Can bitcoin really save Greece?

[larry12]

so, all the people who are asking for money did not earn it? Did the people ever work for the money that can`t be taken out of banks?

All the citizens of Greece have been living on loans is that what you are saying larry12?

Help me understand

Yes, the last few years....loans from EU or Germany call it what u want

[Borisz]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/03/greek-referendum-what-the-experts-say

An interesting read. There are booth those who argument against NO and YES alike.
The two that got me thinking:

Vicky Pryce - YES
Chief economic adviser at the Centre for Economic and Business Research

Pryce believes both sides are equally to blame in letting the Greek debt crisis get to a point now fraught with immense political and economic risks for the entire eurozone. “The referendum should never have been held. But I would vote yes,” she says.

    There has been too much austerity but a no vote would make things worse. It would almost certainly mean banks becoming insolvent, an exit from the euro and a much faster decline in economic activity, with hyperinflation following as the drachma that is introduced instantly devalues.

    A yes vote would keep banks open and give mandate for a deal to be struck that recognises the new Greek realities and includes, as the IMF now says, restructuring of the debt which every economist knows is unsustainable.

Professors of economics at Greek universities - YES
In an open letter, 246 professors at economics schools and universities in Greece urged people to vote yes on Sunday or risk leaving the EU.

    Taking into account that the proposals of our creditors and the Greek government were converging until last Friday, we believe that what is really at stake in the coming referendum, irrespective of the precise formulation of the question, is whether Greece will remain, or not, in the eurozone and, possibly, whether it will remain in the EU itself...

    Leaving the eurozone, especially in this chaotic and superficial way, would likely lead to a process of leaving the EU too, with unpredictable and disastrous consequences for the national security and the democratic stability of our country.

With this no vote I'm not sure where all this is headed. If it gets to the point where Greece leaves the EU, then the EU will suffer a major defeat.

If they get the drachma back, and I was greek, I'd put a large stash of my savings into bitcoin instead. It can't save the country, maybe it can save some of the people.

[bitcoin revo]

Greek people really wanted bitcoins but couldn't get them because the euros in their bank accounts don't actually exist.

[scarsbergholden]

Greek people really wanted bitcoins but couldn't get them because the euros in their bank accounts don't actually exist.

they could still be part of the bitcoin adoption by receiving bitcoin has a form of payment for anything they want to sell internationally, the question is what would be the channels of commerce for them to use in order to get paid in bitcoin.

[TheButterZone]

Greek people really wanted bitcoins but couldn't get them because the euros in their bank accounts don't actually exist.

they could still be part of the bitcoin adoption by receiving bitcoin has a form of payment for anything they want to sell internationally, the question is what would be the channels of commerce for them to use in order to get paid in bitcoin.

spartanroute.com and Alibaba or craigslist for the rare birds that look on remote craigslist sites for deals.

[oxiyusuf]

Greek people really wanted bitcoins but couldn't get them because the euros in their bank accounts don't actually exist.

they could still be part of the bitcoin adoption by receiving bitcoin has a form of payment for anything they want to sell internationally, the question is what would be the channels of commerce for them to use in order to get paid in bitcoin.

spartanroute.com and Alibaba or craigslist for the rare birds that look on remote craigslist sites for deals.

but I think it would be very difficult for them to exchange their money into bitcoin for now, this is because some service providers will certainly take into account the impact also

[HarHarHar9965]

so, all the people who are asking for money did not earn it? Did the people ever work for the money that can`t be taken out of banks?

All the citizens of Greece have been living on loans is that what you are saying larry12?

Help me understand

So larry says that the Greece population of around 11.12 million people have been living on the loans provided by Euro. WOW. Its nothing like that, I've been in Greece and there are shops, there are workers, there is trade, there is market. Its a normal country. The banks screwed the people and the country altogether, and this isn't the people's fault. They weren't ask for a say in that, and now that they're fucked up, they host referendum. LOL.

