When cryptocurrencies still represent a world as incomprehensible as unexplored for millions of Argentines, one of the platforms of this type of digital currency announced that two of its clients finalized the first rental contract in the country with this type of transaction. It is the initiatory (at least publicly disseminated) use of the liberation of coins, after the deregulation of the real estate market brought by the mega DNU of President Javier Milei, who -by the way- must have felt rejoicing at the news of the agreement in crypto, since he himself reposted it on networks.
As explained by Fiwind, the fintech that has the protagonists of this story as clients, everything happened in the city of Rosario, Santa Fe, and there was no real estate agency involved. The signed contract states that the platform itself will host the rent transfers, month by month.
The contract is for two years and was set in a stable type of crypto, which has a 1-to-1 parity with the dollar. As it is logical to estimate, the parties, both the tenant and the owner, are young people, the CEO and co-founder of Fiwind, Bruno Perona, told Clarín.
This Wednesday, the international cryptocurrency scene received some great news for the sector, and that is that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enabled ("reluctantly," it is said) the listing on the stock exchange of the first mutual funds that include Bitcoin. However, the cryptocurrency sector is still a segment that receives questions and, in particular, generates mistrust.
To acknowledge receipt of these feelings and check the information of the avant-garde rental contract (in the first instance, disseminated by the Rosario newspaper La Capital), an attempt was made to interview the tenant and owner of the unit, but at the close of this note it had not been possible to establish contact with those people, whose names, moreover, were not revealed.
The first rental contract disseminated so far in Argentina that was advertised in cryptocurrencies.
The crypto platform explained that they cannot reveal the data of their customers, but they disseminated the screenshot of a smaller fraction of the contract entered into between the parties, a text that, Perona clarified, they themselves had asked the signatories "to see if this was real and to be able to accept as justification of funds to the owner." As he explained, "the platform only operates digitally through banks, and the funds deposited have to be justified."
In the passage of the contract that circulated through the media, it can be read that "the price of the lease is set at the sum of Bitcoin (BTC) equivalent to 100 Tether Tokens (USDT) monthly and consecutive according to the price of the payday on the FIWIND platform".
What does it all mean? Below, the details, from what cryptocurrencies are to what Bitcoin means and what, USDT.
Cryptocurrencies for Beginners
Great eminences of the Economy have stated that they do not fully understand the logic of cryptocurrencies and questioned their solvency, but, from Fiwind, Perona was confident that he could transmit, at least, some broad strokes.
"Bitcoin is a decentralized digital asset," he began, alluding to the fact that "no entity regulates it." There is no central bank or any entity that issues Bitcoin; no one to set their price.
In line with the imprint that is precisely driven by the new government in Argentina, the price of crypto is established by the market, master and lord of financial equilibrium, in turn sustained by the most basic law of supply and demand.
And the fact is that if a good is scarce in relation to those who want to have it, its price will rise. Conversely, if there is too much supply of the thing in relation to demand, the price should fall.
Following the latter, one of the few rules in the crypto world is an issuance limit. The established cap is equivalent to 21 million Bitcoin, which is not the first crypto created but the one that leads the market.
As with any other asset, the limitation prevents excessive issuance and obviously the value of cryptocurrencies from being despised, something that Argentines are well aware of due to the seemingly limitless collapse in the value of the peso.
Crypto, Blockchain, and Rental Contracts
The other big rule of the virtual currency world is that "all transactions are recorded on the blockchain, the closest thing to an unchangeable digital ledger." What is it for? "It generates absolute transparency because anyone can check everything that has been transacted," Perona said.
"When you create something decentralized and you don't need a third party to control, the open ledger generates a lot of transparency in the system," he clarified, before explaining the details of the payment currency that the parties chose on this occasion.
"They chose to do it in crypto because they are regular customers of our company. There are no major differences from a common rental agreement. The value was set in USDT, which is a 'stablecoin', a currency that has full 'one-to-one' parity with the dollar. The clearest thing would be to say that they made a contract in dollars, actually," Perona shared.
But, "even though the monthly rent is set in USDT, the landlord in this case said 'I want you to pay me the equivalent in Bitcoin,' because it's a currency that fluctuates and he believes its price is going to go up."
Now, why would two people choose this transaction system for a rental, instead of resorting to the traditional format of the peso or the dollar?
"The owner decided to do it this way because he uses the company and with other modalities he would lose the advantages we give: a daily interest rate (2.5% per year is paid in USDT, which has parity because it is a stable coin)," he said.
In addition, "the possibility of transferring money to someone anywhere in the world and in any crypto, not in 48 or 72 hours but instantly and, in some cases, at zero cost."
Undoubtedly, Perona is convinced of the system he promotes: "In addition, the good thing is that you can pay with QR in any store. You buy or receive the rent money in cryptocurrencies but, if you want, you can pay at the greengrocer or supermarket with our platform and at a better exchange rate than the blue one."
"It is a modality that is going to take a lot of prominence, even to pay salaries," predicted the CEO, and closed: "First, because of the constant devaluation of the peso. But also because, unlike the dollar, this is not the kind of money you have to worry about putting under the mattress."
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