Bitcoin Forum

...what changes would need to be made?

Cryptocurrencies are terribly unstable and volatile, how would this be addressed?
What other barriers may need addressing?

You would have to issue physical bitcoins backed by a reserve.
This is the only way to have bitcoins used for day to day transactions.

I think only a country with large surplus and substantial assets would be able to do this.
They can protect their citizens from volatility to a certain extent.

With respect, I'd have to decree this statement to be nothing other than Hogwash. Jking.. Just wanted to use the word hogwash

Why would they need to use physical coins? And why would the coins need to be backed by a reserve?

wouldn't that turn a decentralized currency into one that is bastardized just like the USD?

digital is the way forward friend. lets not take 10 steps backwards into the darkages here



If an entire nation were to adopt bitcoin, then so much money would flow into bitcoin that you wouldn't know what to do. This alone will stabilize the currency. With respect, the citizens don't need to be "protected" by anyone. That is some defect that has been implanted into your mind by your western government.

We don't need protection sir

When the cryptocurrency system is robust and extensive, ppl recognize the benefits by adopting it and the merchants tend to price their provided goods and service in bitcoin, it is the time the price of bitcoin will stable without consideration the inflation factor of fiat.

I don't think any country would do this by dumping their own fiat currency, which means they lose the authority of issuing cash and a method to adjusting the economy(print as many cash as they like to get rid of debt or enrich themselves). The reason is that the production of bitcoin is scheduled and the issued number of it is fixed, no any third party can control it.

Cryptocurrencies will not replace fiat until they are no longer unstable. This kind of volatility is not able to be addressed economically

It has to be Bitcoin. The world would have been so much better.

Technically I don't how that could be made possible. currency of a nation is tied up to the state of economy, natural resources, political stability and things like that. if based on crypto concept where everyone could mine and own a portion or a share of a country, what would that mean? If a country is at civil war or experiencing trade deficit or in a state whereby the natural resources have completely depleted, would that value get reflected in the crypto coin??? Certain concept of distribution has to be worked out but definitely not POW

I do not think that cryptocurrency can replace national currency, because many people like to buy with cash, and they will not accept any other more developed way, like crypto. Look what is going with credit cards - not all people are using them.

Yes you're right, and not all people understand about digital money/ crypto currency , especially when their money is stolen or scammed, sure they are very panic ;D

Bank notes used to be "backed" by (redeemable for) gold or silver.  Technically speaking, there's no reason why bank notes can't be "backed" by BTC.

It would have to be physical, and fiat. So it really makes no sense to do so.

nation-states uses their currency as a tool for economic engineering, why even consider relinquish this? they'll never do it voluntarily

Well, you should try buying a hotdog off a vendor of the street without physical coins and see.
Then you would get an idea.

If it is backed by a reserve of bitcoins, then you know that all the government can't issue physical coins at will and that there is some control on inflation.

It would likely be incremental.

A city in Australia is starting to accept Bitcoin as payment for city services.

It would likely happen like that. The city starts accepting it. Then set a phase in time of when they would fully use bitcoins.

They would need to use multi-sig keys for spending in the way that their bank account might require city officials to approve something before the treasurer goes ahead with the transaction.

I think it's too soon cryptocurrency to replace fiat national currency.

There are very very long ways before that happen.
The government have a very much reason to decline bitcoin as national currency.

I don't agree. BTC price  is stable enough last few months.

Why would you? You can make physical bitcoins or paper wallets ie notes yourself.

i think it's hard cryptocurrency replace a fiat national currency...

BBC suggested that Zimbabwe could use their awful currency situation to try out crypto.
Apparently they now use the USD, but as it is only physical money, it is getting so heavily used that it is literally falling to bits..

I would love if somewhere decided to 'go for it' and use bitcoin, but I think it would be a difficult thing to do.

Many countries do not have their own currency. Countries that use the euro don't have their own currency.

you need to distribute it better, to everyone, not early adopter that can manipulate the price every day, nothing like that

but it may not be enough

I think another question to complement the thread is whether there's a country whose infrastructure is ready to take up cryptocurrency.
Rural areas with no internet connection is a challenge to implement crypto. I can't imagine how my kid would ran errands to buy something for me from a mom and pop store.  :)

If people can think of a feasible solution to this, then we should see in the near future crypto replacing fiat national currency.

Adoption should begin with the masses - fishermen selling their haul for the day, vendor selling fish in the market.  :)

Duh? In the Euro case, the economic engineering is centrally planned and applied over all countries in the euro zone.

In areas where there's little or no internet or electricity, surely sealed recyclable tokens containing Bitcoin private keys of various amounts could be used and distributed? Different shapes and colors could be made depending on value, so that different values can be recognised as easily as is the case with national currency. If you wanted to spend a token online, you'd simply break the seal and use the private key.

I believe physical Bitcoins would improve the utility of the currency. It would enable more transactions in person where internet, electricity or technology is scarce, and create a monetary connection between those places, and the places where Bitcoin is used.

But individual countries have voluntarily replaced their currency with the euro -- something you said would never happen. Anyway, there are many countries that do not have a national currency. Adopting Bitcoin is not reasonable for any country right now, but it could be appropriate in the future for some countries.

Agree. There are a lot of countries which have substituted their currency with the dollar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_substitution

These countries could be ideal candidates. :D