[2015-06-05] ET: Could a bitcoin-like digital-drachma avert a Greece exit?

Could a bitcoin-like digital-drachma avert a Greece exit from euro zone?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/could-a-bitcoin-like-digital-drachma-avert-a-greece-exit-from-euro-zone/articleshow/47551809.cms

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis may have been joking when he tweeted about Greece adopting bitcoin, but some financial technology geeks say an asset-backed digital currency could be a solution to the country's cash crisis.

Greece faces 1.5 billion euros of repayments to its creditors this month, having been locked in talks on a cash-for-reforms deal for months. Failure to agree could trigger a Greek default and potential exit from the euro zone, dealing a big blow to the supposedly irreversible currency union.

In order to avoid such a "Grexit" some reckon Greece could adopt a bitcoin-like parallel digital currency with which it could pay its pensioners and public-sector workers. It could be called the "digi-drachma", after Greece's pre-euro currency.