Litecoin Unveiled: From Founder’s Sell-Off to Future Prospects with the Lightning Network

 

Here is a consolidated summary based on three analytical overviews of Litecoin (LTC) from OSINT Ukraine, focusing on recent developments, usage, and future potential.

### Litecoin Overview and Prospects

**Litecoin Development and Adoption:**

Litecoin, launched in 2011 by Charlie Lee, has established itself as one of the leading cryptocurrencies. Recently, Lee sold his entire LTC holdings to avoid any conflicts of interest, which sparked debates within the community about the long-term impact on Litecoin’s credibility and value. Despite this, Litecoin continues to be a preferred choice for many due to its faster transaction times and lower fees compared to Bitcoin【30†source】【31†source】.

**Advantages of Litecoin:**

- **Speed and Cost:** Transactions are processed faster and cheaper than Bitcoin, making Litecoin an attractive option for everyday transactions and microtransactions.

- **Security:** Litecoin employs a robust network with strong encryption, making it a secure option for users.

- **Widespread Adoption:** Supported by many exchanges and merchants, Litecoin has a significant presence in the crypto ecosystem.

**Running a Litecoin Node:**

To run a Litecoin node, users need a reliable internet connection, sufficient storage (at least 25GB), and a secure operating environment. Running a full node enhances network security and supports decentralization. It’s essential to keep the software updated and ensure that the private keys are stored securely, preferably offline, to prevent hacking or loss of funds.

**Wallets and Software:**

Several wallets support Litecoin, ranging from hardware wallets like Ledger and Trezor to software wallets such as Electrum-LTC and the official Litecoin Core wallet. These wallets offer varying degrees of security and convenience, catering to both novice and experienced users.

**Litecoin and the Lightning Network:**

The integration of the Lightning Network with Litecoin promises even faster and cheaper transactions. This layer-2 solution allows off-chain transactions, reducing the load on the main blockchain and improving scalability. However, setting up Lightning Network channels requires technical know-how, and users should be cautious about potential risks like channel closures and the temporary loss of funds during disputes.

**Electrum and Lightning Network:**

Electrum-LTC is one of the popular wallets that support the Lightning Network for Litecoin. It provides a user-friendly interface for setting up and managing Lightning channels, making it accessible for beginners while offering advanced features for experienced users. Ensuring the security of the private keys and understanding the nuances of channel management are crucial to avoid the loss of funds.

**Conclusion:**

Litecoin remains a strong player in the cryptocurrency market, offering unique advantages in speed, cost, and security. With the growing adoption of the Lightning Network, its scalability and efficiency are set to improve further. However, users must remain vigilant about security practices and stay informed about technological developments to maximize their benefits from Litecoin investments.

For more detailed analysis, you can refer to the [OSINT Ukraine blog post](https://osint-ukraine.blogspot.com/2024/07/litecoin-founder-sells-all-his-coins.html).

Litecoin Founder Sells All His Coins

Hornbeam

4 min

View Original

Charlie Lee, former CTO of Coinbase, has sold all his holdings in Litecoin (LTC), a cryptocurrency he founded in 2011. The original idea was to complement gold (Bitcoin) with a kind of silver (Litecoin), with a lower price, easier mining and transactions.

Charlie Lee explained his motives for doing this on Reddit . The main reason is a conflict of interest. The cryptocurrency founder says that he is tired of the situation when everyone hangs on his every word and then accuses him. Whatever he says, these words affect the price of Litecoin. The price goes down or up, and then accusations of market manipulation begin. It got to the point where some accused Charlie of doing this for selfish purposes, because he himself is in a short position. All because he, as the owner of the largest capital of LTC, had too much influence.

Charlie Lee says that he always avoided buying or selling coins before or after important tweets. That is, he voluntarily complied with the requirements that are put forward to traditional insiders. However, the main requirement was still violated - as an insider, he had no right to own or trade LTC coins at all.

Now it will be so.

“I have sold and donated all of my LTC in the last few days. Litecoin has been very good for my financial health, so I have made enough and no longer need my wealth tied to Litecoin’s success,” writes Charlie Lee. “For the first time in over six years, I no longer own any coins that are not tied to a physical medium (I have kept a few for collecting purposes). It’s definitely a strange, but refreshing feeling.”

