Monday, 20 March 2023

I went to the supermarket here in Venezuela and paid directly with Bitcoin

I went to the supermarket here in Venezuela and paid directly with Bitcoin

Hi guys, as you probably know I'm Venezuelan living here.

Yesterday I had the chance of doing some purchases in a supermarket and paying directly in Bitcoin.

This was the purchase:

The purchase (I had purchased some things before, like fruits and vegetables in farmers market and chicken/meat)

You say to the cashier you want to pay in cryptocurrency and their system shows them a selection:

The amount is shown in Bolivares (Bs.) so 725 Bs. so 30 USD (exchange rate is 1 USD 24.2 Bs.)

They say they will add more crypto and BTC LN.

After selecting bitcoin and and continue (Continuar) it shows the amount in bitcoin

So that is, 0.00124813 BTC, yesterday it was very volatile so even when BTC was around 27,200 USD using that rate I paid around 34 USD. Not much sense there, 4 USD more I suspect it s a fixed fee, wouldn't make sense be 10%. After I took the picture he went again there and final price was 0.00124863 BTC.

After that it shows a QR code, you scan it and have to wait for at least one confirmation after you get one confirmation (mine took several minutes) the cashier press payment received and I suppose it checks one blockchain explorer for one confirmation or pending transaction that matches the amount. If it matches it says payment received and receipt is printed.

I noticed each time you press continuar a new QR code gets generated, so new or different address.

I used Trust Wallet and the fee was 1.36 USD.

Receipt is shown in Bolivares, but that is common here even if you pay with USD, Euros or any currency the invoice will be printed in Bolivares.

Experience was good overall, but in this case I paid a little more, something to improve.

You have to remember that here the economy is destroyed:

  • Monthly inflation can be over 10% easily. Being it under 10% is a success.
  • Monthly minimum wage is 130 Bs. (less than 5 USD, this purchase was 5x monthly minimum wage), average monthly wage is 120 USD.
  • Since 2007 14 zeroes were removed from the currency, so this 725 Bs would have been 72,500,000,000,000,000

Thanks for the support to all redditors. Any question let me know!

submitted by /u/WorkingLime
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