Venezuela Reportedly Accepting Bitcoin (BTC) As Payment Option for Passport Renewals and Extensions

Venezuelan citizens who are abroad can reportedly use Bitcoin to pay for passport services.

According to BTC transaction images posted on Twitter by Ronny Martinez, an engineer who hosts an academic YouTube channel, the Venezuelan government is allowing Bitcoin as a payment option for passport renewals and extensions via its online immigration platform SAIME (Administrative Service for Identification, Migration and Foreigners).

While SAIME has not officially confirmed Bitcoin as a payment method for passport services, images from the online portal show BTC as an option along with an upcoming tab for payments via credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Credit card payments were previously accepted but appear to be unsupported at time of writing.

SAIME allows users to complete their cryptocurrrency payments in eight minutes. The notice reads,

“Dear user, you selected payment with cryptocurrencies. Please keep in mind that you will only have 8 minutes to complete the transaction, so we recommend that you have your payment method on hand and facilitate the process without problems. Thanks for your understanding.”

Venezuela’s different payment options for government services, which appear to come and go, highlight the country’s economic woes and ongoing struggles with hyperinflation.

Bitcoin transaction volume in Venezuela on peer-to-peer crypto exchange LocalBitcoins has continued to soar, reaching an all-time high for the week ending June 6th with 997.7 billion bolivar.

According to data tracker Coin.dance, 959.1 billion Venezuelan bolívar were exchanged on LocalBitcoins for the week ending June 20, up 4.41% from 918.6 billion bolívar for BTC the previous week.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Magic Wand

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