Hacker News Reader

Comment by petertodd | Hacker News Reader

> Avoiding capital controls like in Lebanon

I personally know someone whose Lebanese family had food on the table for awhile in large part because of Bitcoin. They aren't even particularly interested in Bitcoin. It just happened to be the thing that worked best for their situation.

I live in a Canadian neighboorhood with lots of immigrants from poorer countries. There's a Bitcoin ATM near me that seems to get a decent amount of usage, mostly by people who look like they might have family in other countries. It might get even more usage, if not for the fact that buying Bitcoin in Canada is pretty easy via exchanges like Kraken and Bull Bitcoin.

View on HN

How do they actually use that Bitcoin to buy things of real value like food on the table? That is, if you're a family in Lebanon, what actual steps do you go through, having received some bitcoin from somewhere, to get some flour or chickpeas or whatever in your hand?

Do you exchange the Bitcoin for local currency first (and if so, how) or do you pay the mill or butcher directly in Bitcoin (and what do they do with it at that point)?

You would go to an exchange and get local currency or US dollars instead if you need to spend it. But most people I know are just interested in it so they can preserve their wealth by bypassing capital controls. I’m Lebanese

Is the conversion to local currency not affected by inflation? Or if you convert it to US dollars, how do those US dollars get to the country and get past capital controls?

I'm specifically not asking about preserving wealth in the abstract - I'm curious about the mechanics of how it's used to put food on the table.

I guess maybe the question I should be asking is, who are the people who run the exchanges and how do they work? Why are they interested in accepting Bitcoin in exchange for more liquid currency, and where did they get that liquid currency in the first place? How do they determine the conversion rate? (Are they wealthy locals who already have lots of cash holdings who want to be wealthier and are willing to sell that cash for Bitcoin at a premium because they intend to hold the Bitcoin long-term / after major political changes?)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com