value than bolivars over the nearly six month period, short term volatility is still an issue with the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.The reason the bolivar is able to remain more stable over the short term has to do with liquidity.It takes a much larger amount of money to move the bolivar market as it does the Bitcoin market, with the “market cap” of bolivars being estimated at around $144 billion in 2011.That’s over 20 times the size of the Bitcoin market at current prices.Bitcoin is also an extremely young currency and payment system in the grand scheme of things, so there’s also the problem of any statement from a regulator in the United States, China, or any other country moving the price up or down.At this point in time, it seems it would be best to use bitcoins for long term savings and bolivars for cash flow in Venezuela.It’s possible that bitcoins could also eventually become a viable option for regular expenses, but the digital currency needs much more liquidity than it has right now for that to happen.

Obviously, merchants also have to start accepting Bitcoin to give more people a reason to hold bitcoins.Although most people assume that Venezuela would be the perfect place to adopt Bitcoin as a currency, the reality is there aren’t many Bitcoin users in the country.SurBitcoin recently launched as the first Bitcoin exchange in the country, but we’ll have to wait to see if this entry point into the Bitcoin ecosystem is eventually blocked off by the government.Bitcoins are currently considered a good, which means Bitcoin exchanges will not run into the same problems as forex sites in Venezuela for now.If regulated Bitcoin exchanges are not allowed to operate in the country, then Venezuelans could always turn to the P2P black market.This is how US dollars have been traded in the country for many years.Certain merchants could also be an entry point for bitcoins in Venezuela through partnerships with BitPagos.Another interesting option for entering the bitcoin market in Venezuela could be through mining.

According to John Villar, a software developer and creator of the Bitcoin Venezuela subreddit living in Caracas, cryptocurrency mining is a lucrative business in the South American country due to the low costs of electricity.It usually costs between $2 and $6 to keep the lights on for a month, which means mining profits can be calculated without having to take into account the cost of electricity.Even if mining bitcoins could be a costly proposition for someone living in Venezuela, there are plenty of altcoins that can be mined with cheaper hardware.Those altcoins could then turn into on-ramps for the Bitcoin ecosystem.Bitcoin arguably has some advantages as a store of value in Venezuela, but people who decide to only use it as a payment system are also adding value to the network.Venezuelans are currently limited to spending $300 per year by electronic means, which means only $300 can be sent to an account denominated in a foreign currency on an annual basis.Bitcoin offers a new method for the people of Venezuela to get money out of the country and protect their wealth.