<story><title>Man who robbed bank to get his own money back hailed as national hero</title><url>https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/11/armed-man-holds-beirut-bank-staff-hostage-demands-savings</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>NikolaNovak</author><text>If I understand the core underlying issue (as opposed to downstream result) is a currency that lost majority of its value through volatility.&lt;p&gt;Who can look me in the eye with a straight face and say bitcoin protects against volatility? That bitcoin &amp;quot;protects exactly&amp;quot; against mismanaged economy and corrupt government?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s become my mantra but I swear people on HN don&amp;#x27;t understand how crappy life can get, how oppressive governments can get, how many rights and things we take for granted can be taken away by thugs,  and believe a super high tech complicated software stack can magically fix it. sorry if that sounds harsh, but you know what, it is also harsh to listen to hungry angry oppressed people and constantly claim &amp;quot;bitcoin can fix that for ya&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>fossuser</author><text>People mock the value of BTC a lot on HN, but it’s this exact kind of risk that it helps protect against (if you self custody).</text></item><item><author>usr001</author><text>Lebanese here. To answer some of the questions in this thread:&lt;p&gt;- No, Lebanon does not follow Islamic Banking.&lt;p&gt;- No, people can&amp;#x27;t make wire transfers anymore. All bank accounts are frozen, you can&amp;#x27;t withdraw your own money. You have to beg and wait in line for weeks to be able to get a tiny amount of your account to be able to buy bread etc.&lt;p&gt;- The local currency collapsed, lost more than 90% of its value. If the bank decides to give you some change (from your own money), they play money conversion tricks so that e.g. your account is down $1,000 but you get $100 only.&lt;p&gt;- This person did not &amp;quot;rob&amp;quot; the bank. He tried asking the bank for money because  his father (and some people said his child as well) were in the hospital, needed medical care, and for that the hospital needed money. He had $210K in his account, but the bank kept kicking him away in previous attempts to appeal to them. He came back with a gun, and held hostages. Negotiated until they give back $35K, to his brother who was waiting outside. Then he surrendered without hurting anyone.&lt;p&gt;- He is now in bad health because he&amp;#x27;s on a hunger strike after they arrested him. (In the negotiation they promised him not to arrest him, but of course they need to make an example out of him.)&lt;p&gt;- Why is this all happening? Bad economic and financial policies for 40 years, rampant corruption. The economy was unproductive, but they kept the local currency subsidized, as it turns out by just spending the money that people deposited in the banks. And it&amp;#x27;s all gone now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>RestlessMind</author><text>&amp;gt; Who can look me in the eye with a straight face and say bitcoin protects against volatility?&lt;p&gt;In 5y, 1 USD went from 3.44 Turkish Lira to 17.94; Sri Lankan Rupee collapsed overnight from ~200 to ~360 per USD. Argentine Peso went from 17 to 134 per USD in 5 years.&lt;p&gt;I can easily look you in the eye and say that for countries with shitty governance and poorly managed economies, Bitcoin is a far better bet than their local currencies. So far, a common alternative was USD but after it was demonstrated that even a nuclear armed country like Russia can lose its USD reserves overnight, I think a lot of countries would be looking for alternatives. Bitcoin and Gold are credibly neutral alternatives.</text></comment>
<story><title>Man who robbed bank to get his own money back hailed as national hero</title><url>https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/11/armed-man-holds-beirut-bank-staff-hostage-demands-savings</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>NikolaNovak</author><text>If I understand the core underlying issue (as opposed to downstream result) is a currency that lost majority of its value through volatility.&lt;p&gt;Who can look me in the eye with a straight face and say bitcoin protects against volatility? That bitcoin &amp;quot;protects exactly&amp;quot; against mismanaged economy and corrupt government?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s become my mantra but I swear people on HN don&amp;#x27;t understand how crappy life can get, how oppressive governments can get, how many rights and things we take for granted can be taken away by thugs,  and believe a super high tech complicated software stack can magically fix it. sorry if that sounds harsh, but you know what, it is also harsh to listen to hungry angry oppressed people and constantly claim &amp;quot;bitcoin can fix that for ya&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>fossuser</author><text>People mock the value of BTC a lot on HN, but it’s this exact kind of risk that it helps protect against (if you self custody).</text></item><item><author>usr001</author><text>Lebanese here. To answer some of the questions in this thread:&lt;p&gt;- No, Lebanon does not follow Islamic Banking.&lt;p&gt;- No, people can&amp;#x27;t make wire transfers anymore. All bank accounts are frozen, you can&amp;#x27;t withdraw your own money. You have to beg and wait in line for weeks to be able to get a tiny amount of your account to be able to buy bread etc.&lt;p&gt;- The local currency collapsed, lost more than 90% of its value. If the bank decides to give you some change (from your own money), they play money conversion tricks so that e.g. your account is down $1,000 but you get $100 only.&lt;p&gt;- This person did not &amp;quot;rob&amp;quot; the bank. He tried asking the bank for money because  his father (and some people said his child as well) were in the hospital, needed medical care, and for that the hospital needed money. He had $210K in his account, but the bank kept kicking him away in previous attempts to appeal to them. He came back with a gun, and held hostages. Negotiated until they give back $35K, to his brother who was waiting outside. Then he surrendered without hurting anyone.&lt;p&gt;- He is now in bad health because he&amp;#x27;s on a hunger strike after they arrested him. (In the negotiation they promised him not to arrest him, but of course they need to make an example out of him.)&lt;p&gt;- Why is this all happening? Bad economic and financial policies for 40 years, rampant corruption. The economy was unproductive, but they kept the local currency subsidized, as it turns out by just spending the money that people deposited in the banks. And it&amp;#x27;s all gone now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>max59676</author><text>&amp;gt;Who can look me in the eye with a straight face and say bitcoin protects against volatility?&lt;p&gt;Can you really say with a strait face that you think BTC&amp;#x27;s volatility is worse than literally losing your bank account with all it&amp;#x27;s content?!&lt;p&gt;People who live in places like the US forget that the average fiat currency has a lifespan of roughly half your life expectancy (37yr irrc).</text></comment>