Cryptocurrencies are not only for speculation, believe it or not, they also work to make purchases and also as payment for any service, even as part of your salary if you want. Thinking about this particularity of cryptocurrencies and as I am part of the Hive Blog community, I decided to conduct an experiment where I offer my customers the possibility of making payments with the Hive cryptocurrency in my small gluten-free bakery business.
Surely many of you have noticed the interesting publications of people from Venezuela, the country where I live, which lives a tremendously difficult economic situation due to the continuous printing of the local currency, the bolivar, which every hour is devalued against the US dollar, generating a tremendous pressure on prices (hyperinflation), which leads the population to take one of three options: To look for another country to live in, to assume the dollar as the only currency or to integrate into the world of cryptocurrencies as a mechanism for economic stability.
In my case, I opted for cryptocurrencies as a way to achieve economic stability. Despite the negative macroeconomic data that Venezuela reflects, this country is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of the daily use of decentralized digital currencies. A great part of Venezuelans know and are used to commercial transactions with cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin and Dash, the latter since five years ago offers solutions in terms of payments to the Venezuelan commercial sector, boosting the use of this cryptocurrency for the acquisition of goods and services in the population.
Thinking about it, I started to build ideas regarding my own business based on the HIVE cryptocurrency, which is becoming particularly well known as more Venezuelans join this great community of content creators. It all started because I like baking and I share with my friends some gluten-free desserts since my son is allergic to this protein. What I did not imagine is that so many people share the same condition as my son and rumors reached their ears that I am a creator of this type of pastry so I unwittingly made my hobby a business.
One day one of my clients asked me if I accepted payments in cryptocurrencies, I told her of course, in Dash and BTC, so I received my first payment in decentralized digital money. Given the commissions of BTC which are quite high, I wanted to opt for other cryptocurrencies less expensive and just as easy to exchange in the country and without a doubt the best in this sense is Hive. Venezuela has a large community of Hivers so it sounds logical to also offer trading options in this currency in this territory.
I know very well that fiat money is still the main way to generate commercial transactions both in Venezuela and the rest of the world, but as a crypto-optimist for me no doubt this type of digital economy based on cryptocurrencies (and blockchain) will displace the traditional and worn out trade with digital fiat currencies. For now I am very excited to imagine the great future that awaits us.