[larry12]

I spent 2-3 weeks every summer in Greece....
The shops are not working from 12.00 to 16.00, the office employers get unbelieveble stupid bonuses like bonus for washing hands, bonus for using fax machine and etc.....the banks are not faulty for that Greeks are spending money they didnt have....the truth is they dont have working econimics and if they leave EU the collapse will be huge.....its time to pay your loans you cant just get loans and when its time to give them back to say "We're leaving, go fuck yourself eu"....

[Amph]

Greek people really wanted bitcoins but couldn't get them because the euros in their bank accounts don't actually exist.

they could still be part of the bitcoin adoption by receiving bitcoin has a form of payment for anything they want to sell internationally, the question is what would be the channels of commerce for them to use in order to get paid in bitcoin.

spartanroute.com and Alibaba or craigslist for the rare birds that look on remote craigslist sites for deals.

but I think it would be very difficult for them to exchange their money into bitcoin for now, this is because some service providers will certainly take into account the impact also

they have one atm, if the thing of exchanging bitcoin would get far, i'm sure many other atm would be build, and there will be no problem for exchanging euro/drmca with bitcoin or vice versa

Greek people really wanted bitcoins but couldn't get them because the euros in their bank accounts don't actually exist.

they have those 60 euro per person, and per day, it is mopre than enough to buy what you want

[ReigningDollars]

There's no quick fix for a failing economy. If there was, many other countries in similar situations would use BTC to save themselves as well. Personally, I see BTC as just a means of temporary 'damage control'. The fact of the matter is that a digital currency will not pull Greece out of their overbearing debt.

[Brangdon]

Bitcoins will not be able to save greece. greece has gotten into a pit from which a virtual currency cannot pull it up.

Bitcoin won't. However, if Greece exits the Euro, they will need to adopt a new currency, and in order for that to work people have to trust the government won't abuse it. So there could be a reason to adopt a trust-free crypto-currency. They can't use an existing currency like Bitcoin because they don't have anything to buy it with. They could start a new crypto-currency.

As I am a fan of Nxt I will suggest that the best way to do that is by creating one within the Nxt monetary system. That could get them up and running very quickly, without having to find people to mine it. 

nope, the Greeks are faulty....they dont have working economic, the only reason they are not in a collapse already is the EU is giving them a huge loans....loans they cant return 

Very little of the money loaned to Greece in the last 5 years has been used to help the Greek economy or the Greek people. Most of it was used to pay off earlier loans. In effect, the money moved from the public banks to private (non-Greek) banks. That's why the Greek GNP has remained in decline.

[arallmuus]

They could start a new crypto-currency.

Starting their own crypto-currency that based on nothing? BTC itself needs years before it is established like this and greece need a quick solution for their problem which means BTC will be the answer if only they could purchase it . Starting their own crypto-currency will be the same as starting their own FIAT money in the digital form because the goverment could "abuse" it and BTC which is already has all the feature of decentralization could be the answer for it rather than starting something which is still unsure of

[Clint]

Bitcoin is surging as PayPal is no longer available there. Bitcoin use has increased enormously in the past 2 months in Greece. But how would it save Greece? They wouldn't have enough money to purchase enough bitcoins for them to spend, and bitcoin there I believe is not as advanced as ours, there's a higher risk of being hacked and scammed.

[thebigtalk]

Bitcoin wont save Greece but that country's current financial situation will save bitcoin from dropping to the price below $200. But if Greece will be introduced to bitcoin, it might.

[Amph]

Bitcoin wont save Greece but that country's current financial situation will save bitcoin from dropping to the price below $200. But if Greece will be introduced to bitcoin, it might.

we were fine(above 200) even before this greece's disaster, greece will not impact the price as many think

what it is really impacting the price is the security aspect of the network related to the miner and when they scre things like the recent fork, or the TX limit, those are bad thing for bitcoin

[Searing]

