EP9: How to Escape Inflation in Turkey (and everywhere else) with @efecini
The Turkish Lira is in freefall and the central bank just cut interest rates by 2 percentage points, making things significantly worse for Turkish people.
This week we are joined by Efe - twitter.com/efecini - a Turkish Bitcoin maximalist, who tells us what it's really like.
Efe was the translator of the Bitcoin Whitepaper into Turkish on bitcoin.org. He's also just about to start a Bitcoin podcast and newsletter that translates useful Bitcoin resources into Turkish, for Turkish people. Check out twitter.com/BitcoinVeDiger (translates as “Bitcoin and Other Things”)
Although Efe was getting a 10% annual increase in salary as a software engineer, he realised he was not keeping up with inflation. Published figures of 19% CPI are not accurate and although unique to the individual, Efe puts his own inflation rate at 40-45% per annum!
He knew he needed to own something, so in 2017 he started his journey through shitcoin trading to Bitcoin maximalism. We discuss how friends were put off 'crypto' because they lost out to shitcoin trading in 2017.
He tells us that Turkish people are fully aware that inflation is there (far better than people who live in ‘strong’ currency countries), but because food prices can go up 10% every month, this makes their behaviour understandably high time-preference.
We learn how Turkish people currently hedge against inflation using the USD and gold, and even how it is traditional to receive gold at your wedding and never sell it.
We also discuss how Bitcoin is portrayed in Turkey by politicians, bankers and the fiat news, and why their personal incentives make them opposed to Bitcoin. There is a great need for a Bitcoin only exchange in Turkey.
The conversation then switches to his podcasting plans, and the experience we have had so far with 2BitIdiots, where we talk practicalities, analytics and platforms.
Thanks Efe. Great chat.
Pod Shout-outs
twitter.com/jakeeswoodhouse (Aussie Based Bitcoiners, Twitter Spaces)
twitter.com/bitcoinbushbash (Bitcoin Meetup)
twitter.com/1971Bubble (Twitter nym)
Contact Us
www.twitter.com/2BitIdiots (here if you’d like to be a Pod guest)
Or visit our website:
www.2bitidiots.com for links to the pod on your favourite podcast app.
Thanks for listening.