Today it is Greece. Tomorrow it can be you.

[ed_teech]

I ponder about this kind of situation, as I am living in an economically fragile country (Iran). Our country's politics has taken it far in the sanctions road and international money transfer is a nightmare. Bitcoin seems the solution, but there are some problems in that field as well.

If Bitcoin wants to go mainstream in a nation, the buying side is too powerful compared to the selling side. Everybody buys Bitcoin as a store of value and nobody sells. The country MUST have a mining operation running to facilitate IRR <-> BTC conversions. If the country doesn't have Bitcoin generated in IRR (national currency), then the exchange has to be IRR <-> USD <-> BTC which renders the whole thing useless, as USD can be used as a store of value.

[Scamalert]

Absoultly, I agree with OP. Read through the thread and talked to many people. Most people do not realized how young our current monetary system is (fiat). It has only been used for ~60 years, people assume that has always been there, but that is not true. Fiat is young, and have obvious flaws build in. Since you can create debt (money) out of thin air, then will the combined debt increase over time, ever since fiat was instruduced by Nixon has debt only incressed, the system is bound to colapse. Most people consider this to "impossible", but in fact it cannot be avoided. Greece today, rest of the world soon.

[Kprawn]

Well it's a very strong image indeed. If things like this does not open the eyes of the rest of the world, what will? It's always the poor and old people who suffer the most when things like this happens.

The people with, uhmm how can I put it... Drug or alcohol problems will have a hard time too... How much of the 60 Euro per day goes towards alcohol and how much for food?

It looked like this woke up the people in Europe, because the statistics show a significant increase in Bitcoin purchase in Europe.

I just hope these people do not get scammed and hacked, when they try to use it for the first time. 

[edric]

What is the problem? I cannot see the picture on the OP.

Picture showing up just fine for me.

Also agree this is quite the moving banner.  Image of a Greek citizen obviously of retirement age literally at wits end.  How can one help but feel for the people of Greece with this kind of imagery.

My heart wrenches at the picture of the elderly losing hope and feeling despondent. At this moment I strongly feel that people across the globe should at least take this up as a humanitarian cause and help in some way or the other. Powerful countries should get together and unitedly help them steady their economy. Perhaps also help them get access to Bitcoin too.

[newIndia]

I ponder about this kind of situation, as I am living in an economically fragile country (Iran). Our country's politics has taken it far in the sanctions road and international money transfer is a nightmare. Bitcoin seems the solution, but there are some problems in that field as well.

If Bitcoin wants to go mainstream in a nation, the buying side is too powerful compared to the selling side. Everybody buys Bitcoin as a store of value and nobody sells. The country MUST have a mining operation running to facilitate IRR <-> BTC conversions. If the country doesn't have Bitcoin generated in IRR (national currency), then the exchange has to be IRR <-> USD <-> BTC which renders the whole thing useless, as USD can be used as a store of value.

I agree it is problemetic to buy bitcoin for countries where moving money is restricted. But, I believe, they can earn bitcoin. Where money movement is restricted, earning USD might be a problem over there as well. But, by selling services online, one can easily procure bitcoin. In fact, direct exchange of bitcoin against product & services is good for bitcoin economy itself.

[LiteCoinGuy]

"Today it is Greece. Tomorrow it can be you."

and in the past...

[aso118]

My heart wrenches at the picture of the elderly losing hope and feeling despondent. At this moment I strongly feel that people across the globe should at least take this up as a humanitarian cause and help in some way or the other. Powerful countries should get together and unitedly help them steady their economy. Perhaps also help them get access to Bitcoin too.

Don't you think there is a moral hazard involved?
If people help Greece now, other countries could be tempted to binge on debt, because there is no downside. In case of a crisis like this, they might think people will bail them out.

[newIndia]

My heart wrenches at the picture of the elderly losing hope and feeling despondent. At this moment I strongly feel that people across the globe should at least take this up as a humanitarian cause and help in some way or the other. Powerful countries should get together and unitedly help them steady their economy. Perhaps also help them get access to Bitcoin too.

Don't you think there is a moral hazard involved?
If people help Greece now, other countries could be tempted to binge on debt, because there is no downside. In case of a crisis like this, they might think people will bail them out.

Economics is not simple mathematics. If you give them or any debt ridden nation a lot of money, the problem will prevail. It is about increasing production, increasing import-export and a lot other things. International monetory system is a very complicated subject.

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

ok sounds good on the surface but what about those who dont have access to computers, although in this day and age its not common many people such as the eldery tend to stay away from computers.

All those old people are of course not going to do it themselves, they would rely on younger people in their families (sons or whatnot) that would help them to do it. The problem is most of young people are totally clueless about economics and dont know what Bitcoin is and why its important. As always, few will make it before it goes mainstream.

[scarsbergholden]

So i managed to talk to a friend that has family in Greece and he's grandfather had a heat stroke just waiting in line from 5am to 3pm just to receive a number in order to get in the social pension office the next day. crazy stuff!

