Gabriela Melendrez: in Bolivia, we will not stall with the cryptocurrency ban

Key facts:

• The founder of BMB was included in the Latin American Blockchain Alliance.
• He admitted that opening a bank account in Bolivia is still complicated.

Even though the Government of Bolivia maintains the prohibition measure on the use of cryptocurrencies, enthusiasts such as Gabriela Melendrez Alaro, founder of the Bolivian Mind Blockchain (BMB) collective, believe that such action should not serve as an excuse to remain stuck, rather, They evaluate it as an opportunity to face the promotion of these types of assets as an effective way to diversify the national economy.

Melendrez Alaro says that for a year he has focused, through BMB, on promoting talks to reduce the lack of knowledge about the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Similarly, in the matter of regulation, it has promoted the debate of a text called “Alert on illegal financial activity”, in which the Authority of the Financial Supervision System of Bolivia specifies the different frauds and urges the various illegal activities that are They are originating with cryptocurrencies, according to the entity's point of view. In his opinion, this restrictive measure, far from frightening users, has rather managed to capture the collective interest in the advantages of this ecosystem.

Indeed, CriptoNoticias approached her to comment on how it began in the world of cryptocurrencies. In this regard, she explained that in 2014 he made a degree project to obtain his degree, in which he made a study of the use of bitcoin for small microentrepreneurs in Bolivia.

(...) was when the government resolution was precisely issued, which limited me to analyzing real cases. For example, my family works on decorative clay pottery, which has good acceptance outside Bolivia, there it could be commercialized in cryptocurrencies. And that is where the primary approach of my project goes, that is, it is valid that goods and services can be traded in cryptocurrencies.

Gabriela Melendrez Alaro, founder of the BMB collective.

At the discretion of Melendrez Alaro, opening a bank account in Bolivia is very complicated due to the same prerequisites, not to mention that interest rates are high in commissions paid for transfers between banks in different countries. "For this reason, the use of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies would promptly and safely boost the Bolivian microeconomics", she emphasized.

He clarified that she did not start in this world of cryptocurrencies in order to trade. However, she did admit that what attracted him most was the issue of decentralization as a currency and the possibility of being able to sell and buy without intermediaries.

Although cryptocurrencies in the world are not regulated by any state agency, their use would benefit small businesses, since it would avoid intermediaries, which would save time and costs of the transaction, thanks to the peer-to-peer system. Gabriela Melendrez Alaro, founder of the BMB collective.

The initiatives focused on the use of Bitcoin, Ethereum or Nem that are currently being promoted in Bolivia, are due to the fact that “irregular processes are known in certain 'paperwork', where those who have the most privilege are privileged, which results in poor transparency in the processes It is there that we promote the technology associated with blockchains, so that they are efficient and transparent before Bolivian citizenship”, said Melendrez.

A decade from Bitcoin

Bitcoin is already ten years old, and Melendrez Alaro rules out that there is some resistance or skepticism in the region to use this cryptocurrency. “I think that to a certain susceptibility by the norm, at least in Bolivia, that limits the use of currencies not regulated by the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB)”, he suggests.

However, she believes that bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies are becoming an option against the banking system. "Today these options have become a way to send money with cryptocurrencies and then perhaps monetize for the currency of the region", she said.

According to their experience, the benefits of using bitcoin would bring Bolivians the ability to manage their own capital and businesses and businesses to make much safer and more flexible operations that provide liquidity, because they would not be subject to any type of commission, which is what which banks usually do to execute transfers.

“So, with these digital currencies, we would not need any type of intermediary, which would facilitate the realization of any financial movement because of it uses a decentralized system, unlike fiat money, the value of cryptocurrencies could not be manipulated at whim of a few”, she said.

Higher education

Melendrez Alaro thinks that Bolivian society requires more financial education. "Bolivians should be aware that digital currencies are becoming more popular, as they are within a decentralized system whose activity is not regulated by any public body", she said.

Currently, a considerable number of different cryptocurrencies are managed throughout the world and each one of them has a particular way of operating, which would allow the Bolivian to adapt better, according to his requirement.

It is now known that the use of cryptocurrency in Bolivia is illegal, however for Melendrez Alaro that has served to pay special attention to the dynamics of the cryptocurrency market in the country. In detail, he believes that the focus has been to observe the uses of bitcoin for educational and proof of concept purposes.

"What has seduced me about bitcoin is the technology behind it. And since then I have been seeing the scenarios in which they are being applied", she said.

Regarding the desirability of regulating the management of cryptocurrencies in the Latin American region, Melendrez Alaro said that if the presence of cryptocurrencies as a system is analyzed, which does not respond to governments and if the utility that It gives the user who needs to export a product if a regulation is necessary, “in addition to the rule being modified in favor of being able to use these crypto-actives, the same region can be doing its proof of concept so that it is not outside the economy digital".

On the other hand, the founder of BMB does not believe that blockchain technology is a simple fashion nor is it the panacea in the digital economy and governance systems.

In his opinion, the blockchain ecosystem does not solve all the problems but it does help as an ally to offer more efficient public services.

This technology can restore the confidence of the investor and the user in those processes where there is vulnerability of information hosted in the cloud. That is why blockchain technology is also considered as the Internet of value. Gabriela Melendrez Alaro, founder of the BMB collective.

BMB balance since its creation

From the perspective of Melendrez, the balance of the work of Bolivian Mind Blockchain since it was founded in October 2018 until the present has been positive, since the meetings initially had the objective of informing the population that bitcoin is not Blockchain, as well as giving to know the properties of this technology.

So far this year, and thanks to the support of the Cultural Center of Spain, he stressed that the number of people interested in knowing about the digital economy is growing.

We believe that Bolivia can be part of this great global movement and we believe that sharing information should not be limited and more to the contrary we must open doors so that more people can have an idea and that this is the beginning of a great adventure the development of applications with Emerging technologies. Gabriela Melendrez Alaro, founder of the BMB collective.

Looking ahead, he said that the expansion of Bolivian Mind Blockchain aims at the realization of specific objectives, such as achieving greater education and thus spreading it to the local industry, “we want the processes to be transparent and efficient, to help us with concrete development and world. We believe that emerging technologies, in this case Blockchain, will help us achieve that goal”, she said.

Expectations increase and now more than the founder of BMB, Gabriela Melendrez Alaro was included as coordinator for the Bolivia node in the Latin American Blockchain Alliance, an organization in which actors from different countries that focus on sharing related information about this technology participate emergent.

"We are happy to be part of the blockchain alliance and from now on we must begin to refine different activities that allow us to prop up the knowledge and effective use of the digital economy", he said.

SOURCE: Criptonoticias