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Comment by bluepizza | Hacker News Reader

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bluepizza·

I just did. None of them ever heard of crypto.

It might seem like crypto is all the rage online, but most people don't actually live in this bubble.

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You managed to canvass Iranians, Venezuelans and Argentinians in 9 minutes flat?

Helps when you are actually Argentinian.

It’s actually pretty easy if you’re in a cafe in Venezuela and do a quick sample of 20 random urban caracans to ask if anyone uses crypto.

Obviously not a proper sample or authoritative, but pretty easy way to counter “these countries love crypto.”

> caracans

In Poland it's a mild slur meaning short man

The capital of Venezuela is Caracas.

It probably comes from something else. I hope.

As a caracan myself, it's actually "caraqueños" :)

Regarding the subject, it is indeed very popular. You can go to restaurants, car parts stores and clothing stores and find the Binance QR code prominently displayed.

And a LOT of freelancers working online have no way of receiving payments from abroad other than through Binance (verifying Paypal here because of currency controls). No one wants to receive the local currency.

I wouldn't say that you'll see grandmothers in the grocery store buying stuff with USDT, but it's definitely used.

Have you?

Well the question has come up before, and since I also know people from all these countries. I have talked about insecure financial environments with them it is an interesting topic but not always ok to talk about. While I try not to bring up cryptos to normal people, I think it is telling that almost no one brings up crypto as a way to transfer money. People invested in bring it up but very seldom as a practical thing more as an investment.

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