The founder and CEO of the Argentine startup IOVLabs (creator of the RSK side chain), qualifies Bitcoin as the “backbone” of the cryptocurrency ecosystem in Latin America.
Gutiérrez said these words during a conversation with Edan Yago, founder of the stablecoin exchange platform CementDAO, in the framework of the DeFi Conference 2021 event that took place on August 5.
Yago asked Gutiérrez on what is happening in the region with the pioneer cryptocurrency, considering that in recent months many Latin American countries have been in the news spotlight for their adoption of bitcoin .
“El Salvador, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay and Paraguay are always in the news,” Yago observes, “and many people outside this region ask me why.” They are curious about what happens there and the role of Latin America in the ecosystem.
Therefore, Yago interrogates Gutiérrez about this fact: what is happening in those countries? Why so much interest in bitcoin?
Diego Gutiérrez, recognized as one of the figures most prominent within the bitcoiner community of Argentina and Latin America, talks about some of the problems of the region and ensures that “Bitcoin gives people what they are looking for.”
Mentions, in First, the role that cryptocurrency has been playing as a store of value in many of the countries listed by Yago, affected by inflation.
Bitcoin over time has proven to be the best store of value and that is one of the things that people in Latin America are looking for. Argentina, for example, already has 50% inflation over a year, and when you face a situation like that, you need to buy goods that help you revalue your money. That is the role that bitcoin is playing and that is why it has become a backbone around which the regional ecosystem revolves.
Diego Gutiérrez Saldívar, CEO IOVLabs
Bitcoin : basis of an alternative financial system in the region
Gutiérrez also refers to the role of bitcoin in the creation of an alternative financial infrastructure for the transfer of money. “People think of Latin America as if it were a monolithic group of countries, which is not totally true,” he says.
In this sense, he adds that the countries of the region are only really connected by common cultural elements , but their political and economic structures function in isolation.
Consequently, it is sometimes very difficult to move money from one country to another, and it is in this aspect that Bitcoin intervenes as a point of interconnection. Latinos are increasingly using cryptocurrencies to send money to their families based in countries such as Venezuela or El Salvador, Diego says.
There is also the issue of the unbanked and underbanked , that group of people who do not participate in the traditional financial system. As reported in CriptoNoticias, this sector is made up of a large number of Latin Americans.
It is not only those who do not have a bank account, but also those who do not have credit cards, accounts in foreign currencies, or have access to financial services restricted. “These are the people who are leading the region towards an alternative financial system” in the opinion of the CEO of IOVLabs.
Hence the growing interest in bitcoin, more than in other projects, and the Increase in communities organizing around cryptocurrency . And although he does not cite figures, the co-founder of the NGO Bitcoin Argentina points out that progress has been exponential in his country, where he began to form the bitcoiner community in 2013.
This growth goes further of the philosophical support that gave life to cryptocurrencies: the decentralization of money, Gutiérrez sentence. At this level, the talk is directed to the vision that interlocutors have about the future of Bitcoin, both in Latin America and worldwide.
Once again, the leadership of cryptocurrency is highlighted as the axis of “A new transparent, borderless and decentralized economic system that will give people greater sovereignty over their money.” This is a process that involves a “long journey”, Yago says, because “we still have to explain to people how it works.”
