Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin can help less-prosperous nations build stronger economies: Tim Draper

http://uncovercalifornia.com/content/2393-bitcoin-can-help-less-prosperous-nations-build-stronger-economies-tim-draper

I think bitcoin could really devlop in some of the third world countries. Imagine if one of them fully adopts bitcoin because of their failing economy or currency? It could really drive and spread adoption when/if people see how well it's being implemented elsewhere.

I think guys like Draper are talking their book
It would take a monumental recalibration of the regulatory regimes in most developing nations for btc to really serve the under-banked

Not easy! The developing countries have central government and own its fiat currency. The bureaucratic government wouldn't accept another new things to interfere existing system.

Your cell phone becomes your "bank" and regulatory regimes are obsolete.
I understand the world isn't that simple, but when fiat keeps collapsing, then BTC can take over.

Long time away from fiat world imploding though
Cryptos need to find their niche and hang in there until the time is ripe

It almost happened in 2008. The key is for crypto currencies to be widely known and used before the next big crisis happens. It would be a lot less painful if we have a ready made economic infrastructure in place. It would not take much to push things over the edge for a lot of western economies. 

Yes, the fiat world is on very thin ice. One example is the riots in Greece and the fact that while they protest "austerity", the Germans are feed up and tired of bailing them out.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nSTO-vZpSgc/S9TyzoL32XI/AAAAAAAAITE/hZl8NKP-6kE/s400/greek+riots.png

http://www.survival-spot.com/survival-images/greece-riots2.gif

All it takes is for that kind of thing to spread to a few other countries and you could get a system wide meltdown. The Euro would then probably drag the dollar down with it.

I think China would collapse first because they're blind by "nationalism".

Their whole economy is just a bubble.

In 2011 (IIRC) when the Euro was close to collapsing the dollar was seen as a safe haven and money flocked to the dollar and US treasuries.

Countries would need to be developed enough to have wildspread internet access, and enough education(more than the formal one) to understand bitcoin and how to use it, and have a well organized society, enough to rise an economic power parallel to the state.


I see few to none poor and develping countries with all these factors. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is people not formal education - education about finance,  for example, and civil organization. Most countries have protests, but asking for the state give them more money or benefits, not for more freedom to let them pursue their own goals without having the state in their way, and without having to pay a f*kton of taxes. No way that a stateless distributed tech can do much for a society in that situation.

Good point. Such an event would be good for the dollar in the short term, but a rise in value would make our debt worth that much more in real purchasing power. For a debt laden country that uses quantitative easing to prop up the currency it could make things ugly.

"Draper recently made beat 44 rival bidders ..."

Uh oh.

Yeah for real? 44 Bidders?
So at least 44 large investors wanted those bitcoins?

yeah some of those 44 were just putting in ridiculously low bids though on the off chance they could pick up some cheap coins.

True, but we still don't know the bids for ~40 bidders, including the winner, so focusing on the few ultra low bids is kinda pointless.

We know close to a dozen bids and all were ultra low or part of a syndicate(ultra low volume).
That is all the data we have. To assume that most of the rest of the bids were high isn't out of what we know but what you want to believe.

It would just make it easier/cheaper to import goods that we buy as we have a trade deficit. This would allow us to allocate more capital to repaying our debt

TIL that your guess based on limited data is better than mine because... it just is.
awesome.
PS: we don't know the syndicate bidding price, either, so we really don't know jack shit.

Great article- really explains how this would happen.

I read an article about Bill Gates stating that 9 African Countries currently use mobile bank accounts more than bank accounts.