Bitcoin Forum

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-01/greek-finmin-greece-will-adopt-bitcoin-if-eurogroup-doesnt-give-us-deal

I think it would be a dreadful idea, and it will never happen, but that is pretty interesting that people in positions of power are actually thinking about adopting Bitcoin!

I realise now that Zerohedge is an American website, so it is before midday there, thus this is probably an April fools joke.
It's quite dry for an April fools though, but I guess that is more likely than that they are actually considering adopting bitcoin.

Sorry.

Yes there is no doubt this is a joke, probably the author has some btc and hopes to create a price jump.  Sad but btc has turned into kind of a joke considering most people only use it for anonymity when dealing online and hoping the price sky rockets again

https://mobile.twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis (https://mobile.twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis)

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/311gfc/in_a_plea_bargain_former_dea_agent_agrees_to/

Is this 1st April joke?

YUUUUP!!!

Already saw this posted, nice joke, I wish it was true but Varoufakis will not take that risk, that takes more balls that they can afford unfortunately.

no the bitcoin 2.0 thread is, this section now is an april fool joke

but greece should really adopt btc like everyone else

and amazingly, bitcoin didnt even move up 0.5%

if greek finance minister had said gold would back their new currency, gold prices would have spiked.

bitcoin dead in the water

beside the april fools jokes, the idea itself isn't that bad. but can't see any country giving up their old fashion system.

Yeah it's only an april fool

I was to say something along of how greece can afford to even adopt it, with its failure to repay.

but then I noticed the april fools joke as well lol.

If that was serious though, that would be something to see. Even the thought of that, maybe the greece can take a hint and say "hey why not use our leverage and market this so can pay back our loans through cashing out through bitcoin".

Today is just a bad day for news credibility in any form.

Maybe this was a test field? With this varoufakis is getting reactions and seeing what would happen if he actually said that, im pretty sure he is paying attetion to what is being said even if its a joke.

Well good luck for bitcoin users in Greece. I don't know what kind of pros and cons it will bring but hope it can do some good for the bitcoin community in there.

Yeah, April Fools day, but the idea is awesome and also that Varoufakis has Bitcoin on his radar is nice. It could be interesting to buy an amount of €1-10m just in case...

He has been learning about bitcoin and even said this about it:

One of the better April Fools Day jokes I've seen this year, although there were quite some good one on reddit, has anyone seen those? Yeah, they should just buy a small amount just in case this goes to the moon. Just imagine Greece being the richest country in the EU :D

Bitcoin cannot be printed limitlessly, so Greek will try its best to avoid.

Even though April fools joke, BTC, payments and buying is too complicated to become an currency in an country. How can an old grandma do transactions (buying food in the market) with BTC so easily as she can do with her paper money?

And even though I own Bitcoins, I am the guy who wants to hold his wealth in his hands and not as some digits on an paper. As I asked the bank 3 years ago about gold, they were going to give me gold on an savings book. I am the guy who wants to hold the gold bar in his hands. I dont want some paper that says "you have so much virtual gold on your account".

that is exactly the point, Bitcoin has a lot of homework to do before even thinking of mass adoption.
It is a long long road from here where we are atm.

Why other people just take bitcoin as a joke :( Bitcoin isn't a thing that is related to something bad. We should make it connected to some good things.

It's definitely a April 1st joke, that's not gonna happen, monetization is a big part of country right that is important as army, they will never abandon their right. Don't be serious.

April 1st joke aside, there's as much chance of a country adopting BTC as its national currency as there is of adopting Apple/Google/Msoft shares as it's currency, but that doesn't mean it won't become a popular investment just like the above shares.

It has so much more potential than any of those shares though.  It could creep through the financial soil like fungi, without being even noticeable from the surface.

At the time being though its use is so limited in terms of beign able to use it daily.  Yes there are big companies that use it, but how often do you need a new Dell?  or shop at overstock?  I mean yes it has potential, but for the time being its relatively worthless compared to these multi billion dollar companies stocks

No any response from Greece... It must be 100% a joke now.

Because its still mega new. But all it takes to accept bitcoin in your shop is
1) Getting an address
2) Printing the QR and putting it on the desk so people can scan it and pay you

DONE! How fucking amazing is that. Imagine all the paperwork you would need to start a business the traditional way.

Bitcoin is going to be such a fucking success that people is not even able to grasp what we are dealing with yet.

NO, stop lying.
First, your bitcoin will someday be hacked either from your server wallet or from your exchanger's account.
Second, you need an auto generation/confirm system to make different address for each client which lead you to point one.
Third, all the paperwork you need to do with shady exchangers are huge.
Fourth, just go accept fiat from bitpay like everyone else please.

Greek will not adopt bitcoin. You have to work to earn bitcoin, it cannot be printed.

How im lying? You can make an address in a cold storage wallet in your house (will NOT get hacked), then use this public address to accept BTC on your shop. Whenever you need BTC get it out of your cold storage, whatever amount you need (just like having a safe with cash, and putting the money you need for the day in your wallet, in this case in your smartphone etc).
You can use a mixer after extracting money from your cold storage for more anonymity, before spending it or moving it elsewhere.
You don't need to rely on third parties. Bitpay doesn't need to be the new monopoly to accept payments, fuck that.
As for exchanges, there will be a day where you don't even need to convert to fiat because everything will be easily done thought BTC. If you still some fiat for whatever reason, you can get it using LocalBitcoins if you don't want any paperwork. Problem solved.

