On the one hand, the cryptocurrencies are accused by many of being the tools of criminals, but on the other hand, thanks to the specific nature of their technology, they can be considered as something that saves from inflation. The latter can be seen in Zimbabwe, for example.
The use of Bitcoins has increased significantly in Zimbabwe over the past year, as the government has applied more repressive laws to its citizens in an attempt to support its failing economic system. The ban on foreign currency transactions has led LocalBitcoins to record large spikes in the number of entries and an increase in the volume of cryptocuurencies purchases.
Inflationary hell
US dollars are still being traded on the black market, but this approach means a heavy reliance on cash ownership because digital payment methods using US currency are not available. For digital payments, citizens use local mobile cash withdrawal services. However, they were also banned in October this year. They were finally reinstated after public protests. This shows, however, that the government may eventually want to cut off citizens from this method.
All this does not solve something else. Namely, the rising inflation of the local currency. Bitcoin – despite recent declines – is still a better store of value than the Zimbabwean dollar, which has returned to circulation this year.
DAIHard will help Zimbabwe?
Team Toast, the team behind the decentralized and oppressive government’s fiat-to-crypto gateway, DAIHard, has presented a plan that can help the whole country.
The programmers, using Dai’s stablecoin and DAIHard as main tools, want to overcome the problems of the Zimbabwean community. It is about spreading knowledge about crypto, educating users about it and showing them how easy it is to use digital coins.
The core of the plans is to recruit a network of ZimDai agents. These agents are supposed to be kind of teachers. The company wants them to be people who already have knowledge about the use of cryptocurrencies.
Startup services would eventually include currency transfers between cities and international payments based on Dai. Agents would charge a small commission for their services, but the user would still avoid huge fees charged by banks and other financial institutions.
The project is currently investigating the possibility of selling tokens to raise funds from the crypto community in order to implement the plan and start recruiting agents.