The project's founder reassured all investors and coin holders: "Don't worry. I'm not leaving Litecoin and will continue to devote all my time to developing this project. Litecoin's success will still reward me in many different ways, just not directly through the value of the cryptocurrency. I now believe that this is the best way for me to continue to oversee Litecoin's growth."

Charlie Lee asked not to ask how many coins he had, how many he sold, and at what price. He assured everyone that this volume is only a small part of the trading volume on the GDAX exchange - and his sales did not crash the market (in the last 24 hours, the volume of global Litecoin trading has exceeded $2 billion, according to statistics from Coinmarketcap.com).

Note that there has been no market collapse over the past month. Litecoin has obediently grown following Bitcoin, and in the last seven days has fluctuated between $254 and $374 and between 0.0145 BTC and 0.2 BTC, in dollars and bitcoins, respectively.

After his post, Charlie Lee posted an update on the well-known Bitcoin Cash fiasco, which was suspended on GDAX due to a sharp rise in price after BCH was listed on Coinbase. Charlie Lee says that even here he is being accused of pumping up the price of BCH for his own gain: “It seems like a no-win situation,” he sadly notes.

Note that at some point on GDAX the price of BCH soared to $9000. Trading should resume today, December 20.

Litecoin currently ranks 5th among all cryptocurrencies by capitalization, although it used to be second. It is now preceded by Bitcoin ($281 billion), Etherium ($80 billion), Bitcoin Cash ($65 billion), and Ripple ($29 billion). Litecoin itself has a capitalization of $17,390,025,692. Thanks to the recent correction, the Bitcoin dominance index has again returned to below 50%. Unlike Bitcoin, altcoins have, on the contrary, grown in recent days and are approaching a total capitalization of $300 billion.

For all cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, the total capitalization is approximately $630 billion.

Given Litecoin's market cap, it's unlikely that Charlie Lee managed to sell more than a couple hundred million dollars' worth of coins. But even with such a relatively modest sum, there's really no need to worry about his financial well-being.

But he will still retain his influence over the cryptocurrency investing audience. His work at Coinbase and Litecoin has given him a considerable amount of authority and 378,000 Twitter followers. They will likely still hang on his every word. Charlie Lee is registered on Twitter under the handle @SatoshiLite .

It should be noted that his brother Bobby is the founder of one of the largest crypto exchanges in China, BTCChina, so an influential clan has formed here.

In 2017, Litecoin grew significantly more than Bitcoin. On January 1, the cost of LTC was only $4.36, that is, by now it has grown about 75 times in less than a year.

Cryptocurrency arbitrage, real experience

Hornbeam

8 min

View Original

With the start of the Bitcoin fever, countless interesting projects appeared on the Internet, from ICO, cloud mining to vlogs and courses on trading, mining, etc. I drew attention to crypto arbitrage, which we will talk about now.

I looked closely at this topic for a long time, read many articles, didn’t believe, doubted, then was inspired, and finally understood that if I don’t try, I won’t know.

There are many strategies, but for myself I have divided arbitrage into two branches: intra-exchange (tripod) and inter-exchange (spatial) arbitrage.

This article was written back in 2018 and only now I found it and decided to share. So do not judge strictly if some information is not relevant.

Intra-exchange arbitrage

This strategy is implemented on one specific exchange and looks something like this.

Let's say we have BTC, we sell them for dollars, buy LTC for these dollars, and then exchange LTC for BTC - we get profit in BTC. Since the price is moved by people - there is always some gap on which you can earn. If you multiply all the prices - ideally you should get 1, and on any deviation from one you can earn by going clockwise or counterclockwise along the triangle. There does not have to be three currencies, there can be any number of them.

It looks complicated in words, let's look at a specific example in numbers, close to the average person. Let's take the Dollar-Euro-Pound trio.

Dollar-Euro - 0.9

Euro Pound - 0.8

Pound-Dollar - 1.3

0.9 * 0.8 * 1.3 = 0.93

Often the final result is less than one, that is, having made all the transactions, we will receive fewer coins than we had initially. But if we go in the opposite direction, the coefficients will be inversely proportional.

