Bitcoin Magazine Interview: Bitcoin In Venezuela With Javier Bastardo

This week on the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” host CK sat down with Javier Bastardo from Satoshi en Venezuela. This was a wide ranging, real and heartfelt conversation about the trials that the Venezuelan people are subjected to because of the totalitarian regime currently in control. 

Bastardo told his story of discovering and living on bitcoin since 2017 and how Bitcoin gave him both financial stability and community during his persecution living in Venezuela.  While Bastardo is hopeless for Venezuela today, he is hopeful personally because of Bitcoin. He warned Bitcoiners in the West not to simply use Venezuela as a Bitcoin case study. Venezuelans are suffering at the hands of an evil and parasitic regime. Bitcoin may help, but there are many barriers to Bitcoin adoption in Venezuela that prevent the majority of people from leveraging it.

Topics discussed in this episode included:

• Blackouts in Venezuela
• Venezuela per capita are very banked
• Bolívars and paper cash are completely broken
• Lockdowns are strict
• Barriers to Bitcoin adoption are huge
• Venezuelans just want dollars
• Bastardo is trying to educate people by spreading Bitcoin information in Spanish