A MarketWatch article has drawn attention to the significant adoption that cryptocurrencies are seeing in developing nations, but particularly highlighted Dash adoption in Venezuela.
The article started off by following Eugenia Alcalá, organizer of Dash Venezuela, in the grocery store and detailed her experience of wanting to purchase some basic items for 200 million Bolivars, but the point of sales system only allowed 20 million Bolivars at a time. She thus has to make 10 separate transactions with each taking up to 5 minutes. The article detailed how the Venezuelan economy has contracted 10% this year, totaling 45% over the past 4 years and the latest inflation figures around 45,000% and the recent IMF prediction that inflation could reach 1,000,000% by the end of the year. The article discussed how this makes Venezuela a “perfect storm”, as Eugenia described, for the adoption of cryptocurrencies as a potential solution.
The article goes on to describe how Dash can be used to purchase goods and services “from bus rides to Subway sandwich shops” and says Dash is accepted at over 1,000 locations. However, that number is changing so quickly, it is now over 2,000 merchants. The article went on to describe how Eugenia’s first Dash meet-up had double the expected attendees and now some of the monthly meetings gets more than 500 individuals. The article also touched on individual Venezuelan experiences of how Dash is helping them escape the horrible inflation.
“Cryptocurrencies, especially Dash, have helped me to have an alternative means of income that, unlike the bolivar, is stable and much safer,” said Victoria Merchán, founder of Tradición Gourmet, a Caracas restaurant specializing in homemade food. “In addition, it has opened the doors of my business to many more clients and the general public.”
Gaining attention through multiple channels
Dash is seeing massive adoption in Venezuela due to the hyperinflation of the Bolivar and lack of access to Dollars, which makes Dash’s volatility comparatively low. Organizations such as Dash Venezuela, Dash Caracas, and their affiliates organized by Eugenia Alcalá have garnered large attention and adoption through their conferences and community outreach. Then Dash Merchant-Venezuela, Dash Text, and Dash Help have furthered that attention and support by rapidly increasing the merchant count through outreach and POS development. One of their most recent campaigns is a social media influencer initiative via Instagram, which is the preferred way to advertise in the country and has yielded positive results in its first two weeks.
Source: Alejandro of Dash Help, Dash Text, and Dash Merchant – Venezuela
The MarketWatch article also mentioned how cryptocurrencies are seeing increased interest in Africa and particularly for remittances since it can cost, on average, 9.4% to send $200 USD in Sub-Saharan Africa and take days to process. Dash Nigeria and Dash Hub Africa have both been working hard to increase Dash adoption and liquidity in the region.
Dash achieves decentralized community outreach
Dash is able to achieve this large consumer and merchant reach through its communities being organized in a decentralized manner. This enable each group to pursue strategies that they each believe will be most successful in encouraging consumer and merchant adoption for their respective regions. Not only does the Dash network allow for groups to work independently and decentralized, but to also be funded in a decentralized manner by the network and thus are not beholden to any particular party/group. This economic incentive also allows naturally market forces to take effect and encourages community outreach groups to provide the best possible services to help consumers and merchants understand how and why they should use Dash. These features have not only led to Dash being accepted by over 2,000 merchants in Venezuela and almost 4,000 merchants around the world, but also enabled Dash to be recognized by more media outlets.