Bitcoin at this time is not gonna be big in Greece..imho.....not enough of a knowledge base yet for btc or crypto
.....however as the Greek economy recovers (hopefully in next few years) you can bet crypto
will become well known  in Greece....esp with their experiences of the atm's/banks/paypal and all the rest canceled and if they do raid the
deposits of over 8k of euros and take 30% as I read someplace before the banks open....it will travel like wild fire if for no other reason
then 'if they try this again here is my plan' point of view

well ..... you may have not known about something before this mess happened in your life..but I'm fairly sure that more then a few
Greeks (or folk from spain/italy/etc) will look at this and go..hmmmmmmmm.....maybe just maybe i should hedge my bets again
if no other reason that I think a lot of them felt embarrassed they did not prep better and could not conceive of how heavy handed
imho the EU was .....(bankers rule in Europe i guess as elsewhere)

also if the Greek drachma for this next year has a rough start has say a 40% inflation rate or some such I expect Greece will be the new version
of Argentina a huge hit bitcoin and will be again imho.

things are always way more clear after you are shafted then when you were 'pre-? shafted...' so to speak

[arallmuus]

Bitcoin use has increased enormously in the past 2 months in Greece. But how would it save Greece?

It was actually nothing but pure speculation. Some people are into speculation that it will save Greece however this is not true at all because BTC isnt the savior for all their problem. In fact Greece is doing favour for BTC because of all of this hype, the price of BTC has been increasing by atleast ~ 10 % . Sad fact indeed but this is the harsh truth and speculation is what keeps the price to increase and hold for now ( wonder what will happen after all this hype ended )

Please also provide some fact to state your argument that BTC usage has increased enourmously in the past 2 months. I havent seen any relevant data about this however I do know that this hype has started few months back and it is not an accurate data to collerate about BTC usage based on the hype of this

and bitcoin there I believe is not as advanced as ours, there's a higher risk of being hacked and scammed.

You are kidding right? BTC isnt any different wherever you obtain them . Even if you live in the a country that provide you with the fastest internet connection or whatsoever , it doesnt matter because as long as your wallet is connected to the network then it is not safe at all and it is hackable let alone if you are using a web wallet

P.S : wikipedia might be the best spot for you start about this

Bitcoin wont save Greece but that country's current financial situation will save bitcoin from dropping to the price below $200.

Harsh truth but this is actually the case right now

[ifightformerkel]

bitcoins will not save greece, but the people would save their money in bitcoins,
because when they CANT get the money from the bank and they change the currency their are broke.
With bitcoins you can change it in every currency you want or you can buy stuff with it.

[ebliever]

so, all the people who are asking for money did not earn it? Did the people ever work for the money that can`t be taken out of banks?

All the citizens of Greece have been living on loans is that what you are saying larry12?

Help me understand

So larry says that the Greece population of around 11.12 million people have been living on the loans provided by Euro. WOW. Its nothing like that, I've been in Greece and there are shops, there are workers, there is trade, there is market. Its a normal country. The banks screwed the people and the country altogether, and this isn't the people's fault. They weren't ask for a say in that, and now that they're fucked up, they host referendum. LOL.

The bottom line is they lived beyond their means. No one forced them to take out loans and live beyond their means, living it up at the expense of either their children or their creditors or both.

I hope some folks in Greece are able to make good use of bitcoin in escaping the wreck of their economy, but they did this to themselves, speaking of the nation as a whole. Not evil bankers who drugged them and tricked them into taking out loans or any such nonsense.

And if someone says the Greeks were just doing what everyone else in the western world is doing, well, a pox on the rest of the western world as well for overspending and living beyond its means. I'm getting incredibly sick and tired of a major chunk of the population killing off its own children, warehousing the few they do have at schools/daycares/government programs, and then saddling other people's kids with their debts on a national scale while they live it up. Let it all come crashing down.

[Mehek]

There are serious capital controls implemented in Greece right now:

You can only withdraw €60 from your bank account in one day, and no overseas transfers.
That's insane!

If they'd switch to btc - then there would be no problems with protecting their savings.
I mean, blockchain can't just close and say 'oh no, we aren't working today - come tomorrow' like banks in Greece currently do.

I don't think so. Not anymore, it is kinda late now.  Firstly they are out of and can not access the money to purchase any bitcoins , plus there aren't enough resources where they can spend their bitcoins because not many places accept bitcoins till now ,and there is a high risk of losing these by being hacked or robbed of those hardly earned possessions.