While Bitcoin was simply unleashed upon the world by Satoshi Nakamoto in early 2009, other cryptocurrency projects have had the benefit of raising funds through crowdfunding campaigns before the projects have even launched. Additionally, some projects use part of the block reward to pay for things like development and marketing.
It is thought that these added budgets for promotional activities could help altcoins compete against bitcoin’s network effects, but there is a fatal flaw with this line of thinking.
Bitcash and Dash Projects in Venezuela
On a recent episode of The Coin Pod, Venezuelan product designer Alejandro Machado told host Zack Voell that he is not aware of much bitcoin evangelism in the South American country. However, Machado noted that the Dash and Bitcoin Cash (Bitcash) communities have been quite active in the region.[1][2][3]
“Apparently, I’ve heard, there are some people in the Dash team that have salaries in Dash and basically their mission is to go around and convince merchants to set up shop and start accepting Dash,” said Machado.
These sorts of projects by altcoins are not at all uncommon or new. Back in 2014, the Worldcoin community raised funds for building new water wells in Africa and the Dogecoin community paid the Jamaican bobsled team’s travel expenses for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Even while writing this article, I received a press release regarding a new documentary about Dash’s projects in Zimbabwe.[4][5][6]
It’s obvious that these types of initiatives are designed to promote their related altcoins, and the reality is any cryptocurrency is probably better than the Venezuelan bolivar at this point. According to Reuters, the bolivar is down 98% against the US dollar over the past
