1/ An absolutely incredible story out of Venezuela today. @theairtm, a @Coinbase funded digital currency exchange, has been elected to redistribute $18M in US government seized corruption funds of the Maduro government back to 62,000 healthcare workers in Venezuela.

2/ @jguaido, leader of the opposition in Venezuela, repeatedly recognized AirTM’s efforts in a press release yesterday and outlined their plans for airdropping censorship-resistant digital dollars onto Venezuelan healthcare workers through their platform. https://twitter.com/jguaido/status/1296616192145154048?s=20

3/ How will AirTM achieve this you ask? AirTM operates a censorship-resistant P2P exchange from Mexico City where its primarily Venezuelan users haved logged in to trade Bolivars and Bitcoin for digital US Dollars for years.

4/ As a result of this redistribution campaign, the Maduro government yesterday blocked access to AirTM from inside of Venezuela. However, just as quickly, Venezuelan activists were creating educational resources on how to access AirTM despite the block. https://twitter.com/vesinfiltro/status/1296564174198276102?s=20

5/ This story ushers in a new era of geopolitical brinkmanship as certain countries make available their own currencies and financial infrastructure to the citizens of other countries en masse. #Defi isn't the story this year, #OffFi, or offshore finance, is.

6/ The average user on AirTM isn't a 1%'er in the West testing out new smart contract protocols on Ethereum, it is a middle to lower class worker in Venezuela preserving their wealth, ten dollars at a time. I saw this with my own eyes working with AirTM in CDMX last year.

7/ This trend of #OffFi has been documented by myself, @nic_carter, and @jp_koning recently in our research on the global trend of “Cryptodollarization” and “Bitcoinization” in emerging markets. https://medium.com/open-money-initiative/latin-american-bitcoin-trading-follows-the-heartbeat-of-venezuela-71a28cb86ba0

8/ Much can be learned by witnessing how these once walled national monetary gardens are being penetrated by new technologies such as the internet, encryption, and cryptocurrency. And it will be doubly educational to see the degree by which the Maduro government can resist this.

9/ In summary, I just want to take a moment here to acknowledge the fact that in 2020, the major opposition leader of a country is voicing support for and relying upon a Bitcoin-aligned company to distribute aid and achieve political reform. How far this has come!

10/ Shout out to the heroes at @theairtm and other P2P exchanges like @paxful, @localbitcoins, @localcryptos @hodlhodl, @bisq, and others who are on the ground in emerging markets bringing financial services to the underbanked.

#HeroesDeLaSalud