Cubans living abroad use crypto to help locals

[ad_1]

Some Cubans protesting their government are turning to cryptocurrencies to get donations to people in need.

Residents of Cuba began protesting the government earlier this month, highlighting an economic embargo on the country and the rapidly worsening COVID-19 crisis. Cases nearly doubled on July 9, with positive results reaching 6,422 after just 3,664 the day before. Matanzas, the most affected province, has recorded half of the cases.

On Twitter, the hashtags #SOSCuba and #SOSMatanzas have become hot topics in different parts of the world.

Seeing what was happening in Matanzas, local entrepreneur Thais Liset began to brainstorm ideas to help his compatriots in this province and decided that donations would be the best option to address the lack of medical supplies and food.

Along with Cuban YouTuber Frank el Makina, Liset enlisted the help of Erich Garca Cruz, one of Cuba’s leading crypto influencers who runs projects like BitRemesas and QvaPay, two companies aimed at facilitating the influx of funds and dollar collection by Cubans using cryptocurrencies. .

Following the request, Garcia Cruz created a temporary account within QvaPay to receive donations without any commission.

“All transactions are public so everything that happens in real time can be audited,” he told CoinDesk.

The cryptocurrency initiative seeks to receive money from Cubans abroad. Crypto offers the easiest and fastest way for individuals to donate, said Garca Cruz, who added that Cubans in Cuba were the biggest contributors. The initiative also authorized Cuban fiat transactions in Cuba, although the number of cryptocurrency transfers is higher, he said.

Many Cubans living abroad did not have accounts in crypto exchanges, Garca Cruz said.

These are friends who live overseas who don’t know much about how to mine for cryptocurrencies, so we walk them step by step on how to buy on Binance or Coinbase, Garca said. Cruz.

According to Garca Cruz, transfers in dollars are prohibited because an embargo imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in the United States punishes the banks that carry out these operations.

However, he said some European banks are not covered by the ban and that private money transfer agencies such as VaCuba and FonMoney have been created to circumvent US sanctions.

FonMoney, for example, receives transfers in euros, pounds sterling, Mexican pesos, Chilean pesos and Swiss francs. It then offers conversion to Cuban pesos or US dollars and remittances to accounts in Cuba or prepaid cards, according to its website.

Cubans do not have access to Visa or Mastercard products due to the US trade embargo, while Western Union, the world’s largest money transfer service, suspended transfers of US dollars to Cuba in November at following the latest Trump administration sanction.

Additionally, a decline in the tourism industry caused by the pandemic affected Cubans who had dollar income on the island.

In June, Cuba announced that it would temporarily stop accepting bank cash deposits in dollars, arguing that U.S. sanctions restrict its ability to use that currency abroad. Bank transfers will continue to be available, the government said.

The initiative

According to Garca Cruz, $ 2,000 has been raised so far, and crypto donations primarily help Cubans who do not receive help from relatives overseas.

Another crypto company that has joined the donation initiative is Slyk.

“It can be used in Cuba by people who want to collect donations with any payment method, from Venmo to bitcoin,” Tim Parsa, CEO of Slyk, told CoinDesk.

The donations will be used to buy medicines and masks to help Cubans in Matanzas and other towns.

The head and representative of the Slyks community in Cuba is Camilo Noa, one of the ideologues behind the crypto donations.

“So far we have purchased medicine, masks, alcohol, hand gel, chlorine, food, personal hygiene, clothing and other supplies. Donations have been delivered to people, hospitals and isolation centers, ”he told CoinDesk.

According to Garca Cruz, no system or institution oversees deliveries.

“It is about the Cubans to help the Cubans, to be united and transparent with those who need it most,” he said.

Liset provides updates on its Twitter account on quantities purchased, prices, and to whom crypto donations are being provided.

After the government started arresting protesters, donations to Matanzas were suspended because people did not want to leave their homes, Liset said.

” Everything was fine. With special permits, we ourselves sent medicines, medical supplies, food, ”she said.

Donations are currently intended for healthcare workers and patients in the so-called Covid-19 red zone in Matanzas. However, that could change in the future, as Garca Cruz hasn’t stopped receiving requests from different provinces in recent days.

The Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba, recently created by opponents of the regime, issued a humanitarian crisis statement on Saturday, calling the health situation in Matanzas “chaotic”.

“The chaos is total,” Garca Cruz said.

According to local opposition media 14ymedio, dozens of complaints have been filed about the collapse of the health system, the deaths of patients at home, lack of drugs and medical supplies and poor care.

In response to the role of social media in the protests, the regime began cutting internet service.

NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, posted on its Twitter that social media and messaging platforms have been restricted since Monday on public internet provider Etecsa.

Cuban sources confirmed to CoinDesk that there were internet outages. In some cases, sources took up to a day to respond to Telegram messages.

In this context, cryptocurrency transactions are also “significantly affected,” Noa said.

As seen in QvaPay’s public ledger, no new donations have been registered in the past two days. According to Garca Cruz, this is happening because of internet outages and many people couldn’t even use their wallets. “To this we must add that there is a lot of political fear,” he said.

Outside the system

According to Garca Cruz, the most common cryptocurrencies used for donations are bitcoin and USDT, although the platform also accepts litecoin, tron, and bitcoin cash, among others.

Once crypto donations are received, they are traded on the black market for fiat and then used in MLC stores Spanish acronym for convertible free currency where products can be purchased with foreign currencies, added Garca Cruz.

After angering part of the population, several of these stores were recently looted.

Over the past year, the number of MLC stores has multiplied across the country and concentrated the majority of food and basic necessities. However, the majority of Cubans do not have access to it because they do not receive their salaries in dollars or euros.

On January 1, Cuba ended its dual currency system by eliminating the convertible peso (tied to the US dollar) and leaving the Cuban peso in circulation, sharply devaluing the Cuban peso, which now trades at $ 0.042.

However, Garca Cruz said the black market exchange rate is higher, 60 Cuban pesos to the dollar, while cryptocurrencies are traded at 50 Cuban pesos due to a supply factor and request.

Noa said most Cubans do not understand the use of cryptocurrencies and those seeking help prioritize getting money to buy the food and medicine they need. Garca Cruz, however, estimates that there is a large crypto community of around 200,000 people in Cuba.

[ad_2]