[2015-06-18] Metro: Could Greece take bitcoin as its official currency?

[pawel7777]

Could Greece take bitcoin as its official currency?

http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/18/could-greece-take-bitcoin-as-its-official-currency-5252453/

With time now rapidly running out, Athens and its lenders – other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund – appear to be deadlocked over how much more Greece must tighten its belt in exchange for needed funding.

The eurozone portion of Greece’s €245 billion bailout expires on June 30, the same day Greece faces a €1.5 billion payment to the IMF.

This amount of debt and interest is totally unsustainable for Greece to maintain and the country has no more to give. So what next?

Could Greece take bitcoin as its official currency?

It would not be a good idea for Greece to renounce the euro and adopt bitcoin which would mean giving up their sovereign monetary policy.

Monetary policy, used responsibly, is useful to manage public finances, provided it is not abused to issue too much currency. Greece cannot itself use monetary policy whilst it is part of the eurozone and adopting bitcoin would put Greece in exactly the same position.
...

[bryant.coleman]

In the current scenatio, no country is going to declare a digital coin as its official currency. And definitely not the bankrupt and broke Greece. We are years, if not decades away from anything like that actually happening. They will either re-introduce their old currency (Drachma) or they will make the US Dollar or the Russian Ruble as the official currency.

[Dusty]

Bitcoin is a currency for the people, and as such, exactly opposed to the liking of the governments.

So, no government will adopt bitcoin by his choice, ever.

[jjacob]

It wouldn't solve any of Greece's problems.
Greece needs practical solutions to its debt problem. It does not have a currency problem.

[unamis76]

They better stay off Bitcoin. It won't do them any good and if they adopted Bitcoin news outlets would probably label it as "the debt currency"

[yayayo]

Bitcoin is a currency for the people, and as such, exactly opposed to the liking of the governments.

So, no government will adopt bitcoin by his choice, ever.

Exactly - and Varoufakis (the Greek FM) is a disciple of Keynes. Bitcoin can't be inflated which makes financing impossible for socialist governments that are accustomed to spend more than they can afford in order to pamper their voters.

Of course it's possible that the Greek people will adopt Bitcoin and it might become the inofficial currency of choice, because the new drachma will be in constant inflation mode and people will have lost confidence in banks due to capital controls. However I really don't know if Bitcoin is popular in Greece at all.

ya.ya.yo!

[aso118]

They better stay off Bitcoin. It won't do them any good and if they adopted Bitcoin news outlets would probably label it as "the debt currency"

The Greeks could already be adopting Bitcoin in large numbers. You never know when their country will be hit by capital controls.
Bitcoin can't help the Greek government though.

[bryant.coleman]

The Greeks could already be adopting Bitcoin in large numbers. You never know when their country will be hit by capital controls.
Bitcoin can't help the Greek government though.

None of the major Bitcoin exchanges (including Localbitcoins) have reported a surge in trade volumes from Greece. On the other hand, the trade volumes have been lower than the average for the last 6-7 months. So it seems that for the Greeks right now, Bitcoin doesn't looks like one of the primary methods to escape from capital controls.

[hilariousetc]

If it comes down to ditching the Euro then they will just go back to printing their own. However, bitcoin could see a growth and adoption by Greeks choosing to put their money into it or use it as an alternative system. 

[BitcoinByte]

It wouldn't solve any of Greece's problems.
Greece needs practical solutions to its debt problem. It does not have a currency problem.

Greece does have a currency problem too! (As well as a debt problem.) The euro has been shown to be unsuitable for Greece as they are unable to manage their own money supply or set their own interest rates.
As the author of the article in last Thursday's Metro I quote this piece which appeared in the UK press two days later:
The euro does not have a problem... it is the problem, and 'poses a fundamental threat to global financial stability' http://t.co/BclOpo1ySY

[unamis76]

They better stay off Bitcoin. It won't do them any good and if they adopted Bitcoin news outlets would probably label it as "the debt currency"

The Greeks could already be adopting Bitcoin in large numbers. You never know when their country will be hit by capital controls.
Bitcoin can't help the Greek government though.

If citizens adopt Bitcoin, that's amazing, but not the government... That would definitely make people label it "the debt coin"

The Greeks could already be adopting Bitcoin in large numbers. You never know when their country will be hit by capital controls.
Bitcoin can't help the Greek government though.

None of the major Bitcoin exchanges (including Localbitcoins) have reported a surge in trade volumes from Greece. On the other hand, the trade volumes have been lower than the average for the last 6-7 months. So it seems that for the Greeks right now, Bitcoin doesn't looks like one of the primary methods to escape from capital controls.

Exactly, and it seems they really have no local exchanges... A surge of money from Greece would definitely be noticeable. I wonder if they either don't have any fear of capital control or they're getting out to other things like gold.

[cr1776]

Monetary policy, used responsibly, is useful to manage public finances, provided it is not abused to issue too much currency. Greece cannot itself use monetary policy whilst it is part of the eurozone and adopting bitcoin would put Greece in exactly the same position.
...

[/quote]

Monetary policy is something that should never be put in the hands of people. They will use it to enhance their own power, nothing more. It cannot be "used responsibly".

Deflating the currency hurts the poor, and helps the powerful.  It is a tool to obtain and retain power.

Consequently the authoritarians in power in Greece (or elsewhere) would never go for it.

[dollarneed]

could grece accepte bitcoin as their curency? iam not prety sure but if goverment could really see the bitcoin technology i believe they could take it at least for their alternative curency maybe

[howardb]

In the current scenatio, no country is going to declare a digital coin as its official currency. And definitely not the bankrupt and broke Greece. We are years, if not decades away from anything like that actually happening. They will either re-introduce their old currency (Drachma) or they will make the US Dollar or the Russian Ruble as the official currency.

The thought of them leaving one currency they don't control to adopt another one they don't control is just plain stupid! They absolutely would have to launch a new national currency so they could control printing presses/devaluation which is their only way out of their current fiscal trap.

[bryant.coleman]

Exactly, and it seems they really have no local exchanges... A surge of money from Greece would definitely be noticeable. I wonder if they either don't have any fear of capital control or they're getting out to other things like gold.

Most of the Greeks are living in dire poverty, and don't have any savings. That said, the small minority which had sizable money on their savings accounts have mostly withdrawn it from the banks, and are stashing it at their homes or offices in the form of hard cash (€500 or €100 banknotes). A small number of them are converting it to bullion.