WRT stolfi, the Brazilian Real is getting crushed (
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=BRL&to=USD&view=5Y) and this isn't the first time. Read about why its called the "Real" -- its a funny story about mass psychological manipulation applied to fiat currencies.
It I had to guess, he or the people setting his political agenda are having a change of heart. His primary argument was always that BTC is too risky, etc and then he gets to watch as BTC basically maintains value (or strengthens a bit) while the Real loses over half its value.
The knee-jerk reaction from people with a political agenda is that owning BTC, gold or other forms of hard money is anti-patriotic. But that idea is silly. Yes it may fractionally and unnoticably undermine the state's immediate ability to print money to cover deficits. Yet these savings could form an important reservoir that can and will be used to keep an economy working even when staggering under high inflation and other pressures (like the price of a prime export falling by 2/3rds).
And this reservoir of savings will be deployed from the bottom up when needed at no cost to the state (i.e. people use their savings during hard times). Ultimately, its just another form of diversification. Central banks already keep reserves of other currencies -- its an impossible argument to simultaneously say that that is a good idea but doing so at an individual level is a bad one.
It could be that TPTB in Brazil are realizing this as they see what is going on in the other south american countries.