[ingiltere]

As a Turkish citizen I've lived the economical crysis from mid 90's to mid 2000's. There was no Bitcoin back then.
After some development in country we kinda changed our money. We dropped 6 zeros from Turkish lira in 2005.

Bitcoin adoption in Greece is not a necessity. If someone says so; don't believe it.

[alani123]

Do you people believe that bitcoin can replace FIAT currencies entirely in a country like Greece? Or do you see it as an alternative with possibilities of parallel use? I'm really curious to see what people rooting for bitcoin use in Greece actually believe in.

[d5000]

Do you people believe that bitcoin can replace FIAT currencies entirely in a country like Greece? Or do you see it as an alternative with possibilities of parallel use? I'm really curious to see what people rooting for bitcoin use in Greece actually believe in.

I think Bitcoin can be part of a solution, but not the whole solution.

The most important thing is that the real economy finds ways to stabilize itself without depending on the traditional financial sectors.

There is a whole "kit" of things that you can do in this case. In Argentina, we had a similar situation in 2001. A barter circle system with an alternative currency, the "crédito" got momentum then and was a great ressource for people that lost their jobs or were otherwise in difficult situations. They were enabled to not suffer hunger participating in these circles.

Now we have a more secure, electronic system - cryptocurrencies - that can fill this niche in Greece.

[alani123]

Do you people believe that bitcoin can replace FIAT currencies entirely in a country like Greece? Or do you see it as an alternative with possibilities of parallel use? I'm really curious to see what people rooting for bitcoin use in Greece actually believe in.

I think Bitcoin can be part of a solution, but not the whole solution.

The most important thing is that the real economy finds ways to stabilize itself without depending on the traditional financial sectors.

There is a whole "kit" of things that you can do in this case. In Argentina, we had a similar situation in 2001. A barter circle system with an alternative currency, the "crédito" got momentum then and was a great ressource for people that lost their jobs or were otherwise in difficult situations. They were enabled to not suffer hunger participating in these circles.

Now we have a more secure, electronic system - cryptocurrencies - that can fill this niche in Greece.

I too believe that using cryptocurrencies as an alternative is more realistic. I was weirded out by some people in /r/bitcoin (and here too but not as much) that believed bitcoin could realistically replace FIAT in its entirety in Greece. I've used BTC since early 2013 and despite the fact that I believe in it's potential I still think that, for a plethora of reasons, bitcoin isn't a good replacement for FIAT and it can't replace the use of cash in an economy entirely. Furthermore, there's still work to be done to make cryptocurrencies ready for adoption. Greek pensioners are even having trouble with the simplistic online payment system for taxes and state payments.

Aside of that, there were some false reports about Greeks rushing to buy bitcoin too, I don't know what level of fact checking those articles went though but since I'm Greek I know for a fact that this wasn't and still isn't true. It's true that the interest on it rose during the recent events but It's still not as significant as major news websites reported.

[d5000]

Aside of that, there were some false reports about Greeks rushing to buy bitcoin too, I don't know what level of fact checking those articles went though but since I'm Greek I know for a fact that this wasn't and still isn't true. It's true that the interest on it rose during the recent events but It's still not as significant as major news websites reported.

Good to read an opinion from a local!

Yes, there is much to do still ... usability and, above all, stability (lower volatility) are major issues. I am investigating ways to improve stability in cryptocurrencies, but it is not a trivial thing.

There are many things that can help improve stability: above all, a stable, long-term oriented reward system (where I see systems like Proof of Stake and Proof of Burn with an advantage over Bitcoin's PoW), and a stabie, not pump-and-dump-oriented community which really uses the currency, not only for trading.

[Beliathon]

I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take them violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop.

Source

[pooya87]

this is why they say don't put all your eggs in one basket, especially if your country is financially unstable!

i don't believe that it is bitcoin to the rescue for the Greeks and it can replace their fiat as many are saying, because simply bitcoin is not ready yet for that level of commitment.

[Netnox]

OP why are you posting this in here, it doesn't really help the average greek, i mean here we all know about bitcoin already. You need to post this stuff where people aren't aware such innovation exists yet. People like those in the picture aren't really checking out this forum lol.

[ThEmporium]

this is why they say don't put all your eggs in one basket, especially if your country is financially unstable!

There is no eggs in the basket before that they can pull it as one, Greece into the crisis since the year 2009 and it's pegged down so worse that is unimaginable. I agree with your point that Bitcoin cannot be saviour for the Greece, they need to find out some other solutions.

[BillyBobZorton]

Do you people believe that bitcoin can replace FIAT currencies entirely in a country like Greece? Or do you see it as an alternative with possibilities of parallel use? I'm really curious to see what people rooting for bitcoin use in Greece actually believe in.

Bitcoin will be the alternative system to the convential fiat systems. People is too dumb to embrace Bitcoin in 2015 or any time soon. We'll need at least 20 years until a country goes full crypto, and by then people owning BTC since the begining will all be millionaires.