That is actually a very intelligent comment. The main problem would be how Greece would even adopt Bitcoin to begin with! I mean, they would have to get everyone to have a certain amount of BTC to get things going. I don't think this is feasible in any way, other than maybe the population deciding to only accept BTC.

This is actually a global problem. Whenever I talk to people about Bitcoin they tell me "how to get them"? They can't fathom is just another currency, that it would be as stupid as saying, "how to get japanese yens"? or something like that.
They aren't interested if its not free money.

I think their reluctance of paying money for BTC is due to the relatively high risk still associated with holding BTC. If you are traveling to Japan you are also effectively only exchanging your local money for Japanese Yen! Those Yens also don't just grow on trees or are being magically converted from USD or EUR...

thats pity that it's still so far away from true

People see BTC as an investment rather than a currency because of the promise of it's value skyrocketing in the future, which makes it more difficult to waste on frivolous stuff unlike fiats.

I think the biggest problem for BTC acting as a currency is its high volatility, which can't be denied! Right now people are hesitant to spend their BTC they bought a a higher price - which is understandable. But I think people unfamiliar with BTC don't invest in it because they are afraid of losing their money. They don't know enough about Bitcoin.

Yep, you guys are right... A state can't really go and adopt Bitcoin, they need to distribute the money somehow, and they can't do this with Bitcoin. Just think of it this way: A state may want to use Gold as money, but it doesn't have any reserves and is already bankrupt. How are they supposed to get their hands on the gold in the first place???

Well, they could invest in a serious mining operation and use that money to distribute it.
Also jobs would get paid with BTC.

If the cost of mining is higher than buying, then they should buy. The Greece is too hot.

With the same logic, it is clear that the state does not want gold as money, either. Historically, when gold was used by kings, it was because gold already was money. But they might want gold backed money, where they control the backing. It has two advantages for the state 1: All gold will flow to the government and 2: The gold backed money can be devalued at will. Only private money, denominated in some weight, gold or gold backed, but in that case with no central bank guarantee, will work (as sound money).

How could that possible? They can easily publish they will adopt Bitcoin as currency. Does it give them any help to ease the burden of large amount of debt and the collapse of their institutions?

On what day are pensions and government salaries due?

Well, what alternatives does Varoufakis have at this point? What seemed a joke to me, doesn't seem that much of a joke anymore. It's clear they are stuck in a permanent loop of negotiations that never go nowhere, so they'll either end up disappointing all the country by getting fucked by Troika, go back to drachma, or start a crypto based economy.

they have a high debit, and you are proposing for a big investment like that? it does not sound so smart

the only way for them now is to ask for more fiat at the BCE, and maybe then they convert a portion of this in bitcoin, by buying it directly, without all the hassle of the mining

they can use those bitcoin to move their economy(trade) with extra eurozone countries, in this way they could at least avoid the typical convertion rate with two fiat system

The negotiations are already over, we are just watching a complete circus to keep things more or less stable until july, then things will have to come to the surface, and it's either more austerity measures for Greece or leaving for the drachma/god knows what else.

I agree, they can't invest in any mining operation. Following that logic, you would always make money by investing in mining operations or mining bitcoins yourself. The mining gear "arms race" of last year and end 2013 has showed us that buying coins is cheaper. And if they aren't able to just buy the coins, they also won't be able to invest in any mining operation.

To the question: How will a goverment aquire the bitcoins to use in a country? Well this is the whole point of bitcoin, they can't just by magic start with an amount of coins. Every coin has to be taxed to get in the hands of the government. When they tax, the public will want to know what the tax is for, thus limit the government.

This is also the answer to: Will a government adopt bitcoin as the currency of a country?

But then - in this hypothetical scenario - the whole country of Greece would be left with no money at all for the people to use. If the left the Euro, the people would have no money whatsoever. Sure, they could keep their Euros, but the government would have to introduce a "better" currency in order to get them to use that instead. I don't know if this would work with Bitcoin.

Bitcoin will not solve the problem for the greek government, no money type will - they are insolvent! They will have to default and start anew, with a smaller government. For individuals in Greece, bitcoin is useful.

I agree, I also believe that Bitcoin wouldn't solve their problems. And I was merely raising concern as to how Greece could actually adopt Bitcoin if they wanted to. And I continue to believe that they couldn't adopt it. Individuals could very well try to hedge their holdings and savings by using Bitcoin!

Greece is on a serious dead end right now, the political movements that once were supporting Syriza are now seeing what they have on store if they follow their steps. Only if they do something incredibly risky and revolutionary they will have my respect, because the alternative is continue getting buttfucked by Merkel's Troika.

Either/or?  Try all 3.  Although you could argue that Greece started the fucking (by taking low interest loans they could never repay) and knew it:

http://imgur.com/rViiGrI.png (http://imgur.com/rViiGrI.png) (for the mythology-challenged the coin pictures the rape of Europa by Zeus... you've gotta admit, the Greeks have panache  :D)