European conquistadors once came to Latin America to rob the indigenous population of its gold. Today, people from the global North are coming again. This time, they claim to be bringing gold with them. Digital gold, that is. Namely, Bitcoin.
While here in Europe, cryptocurrency is perceived by many as a speculative object with a dubious reputation, in the global South it is seen as an opportunity. Why is that? The documentary “Bitcoin in Latin America” takes an exciting road trip through Guatemala and El Salvador.
The Bitcoin utopia promises more financial participation, the expansion of infrastructure through green mining, and new investors attracted by mega-projects like the planned “Bitcoin City” in El Salvador. But what lies behind these promises?
In Guatemala, a U.S. citizen and former military doctor in picturesque Panajachel is trying to mine gold from trash through Bitcoins. But doesn’t that sound too good to be true? In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele even introduced the Bitcoin as a second state currency – one year later, however, there was less and less evidence of Bitcoin living up to the hype. Is the Bitcoin utopia just that – a dream, without any bearing on reality? Or can it actually change something?
#documentary #dwdocumentary #bitcoin #latinamerica
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20 Comments
Bitcoin wasn't created for payments 😂 it's a store of value!!
All politicians are corrupt. El Salvador's President is no different. He bought 250 Million dollars in Bitcion when it was at its highest!! The rich always using the poor to get richer!
granting that bitcoin price goes way up, will El Salvador be able to use it as payment for imports? There's a reason why USD is the world reserve currency.. practically every country accept it as mode of payment for their imports & exports. even when BRICS tries hard to unseat USD, they're not succeeding easily, what more w/ cryptos when hardly anyone accept it as common mode of payment for even the smallest retail transaction.
Sounds like a ponzi scheme that vastly rewards those that got in first, at the expense of the later & greater fools
Dw globalist media.
Totally one sided journalism…. Not impartial 👎
Another hit piece on Bitcoin.
That's the problem with socialism. The needs are endless.
Do you think infrastructure & schools will be build without taxes?
Where do you collect the taxes from, if not from profitable businesses?
Who generates the profits and invests in a country like El Salvador?
Interesting timing 🙄
39:17 Every Country on Earth has “human rights” issues.
Fix your own human right issues before condemning others.
Smort people burns 10 liters of fat-based fuel worth of 10$ to mine 3$ worth of bitcoins. I can buy a coffee for bitcoins!
Bitcoin is up about 10 grand in the last month.
Nothing worse than a whole country getting scammed😅😂
USD as an investment is not promoted as much as Bitcoin is, yet ISD & other sovereign currencies are backed & regulated by countries that issues them. They're inevitably universally accepted as form of payment. Bitcoin has a very long & speculative way to go to achieve universal acceptance, specially when it's banned in China, the 2nd biggest economy, & manufacturer of 70% of the global consumer merchandise
There is a SERIOUS PROBLEM with this documentary…. the notion that "bitcoin mining" can produce income is based on a premise that anybody who mines bitcoin can see money, but that's not the way bitcoin mining works. It's a "winner-take-all"situation where miners COMPETE to see which one can guess a number first. The one who guesses the number, gets the bitcoin and everybody else GETS NOTHING.
This is a serious omission by the filmmakers in describing the process of how bitcoin mining actually works. And with mining consortiums elsewhere, it's entirely possible that ANY bitcoin mining operation anywhere else on the planet MAY NEVER MAKE ANY MONEY AT ALL.
To understand why, watch a true documentary on how bitcoin and blockchain works. Search for "blockchain innovation or illusion?" and see details on how this whole scheme is fraud.
Bitcoin is nothing but a Trojan horse the so-called new world government BS!!!
Very misleading title, no one in the video appeared to be rich from bitcoin.
So biased..
No but apparently shitcoin makes you rich if you;re fast enough to rug others
As usual, superb, relevant content and well made DW…. Keep enriching us and thanks for what you are doing!!!