> Is there any evidence government cronies are mining Bitcoin en masse?

I'm not quite sure why people who have contacts in the government would need/want to run bitcoin.

If you do have reliable contacts, the best way to make money (as I understand it) is from import/export fraud, as well as exchange rate trickery.

Bitcoin seems like it's something you can do without government contacts.

The main point is that you need to be holding a currency that isn't the bolivar, because the year-over-year inflation rate is something like EIGHT HUNDRED PERCENT as of Dec 2016.

USD, Bitcoin, commodities, food ... anything has better return than that.

800% is soooooo 2016. The International Monetary Fund is planning 1600% for 2017. http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/07/19/congratul...

Yeah. I think the point I was addressing is that if you had government contacts, you wouldn't need bitcoin.

You'd be squeezing your contacts for hard currency, which is simultaneously more lucrative and easier than mining bitcoin. Bitcoin is for people who are locked out of official exchange rates.