Roger Manuel Benites is a development director at The Blockchain Center, a 503(c) non-profit organization specializing in the education and adoption of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital asset technologies.
I returned to Lima (Peru) in the year 2013 when I was introduced to Bitcoin by my brother Roger Gabriel Benites. It was while living in Argentina that Roger Gabriel was first exposed to a digital currency known as Bitcoin and the inflated premium dollar, “dollar blue”.
The Bitcoin currency network, backed by blockchain technology, empowers the unbanked and the banked alike by freeing them from central banking and unstable national currencies. In 2013, Bitcoin had grown in prominence as Argentina struggled with hyperinflation brought about by financial policies and complex government politics.
It was clear to my brother and me that Bitcoin had the potential to alleviate many of the monetary issues holding back developing economies around Latin America and the globe.
Experience proved to me that economic development was only possible when people could trust their monetary system and the rule of law. It was clear that Bitcoin as a currency and monetary network, which was beyond the reach of challenging politics, could accelerate developing economies.
No other group stood to benefit more from access to the Bitcoin global monetary system than the unbanked, who make up a significant percentage of people in Latin America.
The only question was how best to implement a technology that in 2013 was still so new and experimental.
The primary goal of this technology was to reduce the costs and burdens imposed by legacy systems that control and oversee the remittance payments of the world’s underdeveloped economies.
Bitcoin technology had the potential to move money seamlessly, increasing economic growth in every country that would adopt it and build on top of it.
By having the technological prowess to replace the current outdated legacy financial network known as SWIFT, our nations would save the people of Latin America millions every year by enabling stable remittance payments and real-time currency exchanges.
Remittance companies in Latin America that were subject to hyperinflated currencies, outdated political systems, and high costs were ripe for disruption.
US blockchain Research and Development – The North and South of the Americas
I returned to the US, New York and Connecticut, to continue my research in blockchain technology in 2016 and was able to be part of various blockchain smart contract pilot projects specializing in decentralized finance, real estate, medical, and government applications. My team and I were able to research and develop various blockchain use cases and practical applications for real-world problems.
Much of this research was published as part of a Blockchain education book, titled “Blockchain for Accounting and Business”, written by Saurav Dutta and distributed globally to academic and financial institutions. In 2018, the opportunity arose in Miami to create a Bitcoin center which later evolved into The Blockchain Center.
The Blockchain Center is a non-profit organization developed to facilitate the mainstream adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency technology through political, financial, and media impact projects at national and international levels.
The Bitcoin center was founded in 2014 by Bitcoin pioneer Nick Spanos under the name “The Bitcoin Center”, and was featured in the Netflix documentary “Banking on Bitcoin”.
The Blockchain Center Miami was created in order to form an economic and innovation hub in downtown Miami, attracting blockchain and tech companies from New York, San Francisco, and worldwide.
We’ve had great support from the local city office since the beginning and to this day they have been a strong advocate of cryptocurrency and blockchain innovation.” – Nick Spanos
The initial goal was for the city of Miami to become the “Silicon Valley of Latin America” to increase economic growth, talent development, and innovation.
As the city continues to push cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies in its agenda, Miami is poised to become the most disruptive city when it comes to decentralized government blockchain applications such as voting and public asset management via smart contracts.
Miami is the center for Latin America’s imports & exports, cellular/satellite communications, and, most importantly, Latin American financial institutions that hold a majority of the continent’s wealth.
This positions Miami as the perfect neutral zone for all the countries in Latin America and the starting point for a Latin American union.
From experiencing firsthand the growth of blockchain technology supporters, it became clear that Latin Americans believe in a union that would turn our developing countries into flourishing ones. This can be done by uniting and leapfrogging over inefficient systems of government and money.
