For five years the economic problems in my country have worsened, to the point that prices rise daily and, depending on the payment method used, things can be more or less expensive. Luckily, there are cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which uses Lightning Network technology to make transactions with small amounts. Next, I'll narrate how I discovered that I could become my own bank with them.

My name is Javy. During my childhood, things were very well economically on these sides. A professional could buy a house and a car of his own. For his part, an entrepreneur could make a small fortune if his effort and dedication to work were sufficient. Then, political events that I will not mention changed the whole situation.

At first, they began to lack essential products in stores, but we did not give much importance. Then they were distributed again, but we had to wait our turn among a lot of people to be able to acquire them. No matter if it rained or there was an inclement sun, we had to form one behind the other. I will not talk about the delinquency that took advantage of these agglomerations to profit from the need of the people. At that time I did not know that Bitcoin existed.

So far this year, it is not very common to see long lines of people everywhere. Unlike previous times, this is because the products have very high prices. The money here makes water in our hands. In fact, the minimum monthly salary is equivalent to 2 dollars, and with this money you can barely buy two or three kilos of rice.

However, there is the possibility of acquiring some things at a lower price, as long as the person has cash in their possession. In a normal economic situation, having cash is not a problem. However, this fact is what moves me to write these lines: in this country, cash is extremely difficult to obtain .

The banks simply do not give cash to people because they do not have in their coffers, or at least that's the official version. Now the rows of people are made to the exit of the banking agencies to receive only a ticket with which you can pay public transport once or twice. I do not like to use public transport: the lack of water in the city makes passengers smell very bad at all times. The electrical faults, on the other hand, disable the air conditioning of the subways and ... well, I do not like to use public transport.

The only lucky ones who can receive enough money in cash from banks are pensioners, sometimes. On the other hand, the people who dedicate themselves to the informal economy have the highest amount of cash, which they "sell" at a very high percentage.

Since the middle of last year, I got to know cryptocurrencies, by one of my college friends. I started buying bitcoins, because the rate of growth of its price was very promising and I learned to be a hodler . I took the profits obtained and invested them in a textile printing business, which did not do so badly during the first months.

The drop in the bitcoin price that started in January this year was a blow to my savings, but I learned to recover. However, it was not so easy with my T-shirt business: the buyers are only interested in buying food products and I would have to increase the price of my merchandise every day in order to obtain a real profit.

If you accept payments in fiat currency from another country, such as dollars, you would have to use a tool such as PayPal , which in addition to requiring a credit card to hold an account, charges 5.4% plus $ 0.30 commission for each sale made. If I wanted to sell one of my shirts at a cost of $ 4, I would lose 0.51 cents. Similarly, spending that money in the local currency is very difficult, since the pages that allow it to do so also charge a high commission.

A few weeks ago, while I was on one of my trips to get cash, I heard a couple of people talking about cryptocurrencies. This simple fact dissipated my doubts about accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for my products.

After doing a little research in a newspaper in Spanish about news of the crypto, I could find some payment processors that integrate Lightning Network technology and allow transactions by some satoshis (the minimum Bitcoin unit) to be carried out successfully.

Was only necessary to add a plugin to WooCommerce to my web page and ready, the server BTCPay and payment processors allow open source receive bitcoins straight into my purse. I am currently showing the convenience of the payment processors with bitcoins to other merchants and I have already convinced two.

But, to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the use of payment processors is not essential if you are a private individual. In fact, as there has been a strong exodus of people from my country to other latitudes, the sending of remittances is complicated by the strong controls over the banks. People who are abroad can send money to their relatives, and they receive it in their wallets in an estimated time of 30 minutes in the case of Bitcoin, and sometimes in less time with other cryptocurrencies.

By the time they need to use the country's fiat currency, they go to a website called LocalBitcoins , where they can sell the cryptocurrencies in exchange for a commission that varies, but is usually very low. At the moment, I will leave the explanation until this point, since I must go out to meet with people who want to know the operation of the cryptocurrencies as an alternative to the hyperinflation that is lived in the country. I hope that the decentralization offered by cryptocurrencies will help us rebuild our economy. Over and out.