Táchira Homestead

Johnangel

Farm Life, Nutrition and Bitcoin

Life on the farm

Nice to meet you all, I’m Jonhangel, the eldest son of the family that currently makes up our goat and sheep farm in the Venezuelan Andes region. Our story begins almost 4 years ago when our Great-Uncle Carlos, who long ago would found an old farm to give his children a home and thus begin his dream of a life in the countryside, decided to retire from agricultural and livestock work due to his age; in exchange for a small construction job, he gave us his last two sheep that we named Clara and Yema, the seed of what will currently be the nurses of a large flock. A year later our grandfather Carlos invited us to live on his old farm so that we could continue his legacy: in that year of 2019 he would teach us everything we know about the care of these friendly animals, including medical treatments, diets for ruminants, milking goats and cheese making among many other things. Some time later our Grandfather Carlos would leave this world for heaven and we were left as successors of his old family farm project; since then we have been actively dedicated to life on the farm, doing the daily chores that a life like this demands.

The whole family united under the same purpose, we came together to never give up on this noble task, we adopted this lifestyle to help our country and also have a freer and more peaceful life.

Over time we acquired a batch of Alpina and Toggenburg breed goats with which we began to produce goat milk in larger quantities to establish a line of organic dairy products that would be added to our selection of lamb meat cuts as an option for the nutrition of families in our region. With a crowded country and hit by the times of instability that have elapsed, today more than ever, the new development of the national agricultural sector in the hands of individual, family and business initiative is important so that all Venezuelan citizens, autonomous and parallel to government robberies, can rebuild the country themselves. A renewed agricultural sector will be the foundation of good health in people, the healthy progress of education and science and the strength of the development of industries. At the farm we manage these two lines of products because they complement each other: dairy production is daily, continuous, which means a cash flow that supports the family and the basic needs of the herd; on the other hand, meat production is reserved for seasons in which a considerable number of lambs meet the necessary characteristics for their commercialization. Despite time, the size of our sheep herd had not yet reached an ideal size to support a considerable lamb meat supply chain and it was then that we considered the idea of raising a fund to increase the size.

Bitcoin, a viable alternative for the world’s farmers

Venezuela and its people are currently going through many challenges to be able to carry out their duties as citizens, among which is the exchange problem within the country, because the national currency, the Bolívar, is totally devalued, making it so Venezuelans then decided to adopt foreign currencies, fiat payment methods and banking tools to try to remedy this terrible evil. 

Venezuela then began to have a large selection of currencies and foreign means of payment that in the short term represent a relief for the economy but with the passage of time they have demonstrated their limitations when it comes to facing the Venezuelan reality and the challenges that citizens face constantly. There are many digital and bank payment methods, but not everyone can open an account with these services without first having traveled and obtaining the nationality of the host country of these banking platforms, so a large part of the population cannot own their own funds. and rely on third parties to withdraw, save or make transactions. 

The exchange houses, managed by people or members of the government, offer the service of providing American, Colombian and European bank accounts so that anyone can receive their funds regardless of where they come from, as long as they pay commissions, fees and benefits imposed by these exchange houses that sometimes scale up to 20% of the money deposited; this is possible because these houses establish the arbitrary exchange value of the currencies they manage. In addition to all this, not all commercial establishments in the country receive this or that currency, so it is sometimes necessary to use these services.

Because of these difficulties, we decided to conduct our own fundraiser using bitcoin.  Throughout it, we gave all our donors a personalized voxel artwork that my brothers and I made with software like Aseprite and MagicaVoxel; we have always been passionate about pixel-based art. The campaign was so successful, thanks to all our friends around the world and also the great support that the Stackchain team gave, that we not only acquired a new herd of goats and sheep to increase our production but also through the goodness of the community, it was so big and strong that we were able to acquire the old barn of our Great Uncle Carlos, where it all began and which is now the home of a whole new herd, the foundations for the future of a family and an entire region.

Bitcoin also offers the ability to be a safe form of savings for farmers around the world, in the face of the rampant devaluation that this part of the hemisphere has suffered, free of commissions or fees for movements, as occurs with ordinary banks. Being this a tool to protect the assets that farmers around the world cultivate with effort and good faith, motivating its adoption is a conviction that we have recently adopted to continue helping more people to protect the fruit of their work and to be able to discover an alternative to conventional exchange houses.

Bitcoin Hacienda: the first proposal for Bitcoin education in Venezuela

Bitcoin has the opportunity in Venezuela to be a great form of universal exchange throughout the entire national territory, if not, at least, to offer a viable alternative to support people and give them greater financial stability in the face of dependence on third parties and the instability of the fiat currencies that flow in the country’s trade: Bitcoin as free, secure, anonymous and without intermediaries are some characteristics that we can highlight. The easy adoption of Bitcoin allows anyone with a mobile phone or a computer to create their wallet without the obligation to provide personal data or go through chimerical bureaucratic processes; all these wallets are compatible because they all work on the same network, so disparities or incompatibilities between these services will not exist: Bitcoin is a single medium that anybody can adopt.

As a family project, as a farm and members of the Stackchain and Bitcoin community, we propose to build the first Bitcoin education classroom in Venezuela, in person and free of charge; we want to teach courses to educate people in our country about the benefits and solutions that Bitcoin has to offer in this busy business landscape. From how to open your own wallet, how to manage your satoshis, how to carry out transactions, about the different Bitcoin networks and how to take them to the field of entrepreneurship, how to educate more people about Bitcoin, among many other topics that this tool of the future has to offer.  If this project is possible, the Bitcoin scene in Venezuela will be able to grow organically and thus it will also be able to reach other destinations in Latin America, where more or less the same problems and injustices with fiat money are repeated. For a few weeks we have been working hard to build the classroom and we are already halfway to be able to finalize its construction and teach the first Bitcoin class in Venezuela. That said, we still need a few materials to finish this work. We hope you will be moved by our project and support us through Bitcoin to promote education and adoption of this fascinating medium.

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Notes from Stackchain Magazine: No one at Tachira was paid for contributing this article. If you were entertained or educated by this article please consider tipping them onchain via the address (bc1qamwuczg30wtpgmndmcwcgmhdwt6l5c0wrvzamx) or via LNURL at (tachirahomestead@pay.bbw.sv). Tachira Homestead is planting the seed of Bitcoin community in Venezuela. Any sats you send will be put to good work.