Bitcoin and financial inclusion

Latin America has been recognized as one of the most complex economic regions worldwide.

The Latin American continent has different financial challenges, such as high inflationary economies and a lack of financial inclusion, among others.

Inflation is usually characterized as one of the biggest structural problems within the region's economies, with currency depreciation resulting in a loss of economic capacity for the residents.

With high levels of lack of financial inclusion, It is estimated that only 55 percent of young adults, a number of around 207 million people, have access to a  bank account in Latin America.

In some countries, like Argentina and Venezuela, most consumers choose to have their savings in US dollars to fight the inflation rates.

Antonio Palacio, Managing Director of Bitsa Card, said: “Cryptocurrency has been helping millions of people worldwide by bringing them access to a new financial world"

During the last years, cryptocurrency has been helping millions of Latin Americans by bringing new tools to tackle inflation, among other economic problems.

One of the clearest examples has been the case of Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency was born in 2008 as the first cryptocurrency worldwide, proposing an economic system based on no intermediation over operations and decentralized scenarios.

The pillars behind this new system are decentralization, non-intermediation and privacy.

Within this new financial scheme, transactions are carried out directly between users without the intermediation of third parties such as banks or financial institutions, among others.

Bitcoin is much more than an investment asset. This new asset is changing various schemes of traditional economies as a new payment asset, sending remittances abroad and playing a very important role in financial inclusion throughout Latin America.

While opening a bank account in a financial institution can be tedious and requires navigating the bureaucracy, Bitcoin offers the possibility to millions of users throughout the Latin American region to access a new financial and monetary scheme based on no intermediaries during transactions.

Beyond offering users an alternative to traditional bank accounts, BTC also works as a store of value and doesn't depreciate as fast as fiat money. It also works well as a remittance channel, providing fast and secure remittances instead of having to rely on traditional money transfer agents. This benefits Latin Americans who work abroad and want to send money home.