Building Blockchains Secretly in South America

Blockchain could bring technological revolution in Latin America said Mario Blacutt, NULS core developer and Nerve Network founder, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. Blacutt revealed his thoughts on the region’s blockchain environment and the hurdles he faced after former Bolivian President Evo Morales banned cryptocurrencies in 2014.

Blacutt, who recently revealed his real name to the public after having hidden under the pseudonym “Berzeck” for several years,” said blockchain technology will “undoubtedly” spark another decade of a technological revolution in Latin America.

Crypto adoption in Latin America “will likely accelerate”

He said the sooner governments realize crypto’s benefits, the better will be for their countries in terms of adoption. “Berzeck” further commented:

“In Latin America, crypto adoption is relatively high for a few reasons, but mostly, people don’t trust their financial systems, and now that a global recession is looming, people do not believe their banking system will hold. So, crypto adoption will likely accelerate. A few countries may seize current opportunities and try to spearhead blockchain development, but it is still too early to know which countries may take the lead.”

The NULS core developer said that the good news is that “more and more people are starting to understand the potential,” and it’s getting safer to acquire crypto, but highlights that there are some exceptions like Venezuela.

Latin American Socialism vs. Cryptos

Taking the case of Bolivia’s anti-crypto stance towards under Morales’ government, Blacutt elaborates on if he believes that both crypto and blockchain concepts are compatible with Latin American’s state philosophies: 

“There was a socialist wave in Latin America, and usually, those governments strive for obsessive control and centralization to have a tighter grip on the economy and stay in power. Crypto operates in the exact opposite direction. Consequently, LATAM missed a golden opportunity to drive adoption and attract international investment companies. Fortunately, many of these governments have shifted power and things are starting to look better.”

Since blockchain technology is open-sourced and developed in a decentralized way, “Berzeck” says that it presents a “very rare opportunity” for Latin America and other underdeveloped regions to openly compete at the forefront of blockchain development.

But Blacutt warns that cryptos in general, not only in Latin America, is still seen as a means to “get rich fast,” and states the cryptos are speculative assets, “because we are not even close to showing its grossly huge potential market.” He adds:

“Understanding blockchain technology in order to implement efficient solutions is not trivial, it is complicated. In fact, many interested companies that contact us are interested in blockchain technology, but they don’t have any idea on how to map their business processes to the blockchain. That’s the biggest obstacle, which will take years to improve. Latin America is not exempt from these problems. It will depend on individual governments to try tackle blockchain problems to accelerate adoption and make the transition smoother.”