BizTek Mojo published an excellent article explaining how Bitcoin is helping some businesses in Argentina beat the hyperinflation and capital controls in place there.

Basically, it works like this: A hotel can accept any credit card payment via BitPagos, a Bitcoin payment processor. BitPagos converts the credit card payment to Bitcoins and credits them to the hotel. Then, when the hotel needs the cash, they convert using freelance exchangers, one of whom they follow in the article, at a higher rate than they’ll get from the banks.

In recent months, the claim that Bitcoin is really going to take off in the developing countries first rather than in the developed world where it is currently most popular, has taken a hit. Much heralded remittance businesses have had trouble gaining traction and really competing with established businesses like Western Union. Bitcoin in Kenya and Ghana has also had its set backs as it faces both bureaucratic and institutional opposition coupled with a lack of awareness of the general public.

Stories like this, though, show that there is still life in Bitcoin and that it will only take one killer use case to emerge and Bitcoin will catch fire overnight. For the developed world, it’s my personal opinion that it will take nothing short than another great crash, threatening to wipe out businesses, jobs, and savings, coupled with over-aggressive bail-ins, that will finally turn people en-mass in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is not simple, so it will take an extraordinary push to get it really going. But that push is coming.