Peercoin -- Regional Focus - LatAm (and Asia, of course)

General
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Bitcoin is currently making a splash in Latin America. The region’s first LatAm Bitcoin conference is taking place at this very moment. It’s no wonder that they chose Argentina as the location of the conference – Bitcoin has long been eyeing South American countries with unstable, inflation prone currencies as fertile ground for new investment. Tradehill comes to mind in both Chile and, in their later iteration, Argentina.

http://labitconf.com/

Mt Gox added support for Latam payments yesterday –

https://www.mtgox.com/press_release_20131205.html

Real estate development in Chile now accepting BTC –

IMO we need a coherent and dedicated strategy for the region. I’ll be putting together potential ideas in the near future and would love to hear from anyone interested in discussing this issue.

I have several thoughts on this – but don’t feel the general discussion area appropriate for some of these ideas. Perhaps a LatAm PM group would be a good venue…

At any rate – let me hear your collective thoughts. Regional focus also applies to Asia, of course.

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Please give this post attention.

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Well, I am actually from Latin America (central/northern Argentina).

In my plans there is a spanish website about Peercoin and other cryptos with a focus on cryptos as a hedge against inflation. I have a domain and a test site set up, but I wanted to wait until client 0.4 release for further efforts because I am a bit worried about PPC development.

And I want to clarify that I am not a die-hard PPC fanboy and so I will not present PPC as the “only solution”. I am also interested in Bitcoin, NXT, eMunie and Namecoin.

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Hey d5000…

Translating Peercoin.net into Spanish and Chinese is a bullet on my list…

And I think it’s great that you’ll be highlighting Peercoin along with other alts on your website.

Dedicated Peercoin regional sites are part of my comprehensive plan, which I have not yet put together…

I do not see Latin America as being monolithic, btw. There are financial stories and an environmental story, each playing well in different parts of the region and among different demographics.

The financial story is divided into parts. Argentina and Venezuela may find alts attractive as an inflationary hedge and perhaps even a way to bypass capital controls in the future (long term view with more crypto development). And to be quite frank, Argentine’s have very few local investment grade options, are accustomed to saving very little, but are very saavy, educated, and open to new ideas. Yes, this is a generalization (please read last paragraph).

Other areas of Latin America are seeing broad secular trends that make LatAm and its relationship to the OECD interesting from an investment standpoint and especially regarding alternative assets (such as our new asset class). I won’t go into too much detail. Basically, the investment side is broken into two units – a rising class of young, moneyed local investors that are increasingly tech saavy and Europeans redomiciling assets locally in the LatAm region (but not necessarily investing locally).

I see capital flowing and structures redomiciling out of Europe (Switzerland, Cyprus & Liechtenstein) into banking jurisdictions in Latin America; this provides potential to get on the radar screens of sophisticated investors with burgeoning ties to the region. I could elaborate on this via PM…

There is also the potential to put Peercoin on the radar screens of the blossoming local start-up communities in various capitals. IMO there is potential to organize grassroots efforts that embrace the environmental aspects of Peercoin in places like México City…and even see it embraced by both social start-up activists and the center-left. Remittances in México is a hot topic, of course…and we should be traded on the countries first Bitcoin exchange - MEXBT.

México City, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and Panamá are all important financial and/or cultural nerve centers that should each be approached differently. A combination of media blitz, political outreach, and others means to raise awareness on the ground and among financial actors is warranted.

What are you seeing in Córdoba?

Tengo muchos amigos de Buenos Aires. Yo vivía en México por muchos años y Panamá por un año y medio. También tengo una maestría en Estudios Latinoamericanos de una universidad famosa en Inglaterra. Soy estadounidense pero además soy de el mundo.

tl:td – The region has many facets and warrants a detailed plan of action. What are you seeing in Córdoba?

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To simplify the last post —

The potential in Latin America is financial and environmental as well as local and external.

Financial –

[ol][li] Local investors & early adopters [early for the region][/li]
[li] Local inflationary hedge[/li]
[li] Local political right…[/li]
[li] Europeans redomiciling in regional banking centers [capital flight, ease of transfer & investment][/li]
[li] Americans redomiciling in regional banking centers [capital flight, libertarian slant, substitute for gold & ease of transfer][/li][/ol]

Environmental –

[ol][li] Local investors, adopters, activists and entrepreneurs [startup community][/li]
[li] Local political left…[/li][/ol]

A primary goal should be to get one big newsworthy event/item in the region. It could an organization willing to accept PPC or an official endorsement. It could mean interfacing politically in some of the countries and generating publicity (environmental parties & groups, etc.). I need to outline a specific plan regarding the above…but this is the very broad, 30000 ft. altitude view.

Lastly, and since PPC is meant to eventually be a ‘backbone’ crypto-currency, financial bullets #4 & #5 are important. I see a few channels worth pursuing to get on the radars of some of these people, many of whom have been aware of and talking about Bitcoin since April. Peercoin needs broadened acceptance on the exchanges first…alts in general provide excellent utility for this segment as long as they can be fairly easily converted.

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I have no problems helping with the translation of peercoin.net, in fact I have offered it some weeks ago, but peercoin.net would have to be converted in a multilingual site.

