What happened to Hive in Venezuela? [EN/PL]
EN: When I hear the word “Venezuela” the following associations pop into my head: Maduro, oil, delicious cocoa beans, (hyper)inflation and Hive. It always seemed to me that the latter two were connected, because cryptocurrencies are much easier to implement in a country that is fighting inflation. So I imagined Venezuela as one of the few countries in the world where many people use HIVE/HBD in their daily lives. In fact, I have often mentioned this in various blockchain discussions. Since June, I have shown numerous Spend HBD action posts as proof.
PL: Gdy słyszę słowo "Wenezuela" to w mojej głowie pojawiają się następujące skojarzenia: Maduro, ropa naftowa, wyśmienite ziarno kakaowca, (hiper)inflacja i Hive. Zawsze wydawało mi się, że te dwa ostatnie są ze sobą połączone, bo w kraju, który walczy z inflacją o wiele łatwiej implementować kryptowaluty. Wyobrażałem sobie więc Wenezuelę jako jeden z nielicznych krajów na świecie, gdzie wiele osób używa HIVE/HBD w codziennym życiu. Często zresztą o tym wspominałem w rożnych blockchainowych dyskusjach. Od czerwca jako dowód pokazywałem liczne posty akcji Spend HBD.
EN: When Distriator went into operation last June, it was Venezuela that was the unquestioned leader in HBD purchases. Then it was overtaken by Nigeria, but the competition was very even. In March, the situation changed significantly. What happened in April I won't even comment on. Above are the statistics from the last six months. Below from the last week.
PL: Gdy w czerwcu ubiegłego roku zaczął działać Distriator, to Wenezuela bezapelacyjnie była liderem zakupów za HBD. Potem przegoniła ją Nigeria, ale rywalizacja była bardzo wyrównana. W marcu sytuacja znacząco się zmieniła. Kwietnia nawet nie skomentuję. Powyżej statystyki z ostatniego półrocza. Poniżej z ostatniego tygodnia.
EN: So Venezuela has dropped to third place and is behind Poland, and in fact behind the Kingdom Without Limit. I wonder how this is possible. What happened that people in Venezuela stopped shopping for HBD? Especially since stores are still accepting HBD, as evidenced by these April 8 purchases. Knowing the history of the sudden growth and sudden reduction of the Polish community in 2018, I could look for reasons in the low price of HIVE. Well, but then it would also have to be reflected in Nigeria in some way. And there isn't. By the way, it would be interesting to compare the Value Plan funds that went to the two countries. I'm afraid they are separated by a gulf.
PL: I tak oto Wenezuela spadła na trzecie miejsce i jest za Polską, a w zasadzie to za Królestwem Bez Kresu. Zastanawiam się jak to możliwe. Co się stało, że ludzie w Wenezueli przestali robić zakupy za HBD? Tym bardziej, że sklepy wciąż HBD akceptują, czego dowodem jest te 8 kwietniowych zakupów. Znając historię nagłego wzrostu i nagłej redukcji polskiej społeczności w 2018 roku mógłbym powodów szukać w niskiej cenie HIVE. No ale wtedy musiałoby to mieć jakieś odzwierciedlenie w Nigerii. A nie ma. Swoją drogą ciekawe byłoby porównanie środków z Value Planu, które poszły do obu tych krajów. Obawiam się, że dzieli je przepaść.
I also believe that in the last few weeks the price of the dollar in Venezuela has skyrocketed and Venezuelans have had to look for other mechanisms to access dollars. If cryptocurrencies go down, Venezuelans do not see it as encouraging to buy: they go for the safe thing and prefer to buy dollars in cash. Greetings
But the idea behind HBD is that it doesn't go down but holds the value of the dollar.
That only works as long as HIVE price does not go too low. I assume Venezuelans are more sensitive (read: realistic) to unlikely-yet-possible scenarios based on their experience.
Indeed, there is no "people in Venezuela shopping for HBD".
Hive Venezuela (often branded as Hive Sucre) is just like Hive Poland. Non-existent. There is Hive Krakow and Hive Cumana. Both cities have a tight local community. Krakow has one shop, Cumana has multiple. Full stop.
Hive Nigeria consists of multiple communities (quite distant geographically). Nation-centered view of the world (the view that many blockchain people like to annihilate) has just produced another pair of useless infographics.
Going back to the point, all Hive enthusiasts in Cumana are customers. There are business owners amongst Hive enthusiasts in Nigeria.
Does SpendHBD suffer in Nigeria? Sure, it does. In the picture, someone has to "grow" as the total always adds up to 100%. Hopefully, some communities will find enough energy to keep growing regardless (or at least survive till the next wave).
It’s a complex and very interesting topic to discuss. While I believe the adoption of Hive (and consequently HBD) is positive in many parts of Venezuela—especially outside the capital region—I’ve noticed that USDT is becoming increasingly popular as both a payment method and a store of value. People are using it via Binance P2P or Binance Pay, so technically, there are no public on-chain metrics to track this. Beyond that P2P trading volume remains, as far as I know, one of the highest in the region.
The only question is why, just six months ago, Venezuela was a leader in the use of Distriator and a lot of people were shopping using the app and getting cashbacks, and now it is behind Poland, where basically one place accepts HBD.