Help me pick a country to lobby

[RodeoX]

I'm feeling secure in bitcoin's future here in the USA. But what about the rest of the world? Could I get anywhere with countries in Africa? Or what about places that have laws restricting bitcoin, Perhaps I could convince them to be more welcoming.
I'd like to take a diplomatic mission in 2016 with the goal of helping BTC adoption in a place that is struggling. I am not sure where I would be most effective though. Does anyone here have a suggestion of a country to visit? Perhaps you have contacts in your country that would help, or you are getting nowhere in your country and think something like this would help. What do you think?

EDIT: Going to Iceland!  

[tarsua]

you should try Jamaica, no-one knows about the coin here and i think it would be nice if we had a larger local community

[mirana12345]

I believe your intentions are for the best, but lobby'ing African countries won't do much good for bitcoin imho due to their poor economics and
bad financial situation altogeather. Imho, it would be far more effective to target some of the European countries.
You could make it a business vacation even, in summer, and combine work with pleasure by selecting some tourist country.

[thirdchance57]

I agree with what you are attempting to do with this, but there are still millions of people who have no idea what Bitcoin is or how it can be used.  I would focus more on the local economy some more until it is picked up by as many people as it can be.  There is no harm starting with outside countries, but why would you want to spread your time thin.  If you worry about your home group, you will provide a larger group of supporters in order to help you.

[Laguna77]

Believe me, in that country's they have no money for health care, food and houses. Do not assume that they will use bitcoins by government. Maybe in 2085 or something.

and I can assure you that Jamaica's central banking would rather not see coming.

[LuckyYOU]

Hmm interesting idea.

For a higher succes rate you should to determine better
- Bringing a corrupt country in (which will give bitcoin a bad name). or
- Bringing a non-corrupt country in.

Sure the first option is much easier and in a way it will help bitcoin on the short term. Looking on the long term, no respectable country would even consider bitcoin if they know a corrupted country came before them.

So if you have time, skills and are willing to make an effort. Why not try to bring in a multinational like Microsoft or Twitter?

[DrkLvr_]

Please pick my country, Uruguay 

[HarryKPeters]

Go with a first world country.

It will give trust and can even be a motivation for other countries to join. I believe that if we have 1 country on board, the rest will follow very fast. maybe even faster then we think.

[franky1]

2 main things to think about. internet usage and population clusters

for instance going to places that both lacks internet and where the population is dispersed in little villages means that you will have alot of work to do.

just considering population and usage(trading), if each village has one shop, the work needed to build up a network of people swapping coins will be large,  going to multiple villages and trying to get all the shops involved, aswell as setting up 5 local exchanges, which some may be reluctant meaning some villages will not have usage of bitcoin

however if you pick a city, then its far easier to select just 5 retailers out of hundreds for usage and one location for exchange and be able to serve alot more people. that way you have a better chance of succeeding.

this then can be used as the first stepping stone to then expand out, using the city implementation as the demo and advert to help convince villages

and as for the internet availability.. well thats self explanatory
use this to help you:
http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users-by-country/
jamaica has ~50% internet uptake

where as haiti only has ~12%, so that makes jamaica better option compared to haiti.

ofcourse there are other countries with over 50% internet. and also higher populations

places like the united arab emirates is 94% internet uptake

even Madagascar has a higher population base and higher internet uptake than jamaica.

[sahliano]

Tunisia and north african countries need to know more about bitcoin specialé in tunisia because there is no paypall (paypall is limited for some peolple only) the credit cards is not used very match cause they cost too match i think they will be intrested with the bitcoin technologie because its free universal and it 's becoming more important

[franky1]

Hmm interesting idea.

For a higher succes rate you should to determine better
- Bringing a corrupt country in (which will give bitcoin a bad name). or
- Bringing a non-corrupt country in.

Sure the first option is much easier and in a way it will help bitcoin on the short term. Looking on the long term, no respectable country would even consider bitcoin if they know a corrupted country came before them.

So if you have time, skills and are willing to make an effort. Why not try to bring in a multinational like Microsoft or Twitter?

saudi arabia is corrupt as hell.. yet they are one of the richest countries. lots of investment comes from them and when they say they want something.. everyone follows their lead.

EG
saudi arabia startd taking over the banks of syria in 2004.. and look whats happening now.. uk, france america, russia all want in

[Snorek]

Go with a first world country.

It will give trust and can even be a motivation for other countries to join. I believe that if we have 1 country on board, the rest will follow very fast. maybe even faster then we think.

I do think that wasting  your time and effort on some underdeveloped country won't help bitcoin at all. We first need to raise the awareness about it in countries with good internet access and developed base for bitcoin.
I think something like Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland) or central (Slovakia, Czech) or south Europe (Croatia, Bulgaria) will be nice.

[calkob]

If bitcoin could get going in somewhere like India, with such a massive poupluation it would be a great force......

[megatron1337]

Focus your efforts on countries with a well established internet access.  Also make sure the population is wealthy enough to have the capital necessary to invest in bitcoin.

[lolgato]

I would say choose a nice second world country.

[franky1]

Focus your efforts on countries with a well established internet access.  Also make sure the population is wealthy enough to have the capital necessary to invest in bitcoin.

wealth is not that important.. because in some countries you cant measure wealth as some people are unbanked. but may own property and be self employd with employee's (farms)..

so although it may appear that the country is poor.. there is alot of bartering and a need for a value medium to trade off against.

also, people dont need to buy 'whole bitcoins' its devisable by 8 decimals, and to be honest 1million people trading 0.01 is more adoption then 10 people in saudi arabia trading 1000btc

but you are right about the internet requirement. and i think anyone able to have internet, even via a phone has atleast some spare value or need a better method of moving said value

[countryfree]

I'd like to take a diplomatic mission in 2016 with the goal of helping BTC adoption in a place that is struggling.

I don't understand what's your plan. You sure may go to an African country, but government officials will not want to meet you. You're a foreigner, and unless you want to invest a vast sum in the country, all government's doors will be closed. You may have good intentions, but Africans have already suffered a lot from white guys telling them how they should manage their country. In several places, you will not be welcomed.

[franky1]

I'd like to take a diplomatic mission in 2016 with the goal of helping BTC adoption in a place that is struggling.

I don't understand what's your plan. You sure may go to an African country, but government officials will not want to meet you. You're a foreigner, and unless you want to invest a vast sum in the country, all government's doors will be closed. You may have good intentions, but Africans have already suffered a lot from white guys telling them how they should manage their country. In several places, you will not be welcomed.

and in some places it's machete law

[jokerboy]

If you want to do some diplomatic mission, you should first find the countries which have acknowledgment of bitcoin.

[BTT]

Zimbabwe - Everyone is suffering economical hardship there.