2026-06-05 –, Hall 1 / Sala 1
Since 2023, I have been doing grassroots Monero onboarding in Caracas, Venezuela — a country with hyperinflation, capital controls, and government surveillance of financial transactions. This presentation share real findings from three years of field work: onboarding 50 to 100 individuals and integrating more than 15 local merchants accepting XMR.
I cover three areas. First, the methodology for introducing Monero to university students and merchants who never use crypto before, in a context of limited internet and deep distrust of financial systems. Second, why Monero privacy features are not abstract in Venezuela — they are a direct response to real government financial surveillance. Third, the honest challenges: merchant attrition, liquidity barriers for XMR-to-local-currency conversion, wallet UX problems in low-bandwidth environments, and social stigma around cryptocurrency.
The presentation conclude with a replicable framework for grassroots Monero adoption in economically restricted countries of the Global South.
Telecommunications engineer, 38 years old, based in Latin America with active grassroots Monero adoption projects in Venezuela since 2023. My work focus on bridging the gap between privacy-preserving cryptocurrency and real-world adoption among non-technical populations in economically restricted environments. Native Spanish speaker with professional English proficiency. I have participate in cryptocurrency conferences in Caracas and organize community-driven initiatives that combine privacy education, merchant integration, and freedom technologies. My background in telecommunications give me a practical understanding of the connectivity and surveillance challenges that users in the Global South face when trying to adopt private, decentralized financial tools like Monero.