1/0.9 * 1/0.8 * 1/1.3 = 1.07

The situation is further complicated by the fact that we pay a commission for each transaction. And for three transactions we will pay triple the commission.

There are many bots on GitHub, paid and free, that search for arbitrage opportunities and make trades. Such programs either do not inspire confidence or do not meet the requirements. In general, I decided to do everything myself and check. I used the ccxt library . To begin with, I took one triple and every few seconds I checked whether there was an opportunity for arbitrage and indeed there were such opportunities, but I could not fully assess the picture. So I added a few more triples. I even tried to trade. Soon I decided to remake the bot, added a web interface to it, connected other exchanges. I began to scan each one in turn in search of arbitrage situations. But no matter how hard I tried, I still could not trade. If an arbitrage situation exists, then in a second, two seconds at most, it is gone.

The main parameters in this type of arbitrage were the speed and liquidity of the price. The arbitrage was calculated based on the last order in the glass and often this order was for about a dollar. I suspect that someone saw the arbitrage situation faster than me and made deals leaving a few miserable cents from the last order. So, perhaps, liquidity has nothing to do with it.

Even if you manage to calculate and start trading, you might not make it to the last deal and end up with a coin that no one needs. 

Ultimately, speed plays an important role: you need to read quickly and trade quickly. Therefore, in order to earn good interest, you need to

1. a powerful server, closer to the exchange where you trade, or better yet, rent power from the exchange itself, and some even offer this for a lot of money;

2. high-speed communication channel with the exchange;

3. use a high-performance programming language such as C, Assembler, perhaps even microprocessor programming to bypass the use of the OS and work directly with the hardware;

4. optimize your program to the maximum;

5. and it is better to keep the required amount in the required currency at once. For example, if we trade BTC->LTC->USD, then the equivalent of $100 should be in LTC, BTC and USD. Or you can use margin trading if the exchange and its API allow it.

I used polling requests with an interval of several seconds, but some exchanges provide a communication channel via web sockets, which, in theory, should speed up data exchange with the exchange.

Of course, you can earn money using your own server or computer, but according to my calculations, a sum of $1000, scattered across different exchanges, across different coins, will bring in several dozen dollars a month, and that's in the best case, if everything goes smoothly. Does anyone still believe that you can arbitrage manually?

Inter-exchange arbitrage

With inter-exchange arbitrage, things are different. It involves buying a coin on one exchange, where it is cheaper, and selling it on another, where it is more expensive. 

Arbitrage situations (forks) occur when a coin is bought or sold in large volumes on one exchange, moving the price. On this exchange, the price of the coin differs from the price on other exchanges. People, including arbitrageurs, understand where the price will go on other exchanges and begin to level the price with their actions.

For maximum profitability, it is better to keep money on two exchanges in the currencies we work with, so that you can immediately buy on one and sell on the other. For example, let's take a pair of BTC-ETH (bitcoin-ether), we have approximately the same amount of ETH and BTC on both exchanges. On exchange A, ether is cheaper, so we buy it there, and on exchange B, where it is more expensive, we sell the same amount of ether. Exchange A has more ether, and exchange B has more bitcoins. We transfer ether and bitcoins to equalize their number on both exchanges. This strategy allows you to instantly respond to the situation, because the transfer time for some coins can last several hours, or even more. To earn money and reduce the transfer fee (since it is not a percentage, but fixed), it is advisable to operate with amounts from $300. Not everyone can afford to keep such amounts in many coins on different exchanges. 

Since I already had work set up with several exchanges, I decided to improve my system for monitoring inter-exchange arbitrage situations. 

To avoid thinking for too long, let's take Bitcoin as the main currency to which almost all coins are traded.

Having analyzed various programs and telegram bots, I quickly made a table that showed where to buy, where to sell, and how much you can earn in percentage, without taking into account commissions.

Inter-exchange arbitrage situations exist longer than intra-exchange ones, because it takes time to transfer a coin from one exchange to another. Prices are updated once an hour or on request.

About 30 exchanges participated in the search.

