The Czech Republic, a country with 10.7 million people in Central Europe, is known for its beautiful capital (Prague), rich history and good beer. However, over the last decade, cryptocurrency adoption can be added to this list. In fact, the world’s first crypto hardware wallet, Trezor, was invented here in 2014 and still works today. The parent company SatoshiLabs has expanded to create secure chips for electronic devices through Tropic Square and develop crypto education through Invity.
In addition, the country has also created the world’s first Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool, Braiins (Slush Pool), which has extracted almost 1.3 million BTC since 2010. Then there is General Bytes, one of the largest cryptocurrency ATM networks in the world. world, with almost 8000 machines installed. In addition, Alza, the country’s largest e-commerce retailer, accepts BTC purchases and wrote in-depth articles on bitcoin and technology last year.
But what motivated this small nation of 10.7 million people to create a disproportionate presence in the crypto space? In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Joseph Tutik, Staff Economist at SatoshiLabs, explains this phenomenon in detail. Tetek is an ambassador for the wallet brand Trezor, writes for Bitcoin Magazine, and has a master’s degree in economic policy from the Prague University of Economics and Business. Here is what he said:
“In the geographical area that is now the Czech Republic, seven different currencies have been in circulation for the last 140 years. First there was one, backed by gold, and then two types of silver coins [during the Austro-Hungarian Empire]. After the country gained independence in 1918, it was a Czechoslovak crown [crown] with gold standard.
During the interwar period, Czechoslovakia was an industrial center run by the Škoda factory, one of Europe’s largest industrial conglomerates, producing everything from cars and trams to aircraft and military equipment. In addition, it was the only country in Central Europe to have a parliamentary democracy after 1933.
However, belief in the Czechoslovak crown and the country as a whole soon faded after the betrayal of Munich in 1938 – its allies, Britain and France, tacitly agreed with Germany to annex heavily fortified and industrialized territories further from Czechoslovakia. When the country was left without natural barriers to defend itself against the German war machine, it quickly became a puppet state for the first, which changed currency again.
But the restoration of the Czechoslovak crown again did not last long. Immediately after the Allied victory in World War II in 1945, the Iron Curtain stretched from the Baltic states to the Black Sea. Only three years later, the newly independent Third Czechoslovak Republic became a satellite state in the Soviet Union with a new form of crown controlled by the Soviets.
To promote the policies of Stalinism, in 1953 the leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia devalued all personal savings denominated in the krone by a ratio of 50: 1. As Ttic told Cointelegraph:
“Many people still remember this event , and so do our parents and grandparents. In fact, it was theft [of the state] on a large scale. ”
Then, in 1989, the Velvet Revolution took place, which ruled the Communist Party and established the Fifth Czechoslovak Republic. But to begin with, Istiklal did not restore confidence in the new crown. (And Slovakia’s withdrawal from the union in 1993 did not help.) Inflation in the country in the early 1990s remained almost constant at over 10% a year.
As a summary of what attracts Czech people to cryptocurrency, especially because of its decentralized nature, Totik wrote:
“In the Czech Republic, almost every generation changed currency. Therefore, we tend to be skeptical of the formal monetary system. However, together with a high percentage of people with high-quality technical education, factors led to the introduction of cryptocurrency in the Czech Republic. ” .