Crypto Concern

[Ruta Otto]

Lip service to the IMF, perhaps?

Argentina’s government would 'discourage' crypto usage under proposed IMF deal

Argentina’s government has signaled it will discourage the use of cryptocurrencies as part of a nearly $45 billion debt restructuring deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is under debate in the country's Senate.

www.theblockcrypto.com

 

[Redpossum]

Senate just passed the bill approving the IMF deal
56 in favor
13 against (all FdT, apparently)
and 3 abstentions

It's annoying to read the usual lying BS about crypto being suppressed "to prevent money laundering and other activities."
Yeah, "other activities" like paying the rent and buying groceries. And, no, obviously I am not saying you can do those two things directly with crypto, but it's a way for us expats to move the money here so we can convert it to cash and do those things.

 

[Quilombo]

I get why they want to discourage it, the reality is lots of people use it here for all sorts of nefarious reasons: narcotrafficking in Rosario, programmers working remote here not wanting to pay taxes or pesify, rich Argentines wanting to move/keep assets abroad to hide from AFIP, cryptomining taking advantage of cheap electricity, etc. but simply discouraging the use of crypto won't change/stop these things from occurring; if a place doesn't have Coke, you get Pepsi instead - there's always another way.

What I find funny is the government and IMF think this is possible, in Argentina of all countries. What are they going to do, pull the trading license for exchanges? These exchanges are the reason AFIP is finding people who are using crypto for money laundering in the first place. While crypto isn't 100% anonymous (people seem to forget that public ledgers/the blockchain are public for a reason, to give people confidence/trust/the ability to authenticate transactions between wallets/exchanges) Argentina is probably one of the countries with the highest percentage of people who have ever made a blackmarket transaction. If the legal exchanges go away, or get further regulated, they're just cutting off their nose to spite their faces because people will use digital caves where the pesos or dollars converted from/to crypto never enter the financial system, have no KYC regulations, and no records are held. Hell, even if they raided a digital cave and threatened the owner/operator with prison they literally can't help AFIP/BCRA if they wanted to.

Again, Argentina is trying to reinvent the wheel instead of solving a problem that is completely self made and imposed. While narcotrafficking won't ever go away, you can eliminate capital flight and tax evasion by transitioning to a market based exchange rate regime, or, if thats too much of a shock, a dual monetary system where productive sectors such as the campo/tech access dollars for their purchases at the BCRA exchange rate, and their income remains forcibly pesified, but at the CCL exchange rate instead. If it's okay for tourists to do this the BCRA doesn't have a leg to stand on for why people should be forced to accept anything less for their dollars. But I digress, monetary policy was never Argentina's strength.