Friends of Satoshi, a crypto art collective, recently launched a fascinating project called Zimnote. On the occasion of 9th anniversary of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, this project aims to commemorate the sad day that fiat system brought to the country. It’s a collaboration between five artists from five different countries over the course of six months.
Zimbabwe got independence from the British on 18th April, 1980. At the time Zimbabwe dollar was more valuable than the USD. Thanks to the wheat and tobacco industries, the country was developing fast soon after independence.
Fast forward a few years, the country was starting to hit by hyperinflation at an unprecedented rate. People carrying backpack full of 100 billion dollar bills just to buy some bread was not a rare occurrence in Zimbabwe.
A likely explanation for the situation could be the government printing money in response to a shortage of output, therefore increasing money supply faster than the real GDP. This is where Bitcoin shines. There can only be 21 million Bitcoins.. ever.
Zimbabwe’s Inflation rate:
1980 – 7%
1990- 17%
1995 – 28%
2000- 55.2%
2001- 112.21%
2003-598.75%
2006-1281.11%
2007- 66212.3%
2008-23,150,888.88%
July 2008-79,600,000,000% (per month)
After 2008 it was difficult to measure Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation because the government stopped filing official inflation statistics. Needless to say, Zimbabwean people were the ones that were hit the hardest due to hyperinflation. Such scenarios can still be a reality anywhere in the world. We are already seeing Venezuela going through 800% inflation rate. Fortunately, there is Bitcoin and people in Venezuela have already started embracing it.
In 2009, Zimbabwe officially stopped printing its currency and completely switched to USD by the end of 2015.
At the heart of Zimnote is a collaboration between 5 well-known Crypto Artists from around the world, including:
- Zoran Kutuzović a.k.a. Start the Art (Croatia)
- Satoshi Gallery (U.K)
- Crypto Imperator (Spain)
- Qrypto (India)
- The Bitcoin Penny Co. (USA
The product of this collaboration is a reflection on the Bitcoin scaling debate that in many ways has divided the community. Governance continues to be a challenge that all decentralized OSS projects face. As a symbol of one of Bitcoin’s greatest strengths: diversity of opinion, each unique contribution combines to form a single, unified work of art.
The series consists of 10 notes that have been hand-painted or drawn. Each note contains a fractional amount of Bitcoin. Only 4 notes will be publicly released.
Specifications:
- The series consists of 10 notes that have been hand-painted or drawn.
- Only 4 notes will be publicly released.
- Each note contains 2009 Bits (0.002009 BTC), representing the year of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation and the creation of Bitcoin. Funded on “Bitcoin Pizza Day” 2017.
- Each note includes a custom Qrypto Certificate Of Authenticity.
- Signed by Artists.
- Assembled into protective acrylic slab.
About Friends of Satoshi
Friends of Satoshi is a collective of content creators dedicated to sharing art, music, and culture. They empower creators of all sizes by helping to monetize their creations and aim to be a decentralized marketing solution for Open Source software and projects. They accept Proof-of-Content submissions from all around the globe, and are supported by the community through donations and memberships. They compete with the centralized propaganda.
If you’re interested in buying this magnificent artwork, bid on their first auction!