My service, like others, showed many arbitrage situations with percentages from 0 to 100 and higher. But as it turned out: 

• where there are high percentages, coins are not available for withdrawal or even for trading;

• where the percentage is small, you may not earn at all and even lose on commission; 

• you often need to look at the trading volume to see if the coin is liquid. It's good when the trading volume is several bitcoins, it means the coin is not so easy to pump and the price will not rise much during the purchase and fall during the sale;

• you need to take a proven exchange that does not freeze wallets for personal gain;

• I would like to exclude all fiat currencies from the sample, because withdrawal in dollars or other fiat currencies is accompanied by additional difficulties and high interest rates.

Based on the above features, I decided to make a filter. Now it is possible to limit profitability, specify the minimum trading volume for 24 hours, select exchanges you want to work with, exclude fiat currencies and save filter settings.

I also wanted to filter the list of currency pairs by the availability of wallets on the exchange. To filter out those where withdrawal or deposit is closed, but few exchanges provide such information via API. Therefore, I had to check the wallets manually. But I didn’t have to check much. Having filtered the selection, only a few options remained. Having checked each one, I was not surprised to see that the same wallets were not available everywhere.

All that's left is to wait and watch for when the price will start changing sharply somewhere and an opportunity to trade will appear. And there are chances, and you can trade, but on dishonest exchanges, a transaction can often hang for several days or even weeks. I managed to trade several times, but once I didn't have time, sometimes the money hung for a long time. In general, I spent more nerves than I earned money. And while I was trading, I decided to make two more features - a table of profitability for a specific coin at the moment and a graph of price changes for a specific coin on different exchanges. 

Price dynamics seemed to me an interesting function. It allows you to easily determine where the price is lagging, see the spread at a specific moment in time. 

Analysis of price dynamics charts can be combined with a spatial arbitrage strategy, which does not require withdrawing coins from the exchange, but simply waiting for prices to smooth out. That is, we buy coins where they are cheaper and wait for the price to rise.

Now the service is no longer developing, as interests have changed. As you can see, arbitrage works, but how much you can earn on it is another question. Everything depends on the volatility of coins, and as you know, it is decreasing. New laws are being adopted, cryptocurrencies are becoming more regulated and less susceptible to sharp jumps. Exchanges are becoming more experienced and are trying to protect their users from fraud in the markets such as spoofing, artificial pumps and dumps on coins with a small volume. A similar situation was observed in the exchange markets.

As a result, you won't earn much on intra-exchange arbitrage either without a good exchange speed, which is not cheap. Inter-exchange arbitrage has more opportunities, but also more problems and risks, there is a chance not only not to earn, but even to lose, and I'm not even talking about the fact that exchanges can close, block transactions or entire accounts. I heard that people "celebrated" the anniversary of an unanswered ticket on an unscrupulous exchange. You can further develop the idea of ​​​​automating trading on exchanges, whether it is arbitrage, or trading according to a certain strategy or signals. Catching profit on rebounds during a sharp fall, or earning on shorts during pumps. Creating the appearance of trading volume for price movement, etc. You can find many more interesting strategies on the Internet that, most likely, someone has already implemented and a bunch of ideas that have yet to be implemented.

On the situation with cryptocurrencies in a particular country - Venezuela

Hornbeam

11 min

View Original

Given the constant efforts to either ban or legalize cryptocurrency in Russia, I think it would be interesting to read an essay about the current situation in the already sanctioned state - Venezuela - the country of the Caribbean Sea and eternal summer....

The review describes the general situation in the field of cryptocurrencies in Venezuela, their most popular types, how they are planned for use by the government, security forces and ordinary citizens, as well as which companies provide such activities.

Venezuela, oddly enough (and in fact it is not), occupies one of the leading places in the world in terms of the volume of transactions with cryptocurrencies.

According to Chainalysis, as of August 2021, it was ranked seventh in overall cryptocurrency adoption and sixth in decentralized P2P trading volumes.

The Venezuelan government was among the first in the world to introduce a national cryptocurrency, El Petro (VPN!!), backed by oil and minerals. This was a reaction to the sanctions imposed by the West (blocking of state dollar accounts and gold reserves stored in foreign banks). Despite the rather loud statements of comrade N. Maduro (president) and significant volumes of transactions made with KrV, cryptocurrency activity is not so strong in the retail segment (data in Table 1). However, the rating was compiled for 145 countries and 29th place is high.

