Bitcoins in Venezuela: Examining the Origins, Nature, and Viability of Cryptocurrencies in the Hyperinflated Country of Venezuela
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Portland State University PDXScholar University Honors Theses University Honors College 3-2-2018 Bitcoins in Venezuela: Examining the Origins, Nature, and Viability of Cryptocurrencies in the Hyperinflated Country of Venezuela Connor Wulf Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Wulf, Connor, "Bitcoins in Venezuela: Examining the Origins, Nature, and Viability of Cryptocurrencies in the Hyperinflated Country of Venezuela" (2018). University Honors Theses. Paper 518. https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.523 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Bitcoins in Venezuela: Examining the Origins, Nature, and Viability of Cryptocurrencies in the Hyperinflated Country of Venezuela By: Connor Wulf An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in University Honors and Quantitative Economics Thesis Advisor Cesar M. Rodriguez, PhD Portland State University 2018 Abstract The purpose of this thesis seeks to examine the origins, nature, and viability of cryptocurrencies in the hyperinflated country of Venezuela. This inquiry first considers the emergence and proliferation of cryptocurrencies as alternative currencies to the Venezuelan bolivar due to breakdown of the populist economic policies of the Chavez and Maduro regimes. The economic policies taken into consideration are the government’s overreliance on oil production, a lack of private property institutions, disproportionate government spending, expansionary monetary policy, draconian price controls, and an inefficient exchange rate system which all contribute to the weakening and eventual collapse of the Venezuelan bolivar. We then shall introduce the nature and role of cryptocurrencies in Venezuela in terms of functioning as a digital, decentralized currency meeting Venezuelans’ preferences and demands for goods and services in international markets in the midst of this economic crisis. This inquiry concludes by discussing the feasibility of cryptocurrencies as alternative currencies in the hyperinflated country of Venezuela. The scholarly debate of cryptocurrency viability materializes amongst economists and academics like Ehrsam, Tucker, Surda, Patterson, Dorfman, and Beliunas particularly in terms of the cryptocurrency’s ability to meet the necessary characteristics and functions of money. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Honors College, Economics Department, Mathematics Department, and my thesis advisor at Portland State University for their work in helping me become a better thinker, writer, and student over these past three years. I could not have done this without them. Thank you. Veritas Lux Mea, the Truth is my Light Table of Contents: Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Part I: The Origins of Cryptocurrencies in Venezuela.....................................................................4 Background and Economic History of Venezuela ...................................................................4 Economic Policies and Effects of Chavez and Maduro ...........................................................8 The Venezuelan Economic Crisis ..........................................................................................19 Part II: The Nature of Cryptocurrencies ........................................................................................22 Alternative Currencies ............................................................................................................22 Cryptocurrencies Background and History ............................................................................25 Bitcoins in Venezuela .............................................................................................................28 Characteristics of Cryptocurrencies .......................................................................................30 Part III: The Viability of Cryptocurrencies ....................................................................................38 Currencies ...............................................................................................................................38 The Case for Cryptocurrencies ...............................................................................................40 The Case against Cryptocurrencies ........................................................................................44 Cryptocurrencies in Venezuela ...............................................................................................46 Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................................................47 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................49 Introduction The current economic collapse in Venezuela is widely considered to be the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time as Venezuelans protest their corrupt political regimes, struggle for basic necessities like food and medicine, and fight for survival day to day. Venezuela upholds its dominance in the news for its severe hyperinflation, high unemployment, dangerously declining GDP, constant violence, widespread starvation, and lack of any sort of available resources. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the GDP per capita in Venezuela has declined by 40% over the past five years while defaulting on their foreign debt in November of 2017 (Hausmann, 2017). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also predicts that inflation in Venezuela will hit 650% by the end of 2017 and will hit 2300% at the end of 2018 (Zuniga, 2017). This economic collapse is fracturing the Venezuelan economy as reported in terms of quantitative macroeconomic indicators but its collapse is chiefly affecting the individuals of Venezuela as identified in the qualitative microeconomic conditions of its citizens. A study by the National Survey of Living Conditions (Graham, 2017) found that the 75% of the Venezuelan population lost an average of nineteen pounds as a result of an ongoing food shortage and lack of basic health necessities in the country. The survey also found that 82% of Venezuelans live in poverty with 34% of Venezuelans eating less than two meals a day. As 2018 commences, news agencies in and around Venezuela continue to report on the increasing riots, starvation, economic instability, and outright devastation that consumes the country (Graham, 2017). The use of cryptocurrencies began to emerge in the late 2000s and early 2010s internationally but most profoundly in the United States and Eurozone. It’s significant to note that despite concentration in western developed nations, cryptocurrencies began to remarkably propagate in Latin America particularly the country of Venezuela. Cryptocurrencies are essentially digital currencies that require technology via mobile phone or desktop computer in 1 order to use the currency. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ripple, litecoin, and ethereum all have a finite supply that can exist in circulation and the currencies themselves all lack a central bank making the currency truly decentralized. These cryptocurrencies use cryptography for security which makes it difficult to counterfeit and easily accessible across borders for international trade or online exchanges. The big appeal regarding cryptocurrencies is that they are organic in nature, decentralized, not susceptible to decreasing purchasing power, and eliminate transaction fees associated with regular currencies as cryptocurrencies are not issued by a central authority and are thus immune to government manipulation or interference. As a direct result of the economic crisis, more and more Venezuelans are using cryptocurrencies as tender in order to purchase basic goods that are nonexistent in their home country. According to CNBC, there are at least a couple hundred thousand bitcoin users in Venezuela who make roughly $500 per day (Hackett, 2017). The Venezuelan government also introduced an oil- backed cryptocurrency in late 2017 called the “Petro”, which is backed by the country’s oil reserves, in response to the rise of alternative cryptocurrencies, severe hyperinflation in the country, and overall economic instability particularly with regards to its foreign debt (Medium, 2018). The purpose of this inquiry seeks to establish that the origins and development of cryptocurrencies in Venezuela relates directly to the macroeconomic and microeconomic policies implemented by the Chavez and Maduro regimes which have exacerbated the Venezuelan economy and hyperinflated the Venezuelan bolivar. These policies consisted of seizing private production of goods and services, severely controlling exports and imports, disproportionately increasing government spending, setting draconian price controls for most goods, using an inefficient exchange rate system, and enacting irresponsible expansionary monetary policy. This 2 inquiry then seeks to establish that the result of these economic policies as denoted by poor economic indicators forced other means of exchange i.e.