Venezuela’s first ever bitcoin exchange is open for business and gathering clients, as the owners shared with the PanAm Post on Friday.SurBitcoin is an online platform that allows Venezuelans to buy and sell bitcoins instantaneously with the nation’s fiat currency, the bolívar.Less than two months ago, US-based brothers Kevin and Víctor Charles decided to launch the company, after meeting Rodrigo Souza, the Brazilian head of BlinkTrade.Souza offered the Venezuelan pair his open-source software to open the new exchange.“We are very excited to move forward with this project.Bitcoin has potential to grow in Venezuela,” Kevin Charles said.The siblings now live in New York City, but they plan to travel back to Venezuela more often, to stay in touch with the local bitcoin community and boost their new business.Both of them went to college in neighboring Bogotá, Colombia; Kevin studied economics and finance, while Víctor studied international business.As for the initial funds to back the business, they state that they provided the capital themselves.

SurBitcoin operates on BlinkTrade’s open-source platform, which allows anyone to apply the software to create his own exchange — for a 0.6 percent transaction fee.BlinkTrade’s design also offers investors the appropriate security measures to avoid virtual wallets being robbed or hacked.ethereum miner for windows 10In fact, SurBitcoin is the first exchange to take up BlinkTrade’s offer.cheapest bitcoin vps“We have other clients, but they are still in the development phase.bitcoin adoption in japanAfter Venezuela, we have plans to visit Western Africa and Buenos Aires,” Souza assures.bitcoin forum difficultyThe Venezuelan entrepreneurs explained that while the project is still in its beta version, people can already start registering on the website.bitcoin burger london

However, to be able to buy bitcoins in Venezuela, SurBitcoin requires that users provide their real names, ID, and physical addresses.The company verifies that this information matches those stored on Venezuela’s electoral registry, and only then is the account is activated.halalkah bitcoinDespite this bureaucratic hurdle, Víctor Charles said the verification process is done in no time: “It doesn’t take more than four or five minutes.” While they will wait for the membership to grow to 200 accounts before they allow exchanges to proceed, bitcoin is quickly gaining ground in the inflation-stricken South American nation — currently at 150 percent according to the Cato Institute’s Troubled Currencies Project.bitcoin haulKevin explained that due to the bolívar’s rapidly decreasing purchasing power in Venezuela, early adopters will tend to use bitcoin as a store of value rather than as a medium of exchange in transactions.bitcoin türkei

The cryptocurrency’s volatility has always been a known risk, but the bolívar’s devaluation is an even a more certain danger.“Entrepreneurship in Venezuela has come to a halt, because of the dire economic situation.Few people will invest US dollars in a country with no future.bitcoin price krakenBesides, mining bitcoins nowadays is very expensive.” Indeed, bitcoin’s popularity is on the rise.After Venezuela’s first successful bitcoin conference in July, Impact Hub Caracas organized a second event on Friday, where SurBitcoin’s launch was announced.The conference’s event page lured its readers: “Bitcoin is humankind’s first technological monetary experiment of its kind.Just three years after its creation, bitcoin has caught the attention of several market actors: users who wish to pay or send money globally, vendors who are willing to accept this new payment method, speculators who have found in bitcoin an attractive store of value, and even regulators who approach the cryptocurrency with caution and suspicion as it progresses everyday.” The Charles brothers are confident that bitcoin adoption will help improve Venezuelans’ living standards, since they assure that around 70 percent of the country is unbanked.

/sBiD0lBq3R — Technea (@techneave) August 15, 2014 Unlike Bolivia and Ecuador, whose governments have either outright banned digital currencies or only allow the one issued by the central bank, Venezuelan authorities haven’t taken a stand on bitcoin, yet.For this reason, SurBitcoin’s owners believe that the cryptocurrency’s future in Venezuela really depends on how carefully they conduct their business.“We have to be extremely transparent and thorough in checking users who open an account with us.We will take money-laundering regulations into account, so that drug traffickers cannot use our platform.”Billionaire investor Paul Singer says the financial system is no more sound than it was in 2008.In fact, he contends that in many cases, it is more leveraged than it was leading up to the 2008 crash.During an interview at the Bloomberg Invest New York summit, he pinned the blame squarely on what he calls extreme central bank monetary policy and growth suppressing government actions.

And he warned it’s going to create a “ruckus” when the bubble pops.I’m very concerned about where we are in terms of the financial system, the economy, the American economy, the global economy.After nine years of what I consider to be a distorted set of policies, completely oriented towards what I regard as monetary extremism – the quantitative easing that has put about $15 trillion dollars of bonds, and now stocks on the books of the developed country’s central banks, zero percent and negative interest rates; emergency monetary policy persisting for eight years after the emergency is over, combined with what I consider to be growth restrictive fiscal policies – regulatory, tax.So, I think it’s created a distorted recovery.” Singer said the unequal and incomplete recovery has created middle class stress around the world.We see the effects of this in the explosion of political populism and the rise of new political movements.Singer also expressed concern about the asset bubbles created by the Federal Reserve and other central banks.

After nine years of this artificial levitation on the part of financial assets – high-end real estate, art, the things that rich people buy – I think what we have today is a global financial system that’s just about as leveraged, and in many cases more leveraged than before 2008.And I don’t think the financial system is more sound.And I don’t think the fixes that have been put into place have actually created a sound financial system.” Singer questioned why people still have confidence in the central planners.He said the trust is misplaced and that it could evaporate in quick fashion.At that point, we can expect “a ruckus.” I don’t believe the confidence is justified in policymakers and central bankers.The fact that confidence has not been lost up to now is obvious, but if-and-when confidence is lost, I think it could be lost in a very abrupt fashion, causing conceivably a ruckus in bond markets, stock markets and in financial institutions.” Of course, there is no way to know when the bubble will pop.