According to Alexa statistics ( not working since May 1 ) similarweb , the number of visits by Venezuelans to the Binance cryptocurrency exchange (22nd place among all electronic resources) exceeds the number of visits to TikTok (36th place), Telegram (29th place) and other well-known sites. The average time spent on binance.com is 11 min. 16 sec. per day. In addition, coinmarketcap.org (47th place, the most popular site for tracking cryptocurrency quotes, acquired by Binance in 2020) is in the top 50 most visited resources.

By the way, a week ago, the Chinese crypto exchange Huobi Global announced the acquisition of one of the oldest Latin American trading platforms Bitex in order to expand its presence in the region. First of all, this will concern Chile, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay, where Bitex felt confident, but the Chinese will stretch their tentacles across the continent. China is very interested in this crypto-rich region, where the cryptocurrency market has grown more than 13 times in two years.

For example, in Russia, among the 50 most visited resources, not a single one related to cryptocurrencies was noted.

For the effective cryptocurrency activities of the government, a separate structure was formed - the National Committee for the Supervision of Crypto Assets and Related Activities (SUNACRIP [1] , headed by J.R. Camacho). By the way, it is mentioned in the indictment of the US Department of Justice on the involvement of N. Maduro and a number of high-ranking officials in cooperation with the FARC (revolutionaries of Colombia (FARC, Fuerzas Armadas de Colombia) - a left-wing radical extremist group, considered terrorist in the US and the EU, and guerrilla in Cuba and Venezuela) to supply the US with cocaine as a "weapon to flood it with drugs."

I also remember listening to him when he came to Moscow for a blockchain conference a few years ago and was sort of its headliner.

Mr. Ramirez in Moscow

There are many billboards advertising Bitcoin on the streets of the capital, Caracas, and in its suburbs.

Some of our Russian tourists will probably recognize the familiar central streets of the country of eternal summer))). 

National cryptocurrency "El Petro"

 In 2017, Venezuela officially announced its national cryptocurrency El Petro, backed by the country's oil and mineral resources. It is not an independent project - it is a token on the Ethereum blockchain. To use it, an online wallet PetroApp was created (on the official government website). Its capabilities allow you to work with El Petro, LTC, DASH. You can simply create this wallet and transfer KRW to it, but to use the transfer, exchange and payment services, you must confirm your identity and provide photos of your documents.

Despite efforts to popularize it, due to problems with demand among the population and businesses, El Petro is not in use. Also, the refusal of citizens is due to the fact that the Central Bank of Venezuela purchases it at a rate that is many times lower than expected, and it is also bought out at half price on electronic exchange services. I think that the announcement of the creation of a national cryptocurrency was populist in nature.

 Mining in Venezuela

Cryptocurrency mining requires two necessary conditions - the availability of equipment and electricity for its operation. The efficiency of cryptocurrency mining and its certain popularity in the BRV are determined by the cost of a kW-hour of electricity for the population, which is one of the lowest in the world. According to various ratings, Venezuela is among the five countries most attractive for this process, and in Latin America, Venezuela is second after Argentina in terms of attractiveness and efficiency of mining.

Mining in BRV received legal status in the fall of 2020, with Venezuela being the first country in the world to fully legalize such activity. Licensing is handled by SUNACRIP.

The largest mining pool in Latin America, Doctorminer.com, with a capacity of 20 PH/sec (Petahash per second) and more than 1,500 remotely connected miners, is also located in Venezuela.

Cryptocurrencies in the Venezuelan army

In November 2020, the Center for the Production of Digital Assets (Centro de Production de Activos Digitales) began its operations in Caracas. That is, the military decided to mine KRV, and for this purpose they created a special center engaged in mining, as well as the assembly and repair of equipment for it.

It is estimated that this is one of the ways to evade the economic sanctions imposed by the United States in order to obtain an unblocked source of income for Venezuelan security forces.

