Photo: (Freddie Collins via unsplash.com)
The Venezuelan economy is tanking. There's hyperinflation, hardly any food in the shops, and with oil accounting for about 95 percent of export revenues, falling oil prices are having a devastating effect on the country under the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Now, taking advantage of practically free power, thousands of resourceful Venezuelans have started mining the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in order to survive.
Rene Chun covered the story for The Atlantic.
"In Venezuela, home to some of the worst hyperinflation since the Weimar Republic, a Big Mac costs about half a month’s wages. Or rather, it did, until a bread shortage forced the burger off the menu. The annual inflation rate is expected to hit 1,600 percent. Life resembles an old newsreel: long lines, empty shelves, cashiers weighing stacks of bills."- Rene Chun
