Unless you have been under a rock for the last couple years, you know what’s going on in Venezuela. In an attempt to stay apolitical, suffice it to say that the government is considered by many to have caused massive inflation which has torn the once thriving country to shreds.

Venezuela has not reported official unemployment rates since April 2016, but estimates have been incredibly high. However, that’s not even the worst of it. Those who maintain their jobs are being paid by a currency that has experience skyrocketing inflation. According to Trading Economics, Venezuelan consumer prices have increased over 700% year-over-year.

What if people started using Bitcoin to transact in Venezuela?

THEY HAVE! And in more ways than one.

People in Venezuela have started paying for meals and services in Bitcoin, but it gets even better than that. According to a story on Bitcoin.com, some people have figured out that they can make more money by playing the internet game Runescape than most other professional jobs in the country. Players do this by mining “Runescape Gold” and selling it for Bitcoin. It has been estimated that these players are making anywhere from $0.50 to $2.50 per hour, based on their in-game efficiency.

If this trend continues, we could possibly see the country move to a Bitcoin standard. A lot of people in the crypto-sphere have debate what the implications of this would be, but I have yet to come by a significant downside.

The next couple of years should be very interesting. The geopolitical factors and concerns surrounding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may soon find their way into our daily news feeds.

Where do you think we will be in a few months from now? A year from now? What about a decade from now? Drop a comment below and let’s get this discussion started!

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Peter is a senior at Ohio State University majoring in finance. He has recently taken an extreme interest in cryptocurrencies, yet remains skeptical of a lot of the alt coins. In his free time, he enjoys golfing and playing League of Legends. As of October 4, 2017, Peter successfully completed his goal of turning $1000 into $25,000 by trading cryptocurrencies which he set out to achieve in March 2016.