In Córdoba the cryptocurrency community is small, but growing. Most users are IT professionals. But in the last months first non-tech enterprises have started to accept Bitcoin, one of them is one of the largest (mid-range price) hotels of the city. Some use it as a legal way to acquire foreign currencies without burocratic hassles, but most I know use it simply to save money and speculate.

I don’t understand what you mean with “Europeans redomiciling assets locally in the LatAm region”. How could Peercoin benefit from that?

For developing a mid/long-term strategy which could attract investors I think the transaction fee question (which determines the “backbone vs everyday use currency” question) and also the cold-locked minting problem must be resolved first. For this reason I am waiting for PPC 0.4 and other strategic decisions to happen before I invest more work in PPC-related stuff.

Saludos 8)

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I agree regarding the transaction fee. By ‘cold-locked minting problem’ are you referring to the required encryption necessary to mint?

If BTC makes another massive jump and PPC tracks, the transaction fee will obviously become an issue. And IMO no crypto-currency can skip mass adoption enroute to ‘backbone crypto-currency.’ The network effect, more people using and accepting it, is what provides value. BTC speculation centers upon fact that it will one day be accepted as ubiquitous currency. Without this possibility, PPC would need to rely much more on financial community acceptance as an alternative asset.

This brings me to the answer to your question…'How could Peercoin benefit from [Europeans redomiciling assets locally in the LatAm region]"?

I see a dual opportunity in the region - a rising class of locals with young demographics (probably your friends) and wealthy investors from outside the region and with deep pockets (some of the deepest on the planet) moving their assets from places like Jersey, Guernsey, Zurich, et al., into places like Panamá. This is why all of the Swiss private banks are scrambling to setup shop in Panamá.

These same trust providers know about Bitcoin. If cryptos ever gain mass acceptance, their clients will probably be investing on a large scale if they haven’t already. It would be nice if they knew about Peercoin because I highly doubt they know Litecoin exists or have ever heard of the myriad of other coins out there. If they knew that PPC had properties more in-line with gold their interests would likely be peaked. Basically, it would be nice to get on their radar early just in case this all goes where we think it may…

So to make a long story short – I would love to see Peercoin have its first LatAm conference in Panamá where the speakers would essentially be teaching European private bankers, global trust providers, local political figures (LatAm’s biggest environmentalist may be elected President of Panamá in 2014), and the local start-up community about crypto-currency. Oh, and don’t forget Libertarian expats of which Panamá has many. It would be good press and I could help with the arrangements including lining up some very interesting attendees.

Many on here might not like this slant as it involves bankers and the offshore financial scene – but I’m sorry, if PPC is ever to be accepted as a ‘backbone currency’ aka ‘alternative asset’, it shouldn’t avoid these people. If I just lost the little street cred I had, so be it.

Sorry for all of this financial talk. We can steer this in a different direction…

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For PoS minting you need a hot wallet conected to the Internet. That’s a security risk if we’re talking of PPC worth millions of dollars. The cold-locked transaction feature announced by Sunny King recently would allow to mint with a hot wallet without security risk, as you can restrict the transactions from this wallet to an address whose private key can be hold in cold storage.

Another solution for this problem can be a hardware wallet, based e.g. on the Raspberry Pi platform. But the problem must be solved, because it would be a risk for the PPC network if large holders do not participate in PoS minting.

Regarding to your observations about Latin America, Argentina is exactly the opposite of Panama, it has a weak financial system and because of this people try to escape it investing in cryptocurrencies. In the Southern Cone Uruguay is another country with a highly developed financial industry and is used as a “safe haven” by many Argentines, but i don’t know much about it.

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The Panamanian real estate market is partly driven by Venezuelans and Argentines that have either escaped and moved to Panamá (huge Argentine scene) or moved cash into real estate developments in Panamá. IMO Argentines would be the most receptive to Bitcoins of any local population in Latin America for the reason you mentioned.

Panamá is a very different animal as the local population would not be a target – Panamá is the Switzerland of Latin America or ‘Liechtenstein on a budget’. It’s a jurisdiction for global investors and a good staging ground for the region, which is why multi-nationals base their operations there. And it is very tax friendly, attracts Libertarians, etc. etc.

Uruguay is the most transparent country in all of Latin America, very stable, urban, and has the age demographics of a developed country. México and Colombia have much younger demographics, which is why they are the new ‘BRIC’ countries…

IMO it’s –

[ol][li]Argentina – inflationary hedge[/li]
[li]México – fast growing tech start-up community, environmental awareness (in D.F., at least), and young demographics – they have a local BTC exchange[/li]
[li]Colombia – fast growing investment/start-up community and young demographics[/li]
[li]Panamá – banking industry, regional hub, juridiction for sophisticated global investors[/li]
[li]Costa Rica – might be worth a look?? It is the most environmentally aware country in region (strict regulations), highly developed tourism industry – idea would be for hotels to accept PPC for environmental appeal[/li][/ol]

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I don’t know Costa Rica, but your observations sound interesting …

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How do i buy peer coins? do I need to set up an account somewhere or pay fees to buy?
Is Peercoin Traded 24/7? or is there a specific time you can trade like the stock market.
I have a 2011 iMac standard specs would that be a waste to mine?