Bitcoin Forum

 ;D

Wirtland

Estonia!

Finland wasn't a choice. It should be.  :D

I say USA 'cause the Fed will take on any asset to keep their scheme going.

Aw man you got my hopes up with that thread title :(

Somalia, since they don't actually have a government(well they do, but it's more a city council than a government).

and they have "some of the best telecommunications in Africa" according to wikipedia.  In a few years we'll be throwing away our android phones, and they'll be able to use them for bitcoin business.   ;D

Best telecommunications? Really? Is that a joke?

*in Africa* is an important qualifier here, i'm assuming.  I don't know anything about african telecoms.

Definitely Sealand.

Elbonia's more likely, IMO.

Iceland

Because it's small, has a tech-savvy population, a resentment of centralised currencies, and a spirit of freedom and independence.

Is it just me, or did anyone else think this was a news item about a group of native Canadians using bitcoins instead of Canadian dollars? :-)

I'm going to go with Somalia. Apparently Somalia has the best mobile telephone system in Africa, and I can see bitcoin catching on there first. I don't think it'll be good for PR, but it'll be interesting.

Edit: and now that I've seen the results: Switzerland? Really?! The countries with major currencies will be the last to surrender. To my mind, that rules out Switzerland, the UK, the US, and every country in the Euro-zone (I suspect that they might want to dump the Euro, but I equally suspect that they may not have much of a choice...) (Also: Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

Note it says official reserves, but it doesn't say exclusive reserves - i.e. the first country to start strategically hoarding bitcoins, regardless of what other currencies and commodities they may also hoard.  I don't think it's any less likely that would be a country with a major currency.

My thinking is that the countries with major reserve currencies are a club, and won't want to antagonise other members of the club. If the UK, say, started holding bitcoins alongside CHF and USD, Switzerland and the US might be less inclined to hold GBP in their reserves.

However... a mass sell off of GBP could be what the UK government wants, as it'll improve the UK balance of trade. I guess I don't know, I just tend to regard the major reserve currency states are fairly conservative. My money's still on Somalia! :-)

Switzerland already tolerates a non-government currency, albeit a heavily regulated one.

Anyhow, I don't think it will be Switzerland because the Swiss, especially the ones working for government, tend to be very old-fashioned and set in their ways.  They are not exactly on top of the latest technological developments and they are really slow to take up any manner of change.  

One example: I always amazes me how the authorities here still refuse to recognise email as means of communication, 15 years after email has gone mainstream. Even for the most trivial messages they insist on sending snail mail letters, which means that communications that could be resolved in days can drag on for months.  The Swiss government taking up something as whacky as Bitcoin? I don't see it happening. Like most things they will start doing it 10 years after everyone else.

WIR is internal to Switzerland and is "book-keeping only" - there's no scrip. So no foreign country holds reserves of WIR.

it wouldn't surprise me in the least if China was already hoarding bitcoins

What about Singapore?

India is conspicuously absent.

Iceland.

Of all the sovereign nations, Iceland has a highly educated populace, high network access, low electricity costs and high heat needs, a currently weak national currency, and is not (yet) part of the Eurozone (and may never be now).  They also have a small population and therefore an elected government that is very subject to public pressure.

If any nation can directly benefit from openly accepting Bitcoin as an international trade medium, it's Iceland.

I'm with you. How ironic would it be if they backed with btc and it continued to appreciate like mad. Going from a country with a screwed economy to rich as hell.

All that Icelandic geothermal power could make them a mining hot spot, too.

Yeah, crossed my mind too. And they have lots of ice cooled air for cooling too ... land of fire and ice ... and bitcoin miners.

I answered china.
They're putting their dollars everywhere and still can't get rid of them.

http://netrightdaily.com/2011/04/iceland-declares-independence-from-international-banks/ (http://netrightdaily.com/2011/04/iceland-declares-independence-from-international-banks/)

One step towards Bitcoin's adoption!

The points against China are....

1)  They are a large population, and therefore not prone to quick changes in monetary policy.

2)  They are a command economy, and would therefore likely view the rise of an un-managable currency (from outside their own culture, and worse from a Japanese national) with contempt.

3)  They are deeply vested in the international fiat systems due to international trade, and would be wary about losing much wealth with the decline of those reserves.

So is anyone actually talking to officials in Iceland about this idea? If we think they'd be interested, it's worth getting their interest.

Not me, I'm just some guy on the internet. Maybe someone like Bruce who already has his name in print.

Cuba?  Really?

Hot, poor and socialist?  They still have '50s Ford trucks on the road, how the hell are they going to jump onto Bitcoin as a nation even if they wanted to?

I think Baltic states could be perfect candidates. They have small, tech savvy populations and great internet infrastructure. Their economies have been really badly hit and although it returned to growth late last year it is still very unstable. In a long term emigration is a big problem and since Germany opened borders, it will get even worse.

Sure, but all these things also apply to Iceland, and they have a smaller population than most cities, much less nations.

The major difference is that Iceland is in the top 10 on the standard of living chart while Baltic states are in a pretty dire state

And you think that makes it more likely that Bitcoin would be officially recognized?

I think it is more likely to get widely adopted and if it got widely adopted, it would get officially recognized

Yeah, Iceland was the first one that came to mind, they have a populace that isn't stupid (they didn't bailout banks) and they have a currently weak currency. It seems like they would be the most prone to doing this and fixing their exchange rate to BTC.

booo to misleading titles

edited to reflect the poll nature of thread ... sorry if it got your hopes up  :)