Is Cryptocurrency the Fuel for Civil War in Venezuela?

Venezuela, located in the heartland of Latin America, is one of the most oil-rich countries in the world.

Since 2015, the country has been in the grips of one of the most drawn out economic downturns of any major nation since the beginning of the 21st century.

The country has seen its GDP drop to negative 16.5 percent and the rate of inflation surpass 10 million percent, putting it firmly into the same realm as that of the Weimar Republic at the end of the First World War.

Whatever the factors at play, one thing is clear, the current economic situation is having a direct impact on the now impoverished population of the country.

A decrease in currency value has resulted in the country being unable to secure import contracts to acquire imported goods, resulting in stores that are running out of stock for necessities on a daily basis.

On Feb. 9, 2019, ABC News showed the world the shocking image of a man who had been captured at the border trying to smuggle baby formula into the country.

In their desperation, citizens are making use of cryptocurrencies to handle their transactions and make life more manageable within the country.

An increase in the use of digital currencies, the most common of which is Bitcoin, has led to a significant regional price increase-a common economic situation when demand is much higher in a specific area, with many seeing the same trend in countries such as Zimbabwe through 2018.

It should be noted that the weak United Nations will inevitably be unable to do anything due to the differing opinions of the EU/US and China/Russia blocs, meaning that any tabled resolution for support from either side will be unsuccessful, leaving the predictable groups of countries to back a side; a playbook the world has become more and more familiar with as it has been used since the Cold War between competing ideologies.

With this complex external situation in play, the factions within the country itself would only have one way to turn, cryptocurrency.