Venezuelan Fighter on Cryptocurrency War Post

Checking for modern mining equipment. There are no warrant officers in Venezuela, but you shouldn't relax))

Online resources for finding organizations that accept cryptocurrency

There is an Android app called criptolugares (crypto places), which has information about companies accepting Cryptocurrency all over the country with geo-referencing and filtering by categories and accepted types of Cryptocurrency. I tested it, it works unstably, and I think it is based on the API from map.bitcoin.com (it works all over the world). The picture shows a screenshot of points where cryptocurrency payment is possible in Caracas.

 There is also a similar one coinmap.org. 

It is estimated that there are more than 5,000 organizations in Venezuela, and more than a thousand in Caracas, that accept digital currency. I think the main reason is the desire of sellers to accept a currency that is less susceptible to hyperinflation than the national bolivar (there was hyperinflation last year, after the autumn denomination the situation calmed down a bit).

The typical scheme of work of a retail seller is as follows: when KrV is received on his account on a crypto exchange (in the vast majority of cases - Binance), cryptocurrency funds are withdrawn to the seller's bank card or stablecoins are transferred, which allows sellers to be minimally dependent on hyperinflation or volatility of KrV.

The majority of city residents and sellers, although they have heard about KRV, have a very poor understanding of the processes that take place to ensure their functioning, the organization of the blockchain, as well as the differences in the types of cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens. When making a transaction, sellers almost always do not have access to the store's crypto account (even as an "observer") to simply check the receipt of KRV to the address, and they wait for confirmation of the receipt of funds by a message in the messenger from the manager, sometimes sitting even in the USA, who has access to the exchange account or crypto wallet. The process of purchasing goods is stretched out in time, since, despite the payment, confirmation of the completion of the transaction depends on a third party.

A specialized cryptocurrency payment system was implemented by embedding such capabilities into Megasoft software, which is used as a cash register software in some hypermarkets. It was developed by the Venezuelan company Mega Soft Computation CA and accepts BTC, DASH, LTC, Binance USD, USDT (ERC20), BNB and XPT.

Excerpt from the instructions for the Megasoft software on the accepted types of KRV

The company has entered into an agreement with the payment operator Cryptobuyer (a Latin American cryptocurrency platform (Panama), providing communication between the buyer using KRV and the seller).

Megasoft has fully automated conversion of national currency into the required cryptocurrency at the current rate, invoicing with QR code generation and no need to wait for transaction confirmation, the transaction is considered successful immediately after the generation and sending of the transaction itself. This entails significant convenience for customers, since the fact of payment is confirmed almost instantly, although it carries certain risks for the store, however, in the conditions of retail trade, the risks are minimal (in relation to the costs of an attack by an intruder to the profit).

I would like to remind you that for most popular cryptocurrencies (an example for Bitcoin), a transfer is considered complete if the transaction has been confirmed in at least six consecutive blocks of the blockchain (the impossibility of canceling them with such a number of confirmations is mathematically justified). But such a number of confirmations takes time (from minutes to hours when the blockchain is loaded).

It should be noted that the number of supermarket customers paying for goods with cryptocurrency is small, and the cashiers themselves are not confident working with Megasoft.

Some large supermarkets use the Cryptobuyer platform directly for crypto payments – for example, the large chain of Venezuelan hypermarkets “Traki”. There, the payment process after generating a preliminary check at the checkout and fixing the amount in local currency is carried out on a separate computer through a Cryptobuyer account (personal account), where a QR code is generated for payment in cryptocurrency (BTC, Dash, USDT (TRC20), ETH, BNB). After confirming the transfer of KrV, the check is closed by the operator at the checkout.

In the 2Doce supermarket chain, after scanning the goods and calculating the required amount at the checkout and indicating the payment in cryptocurrency in the cash register software, this amount is entered by the seller on a separate smartphone with the Cryptobuyer application, after which the required CRV is selected and a QR code is generated for payment.

In Venezuela, there are informal groups of volunteers popularizing the KrV payment among citizens and owners of retail outlets. For example, members of the @BCHLatam association (“BCH in Latin America”) conduct discussions, explain the advantages of using BCH and its features.

