I have to admit, being in a developed country, that I genuinely don't understand why someone would switch away from a local currency that is failing at the task of being a currency to a cryptocurrency like bitcoin that is also failing at being a currency.
The Venezuelan Bolivar is even worse.
https://tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/currency
If you saw this happening to a close neighbour then you would also be worried about your own currency.
Not saying that bitcoin is the salve they need, just that perhaps given that context you can understand why it appears like an attractive alternative to the local currency. Also USD and EUR may be better options but I dont think having accounts denominated in these currencies is easily available to many people in Venezuela or Mexico. I have only (last 3 years or so) been able to hold EUR or USD denominated accounts (relatively easily) and I am in the UK. I'm sure it was possible to do for longer than that but it required hoops to be jumped through that are not always the easiest.
Currency is the thing you retain from earnings or cash investments out into to cover near-term spending needs.
The things important for currency are low-volatility and universal acceptance. Among the things that don’t matter much for it are “does it tend, on average, to gain value”.
If I have a need to pay someone, I use Venmo or Zelle. Bitcoin is slow and expensive and volatile.
They've often required either a business account, a "premium"/high net-worth account of some sort, or dealing with an international banking team most normal customers either will never know exists or not have easy access to.
I can also totally see people using bitcoin as a speculative investment. That's also not an argument in favour of bitcoin as a currency.
> Also USD and EUR may be better options but I dont think having accounts denominated in these currencies is easily available to many people in Venezuela or Mexico.
So bitcoin is used not because it's a good currency but because it's better than the available alternatives. I guess that makes sense.
In extremes like Venezuela or Zimbabwe they do fail at being currencies as well, but the Peso is a perfectly functional currency. It's just not a reliable store of wealth. In developed countries we think of our currencies as both, but they're two distinct functions.