{"id":13858,"date":"2023-10-30T16:17:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T16:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=13858"},"modified":"2023-10-30T16:17:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T16:17:28","slug":"can-bitcoin-fix-this-cointelegraph-cape-verde-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=13858","title":{"rendered":"Can Bitcoin fix this? Cointelegraph Cape Verde video"},"content":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script>\n<p>Cointelegraph recently traveled to Cape Verde, West Africa, to explore whether Bitcoin (BTC) could be a tool for progress.<\/p>\n<p>In the latest on-the-ground video documentary from Cointelegraph, global reporter Joe Hall investigates the remittances market, cash economies, and the challenges and opportunities faced by small island nations worldwide. <\/p>\n<p>Cape Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island nation in the central Atlantic Ocean. Cape Verde comprises 10 main islands and several smaller islets, sitting 570 kilometers (350 miles) west of Senegal, West Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Hall discovers that more Cape Verdeans live abroad than on the country\u2019s islands. Due to its small land mass, it struggles to cultivate and export goods abroad. The islanders of Cape Verde, especially Sal, rely on tourism to stimulate the economy, and relatives living abroad send money home.<\/p>\n<p>The combination of a tourism and remittance-based economy presents multiple issues. Due to the presence of tourists year-round, Sal uses three currencies: the local Escudo, the U.S. dollar, and the Euro, although Hall discovered it\u2019s also possible to pay in British pounds. Mastercard and Visa charge upward of 4% for transaction fees in stores, which merchants often pass on to customers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hall receives \u201cconfused change\u201d \u2014 a mix of euros and escudos \u2014 at the checkout. Source: Cointelegraph<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Western Union and MoneyGram charge customers as much as 15% for remittances to send money across borders. The high remittance costs act like a tax on the higher incomes of Cape Verdean workers living abroad.<\/p>\n<p>The Cape Verde cash economy is also hamstrung by high ATM and bank access fees, as well as strict opening and closing hours. Cape Verdean banks close at 5:00 pm local time on the islands, and during bank holidays, ATMs often run out of cash for withdrawal, presenting further economic hurdles for full-time workers. <\/p>\n<p>Finally, inflation runs higher in Cape Verde than across the eurozone, even though the escudo is \u201cpegged\u201d to the euro. Compared with Western economies, the islands\u2019 incumbent financial systems impede Cape Verdeans from simply spending, saving and sending money the way many Westerners take for granted. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: One man\u2019s plan to orange-pill a nation: Bitcoin Senegal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While investigating these economic issues, Hall met with Renato Evarchi, one of the first business owners in Cape Verde to accept Bitcoin. He shed light on the economic situation and explained how more and more Cape Verdeans were warming up to a borderless, immutable and decentralized internet currency. <\/p>\n<p>To learn more from Hall\u2019s travels in Cape Verde, watch the full documentary above and subscribe to Cointelegraph\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Magazine: <\/em><em>\u2018Elegant and ass-backward\u2019: Jameson Lopp\u2019s first impression of Bitcoin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/small-islands-big-problems-can-bitcoin-fix-this-cointelegraph-cape-verde-video\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cointelegraph recently traveled to Cape Verde, West Africa, to explore whether Bitcoin (BTC) could be a tool for progress. In the latest on-the-ground video documentary from Cointelegraph, global reporter Joe Hall investigates the remittances market, cash economies, and the challenges and opportunities faced by small island nations worldwide. Cape Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitcoin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13860,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13858\/revisions\/13860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}