Kaká Furlan and Carol Souza are the partners behind UseCripto. The project, created in 2019, consists of transmitting educational content about the cryptocurrency market, with a greater focus on bitcoin. It currently has over 83,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel, and over 65,000 on its Instagram profile (@usecripto).
The difference is that the content seeks to explain the most fundamentalist part of cryptocurrency, and its benefits as a means of payment. The flag raised by them is the usability of digital currency. O Crypto Times spoke with both of them to understand more about the challenge of convincing Brazilians to pay for their purchases with cryptocurrencies. Check out:
Money Times – Is Brazil making progress in accepting cryptocurrencies?
Carol Souza – It is advancing a lot in terms of discussing and debating the subject. And of course, because bitcoin and crypto are growing more and more. It is no longer possible to ignore these ecosystems, as was done in the past, when the Central Banks ignored them.
Currently, we see this movement of people in several countries to protect themselves from inflation. We see this in Venezuela, Argentina, Zimbabwe. In countries facing inflationary or hyperinflationary processes, people end up resorting to attempts to maintain their purchasing power. We’ve seen a big inflationary process since 2020.
Furthermore, I note that the narrative of the Central Bank itself has changed a lot. Until last year, there was a position of not regulating bitcoin, and not much was said about it. All focus was on PIX and CDBC [moeda digital do Banco Central, na sigla em inglês].
This year, we’ve already seen a movement of “okay, let’s regulate as an investment, but it’s not a currency”, and finally, in recent months, we’ve noticed the president of the Central Bank saying that maybe they can regulate as a means of payment.
So that’s slowly changing. We don’t have a notion of time, but what I’ve observed is that what we think will take a long time ends up coming much faster, as is happening with El Salvador.
MT – When can Brazil have a digital real?
Carol Souza – I believe that the deadline for the Brazilian CBDC, the digital real, is 2022. Maybe it will go until 2023. But I believe that this regulation should take place in the next one or two years. Because, if the Brazilian government is going to launch a CBDC, it will probably already guide the entire position of the Central Bank in relation to cryptocurrencies.
Another point is that central banks can regulate cryptocurrencies, both as investments and as a means of exchange, but that does not prevent people from using them in a decentralized way, with decentralized portfolios. I believe this will be a big challenge for global central banks, not just for Brazil.
In El Salvador, for example, there is a government movement to create a lighting portfolio [tecnologia que permite realizar transações mais rápidas com criptomoedas] to enable access to people. I believe we will see different strategies from each Central Bank.
Some will stay in regulation, in the sense of providing ways for people to use cryptocurrencies. That’s what we see in El Salvador. Others are going to curb them, like China. Perhaps, more open central banks, which encourage people’s innovation and autonomy, will allow the population to use this technology to maintain their purchasing power, survive inflation and have more freedom.
MT – What will be the main triggers to encourage the adoption of bitcoin as a medium of exchange?
Kaka Furlan: EThere are two important points. The first is usability by entrepreneurs. We realized that these movements of a greater number of entrepreneurs accepting bitcoin in their businesses happen in the “bull runs” [movimentos de compra de criptoativos].
This happens because the subject is very much in evidence, and there is a greater interest in investing, as well as in accepting and adopting as currency.
In this “bull run” we are in, we still have that stimulus that is El Salvador. People are seeing what is happening in this country, are excited and are encouraged to accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
The second point is the economic one. In this case, there is the perspective of the entrepreneur, and also the population, regarding the economy.
In Brazil, as people understand what bitcoin is, they will definitely buy it and keep it in their own wallets as an asset to protect against inflation, like digital gold. I believe it will be a natural process. In our view, education would be the best way for bitcoin to reach people
MT – Are countries and people more open to cryptocurrencies?
Carol Souza: I think all this is a reflection of the economies themselves, and the economic management of the Central Banks. Bitcoin and the Covid-19 crisis opened wide the need for digitization of economies. We see a process of monetary expansion from several central banks, and people are starting to become more aware of this.
In addition, the market is starting to accept bitcoin as a store of value. Gold has been a store of value for millennia, and bitcoin is only twelve years old. The market, corporate investors and top managers are starting to talk about bitcoin as a new store of value. In fact, I thought it would take longer, but it’s coming very fast, driven by the coronavirus crisis, and the need that monetary expansion has caused.
Governments had no other tools to deal with this problem, and they started creating money out of thin air, which is reverberating in the inflation we see now.
This exposes all the weaknesses of the fiduciary system, of government currencies, and precisely the need for a currency, a store of value and a medium of exchange that cannot be corrupted or expanded at the will of the rulers.
It is very curious to see, at this moment, that many skeptics, who have been saying for years that bitcoin is not a store of value, are starting to back down.
Bitcoin has withstood all attacks, such as the China ban or claims that it is a bubble, and it has been one of the best assets, not only in the last decade, but also in this crisis that happened in 2020. All this showed for the market, and for the people, that it is very strong.
MT – How was creating UseCripto and defending bitcoin as a means of payment?
Kaka Furlan: We already had another business as partners. At the same time, we were studying bitcoin and crypto and, in 2019, we decided to set up the UseCripto project, very focused on usability.
As we were entrepreneurs, and we already had a business, the first thing we thought was: “Okay, this [bitcoin] it is an investment and it is possible to diversify the portfolio, but we can also use it as a currency”.
It was a very natural process for us as entrepreneurs. We have already automatically thought of this aspect. We went looking for information, and we didn’t find content about it.
There was very little content about bitcoin as a means of payment. Most, in the gringa, were more focused on value reserves and here in Brazil there was almost none. It was very oriented towards speculation and trading.
Every study of the macro scenario was very important, and the fact that we arrived with the usability flag raised at that time resulted in a very strong maturation. This helps us a lot in educating people.
It was really crazy that at the time, from 2019 to mid-2020, we did a lot of lives and talked to a lot of people, always raising the flag of usability.
We were criticized many times. Several people told us openly that they didn’t believe in the usability of bitcoin. We were very firm on that. We always believe that bitcoin is, in fact, a currency.
So, for us, this year is surprising us in a very positive way. With everything that’s going on, there’s nothing more to discuss in this regard. It was a very positive feedback, even for us, as a project and as people.
I am an author at Global happenings and I mostly cover automobile news. In my time working in the automotive industry, I have developed a keen interest in the latest developments and trends. My writing skills have also allowed me to share my knowledge with others through articles and blog posts.
