Quote (tonerbond @ Feb 2 2018 03:06pm)
>trust french user that is proud of his nations destruction
>trust venezuelan whos life may genuinely depend on smart investments
Gonna struggle with this one frog
Quote (Happypuppy @ Feb 2 2018 04:17pm)
I went to Venezuela in 2014... flew into caracas, took a bus to ciudad bolivar and then a small plane into canaima. from there it was like a 4-5 hour boat ride to salto angel
if i had more time i would have visited mount roraima too
caracas was crazy when i was there... military all over the place
Indeed. Caracas has become the most dangerous city in the western hemisphere. So they deploy the military sometimes but doesnt really help much to prevent crime. Only the rich zones are safe because that's where the socialist elite live (They also live in the military fort "Fuerte Tiuna") which is totally protected by the military.
Last year I spent some time in Bolivar State (Ciudad Bolivar and Salto Angel belong to this state), but I stayed for a while in a frontier city called Las Claritas and others which are controlled by strong Mafias (known as "the syndicate") with their own armies. The "illegal" gold mining business there is big and is making those frontier cities prosper a lot. Those frontier cities are the only ones where the socialist dictatorship has not managed to touch because the "syndicate" controlling them is very well armed with its own army. They are inside Venezuelan territory (although in the frontier with Guyana) but operate independently, and no socialist policies are applied there for the same reason. I made some money there last year as middleman between the gold miners and the big fish who get the gold out of the city and out of the country, but had to return to my city for personal reasons.
To get there you had to go through dozens of military posts, if they stop you they will search every inch of your personal bags and vehicle to try to find anything that is "illegal" for them to keep for themselves. When you live in a place like this, you get used to these things. And when it comes to making money you don't care either.
And to get back on topic. Mining bitcoins and cryptos here is illegal, not by law, because there is nothing in the Venezuelan law against mining cryptos, but those in power are thugs and criminals so they create their own defacto laws/rules and do as they please. So if the dictatorship with their intelligence services find that you are mining bitcoins or cryptos, through high electrical consumption or by someone informing them, then they enter your house or wherever you have your mining farm, take your mining machines (ie: antminers s9), kidnap you and extort you $10k or $20k or $30k to release you. Then they keep the mining machines for themselves. So, those of us mining bitcoins have to do it secretly and be very discreet. To avoid getting caught you have to manipulate your electric meter apparatus to hide your electrical consumption and be very secretive. But like I said, you get used to living like this. You end up losing fear and just have to be very secretive.
Last december. The dictatorship found a mining farm with 20 antminers. News like these are common, and it's common knowledge that they are hunting down crypto miners.
http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/sucesos/incautaron-computadores-para-minar-bitcoins-lara_215326This post was edited by Golden_Order on Feb 2 2018 05:12pm