Bitcoin Forum

If or when bitcoin becomes well known, in addition to working to destroy it, the state (any state) could try to make its own coin to compete.

This would of course have to be different from bitcoin in some way, otherwise there will be no point in it, and it would not have a hope of being a success anyway.

The statecoin would of course have some benefit for the state. For instance half the block reward goes to the state, or half the fees, or a percentage of each transaction. Even better, centralized, so the rules could change.

I have not seen any hint of this yet, but it is possible that at least the idea would be thrown in by some politician.

So if you see something like this, please bump the thread. (Comments also welcome of course).

I forgot to mention the political arguments:

"It is immoral to use bitcoin, since it is terrorist/pedofile/prostitution/narcotics/criminal/human-trafficking/gambling money -- use our statecoin in stead and save your soul."

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12642.0;all

There are a couple other threads out there too with the same idea.  Sorry I'm too lazy to find them. 

Cool

It's an interesting idea.

Let's say the US Govt decides to replace dollars with "LibertyCoin". The mint is shut down and NSA takes over responsibility for currency. All coins are pre-mined so the Govt can start trading them in for paper money. All blockchain mining is done centrally from a variety of secure locations around the country. With govt resources behind the mining pools, double-spend is virtually impossible, and Congress would declare messing with the blockchain to be High Treason to make it even less appealing.

Now, in LibertyCoin, all transactions have a 5% transaction fee that go straight to the govt coffers. You get your paycheck, the govt gets their cut automatically. You buy coffee or pay your electric bill, the govt get their cut.

If you set the % transaction fee correctly, there would no longer be any need for sales tax, income tax, payroll tax, corporate tax... nothing. No tax returns to file, no audits, no refunds, nothing.

Invest in PatriotCoin--the only coin legal in America!
Do you like freedom?  Don't let the terrorists win!  Use PatriotCoin!
According to a recent study, nine out of ten Americans use PatriotCoin.  Why aren't you?
PatriotCoin: think of your children.

Egh.  What if the first-worlders try to outlaw accepting Bitcoin then?  It can't stop people from using it, but it can certainly stunt its growth by pressuring businesses to avoid it like plague, lest they suffer the wrath of Go--I mean, be tried in a court of law.

Also, with the advent of the so-called World Bank, I wonder what they'll try to do to squash the world currency.  Fight fire with fire?  EarthCoin?

This would open up a black market for trading LibertyCoin privately. The money could be sent to a trusted party who gives you back a ticket saying how much money you have in the account. Call it a bill. Then you can give this bill to someone else. Now you have transferred the value of the bill without incurring a fee.

That was a good one :D

...
U talkin bout fiat?

A percentage of your income, applicable sales of goods, capital gains, and dozens of other things go to the state.
It is totally digital; most of the world's USD money supply is numbers on an Excel sheet on Ben Bernanke's laptop.
Ben "mines" the Statecoin using a complicated technique in Microsoft Excelt wherein he enters values into a cell. And when necessary he prints paper money so that it can be accepted by merchants.

See? Statecoin already exists.

The fiat's most useful incarnation is a demand deposit account with a debit card, but it is not really consisting of secret codes, so I thought Statecoin could be a useful new development.

Nah, the only secret code involved is the password to Helicopter Ben's laptop where he enters the new QE numbers into the balance sheet
(Hint: his password is "12345")