In bankrupt Lebanon, locals mine bitcoin and buy groceries with tether, as $1 is now worth 15 cents

When Georgio Abou Gebrael first heard about bitcoin in 2016, it sounded like a scam.

But by 2019, as Lebanon plunged into a financial crisis following decades of expensive wars and bad spending decisions, a decentralized and borderless digital currency operating outside the reach of bankers and politicians sounded a lot like salvation. 

Gebrael was an…