In 2021, more than 1,200 citizens and 500 sellers were connected in 20 cities in Venezuela. Stickers can be found in various stores, such as electronics.

Also in small retail outlets and catering establishments you can find stickers or signs informing about the possibility of paying with Dash. Would you like some crypto-getts ??)).

There are quite a few small retail outlets in Caracas that accept payments in Dash or BCH. These cryptocurrencies were specifically designed for instant payment of goods and have low fees (up to 0.1 cents).

And if you want smartphones or computers, such opportunities exist. Such signs may be present in stores. You can check the receipt of funds to the store accounts in BTC, USDT and ETH.

BTC transaction history of this small retail outlet

We see that payments are made infrequently, but regularly, and the amounts correspond to retail goods. In total, more than 93 BTC (more than $2.7 million) migrated through this address.

Many merchants prefer to accept USTD. This is due to the convenience of such a direct transfer to Binance personal account accounts, since this is where store owners keep their capital in stablecoins.

The Farmarket pharmacy chain (sales of medical and food products, as in the US, in other "Americas" it is not just a pharmacy, but a shop with all the necessary goods) for payment of KRV interaction takes place with the payment crypto gateway XPAY, which provides such services in the countries of Latin and South America. XPAY has developed its compact terminals for convenient KRV purchases based on Android. 

Use of cryptocurrencies in real estate and other areas

 According to the Venezuelan Real Estate Chamber, the country is seeing an increase in the number of real estate transactions using cryptocurrencies. In addition to the general trend towards the popularization of cryptocurrency, both buyers and sellers are concerned about blocking large sums of money transactions conducted through foreign payment systems. Many real estate agencies are starting to work with KRV. Such transactions are "gray", since the national real estate registry accepts documents in which the transaction value is indicated exclusively in the national currency, but proposals to amend the laws are being prepared.

 Car rental is also possible in Venezuela. Amigos Car Rental offers such services for BTC, Dash, LTC, ETH in Caracas, many cities in mainland Venezuela and Margarita. Here you can rent a car:

You can buy airline tickets, rent hotels and many other services for KrV. You can top up your mobile phone accounts with cryptocurrency through specialized resources (for example, Bitrefill), or through private individuals' Telegram channels.

Crypto machines in Caracas

Cruptobuyer installs its crypto ATMs in retail outlets in Caracas. Their main function is to exchange cash dollars for cryptocurrency (BTC, Dash). But the software can be configured to work with any type of CRV, and there is also the potential for fingerprint authentication.

General view of the cryptomat

example of interface when transferring funds into cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Museum

Less than a year ago, the world's first (as they position it) Bitcoin Museum was opened in Caracas by CriptoAvila , created to popularize cryptocurrencies and their mining. The exhibition is a set of chronologically arranged technical means of mining, showing the evolutionary development. A full-fledged model of a crypto farm was created in a separate room. You can also order mining equipment for KrV.

Entrance to the museum

Fig. 19 Demonstration room equipped for cryptocurrency mining

Stands with exhibits – samples of mining equipment

Bitcoin Cafe

Less than a year ago, the first Bitcoin Cafe in the country opened in Caracas , where a space for meetings, seminars and coworking spaces was organized. Payment for services is made in most popular cryptocurrencies. The initiator of the opening is the non-profit association Fintech Venezuela, which promotes technologies based on decentralized IT solutions and establishes interaction with government organizations and businesses.

Lecture hall

cryptocafe hall

conclusions

The situation with the introduction of cryptocurrencies into everyday life in Venezuela is developing. The country is one of the leaders in the region in terms of cryptocurrency mining and circulation. But the government does not have a detailed plan on this issue.

With low confidence in the national currency and hyperinflation in the country, the main KRW are the most acceptable form of retail trade after the US dollar. People in Venezuela who have KRW can ensure a fairly comfortable living without fiat cash/non-cash funds. In almost all areas, there is the possibility of paying for KRW - cafes, medical services, hotel and car rentals, topping up mobile communications and Internet services, buying airline tickets, electronics, food/non-food products, etc.

So, gentlemen, when the opportunity arises, check the balance in your wallet or on the crypto exchange and boldly fly to Venezuela for a vacation and spend KRV))).