Geopolitics and Crypto

[thelibertycap]

It would be fun to see a national bank (state owned) publishing the increase in holdings to various assets with the addition of Bitcoin on the list.
A well known country with diverse holdings like Switzerland with its huge stake in Apple could perhaps dip a toe.
Gold stockpiles are reported although one could guess not every country publishes its stake very accurately.
Is it possible that some clever finance ministers start accumulating and perhaps don't bother with putting it on the books? Is it even possible to buy in any reasonable quantities?
It could fail, but if it doesn't, they could buy a huge stake of power in international finance for pocket money. That would require the dreams of the Church of Satoshi coming true.

Just remember that countries last a long time and can hodl for a long time.

Crypto-revolution antifragility V CHECK

It would be very embarrassing to show they bought into an obsolete money with hard earned and taxed cash.

[unamis76]

I don't think anyone in front of any government would/will buy Bitcoin in the name of their government or country. Some may do it at a personal level and in an undisclosed way, though, why not?

I don't think governments buying into Bitcoin is a good idea... I hope they don't even touch it in any way.

[AgentofCoin]

I don't think anyone in front of any government would/will buy Bitcoin in the name of their government or country. Some may do it at a personal level and in an undisclosed way, though, why not?
...

Rumor on the streets is many executives at banks and trading firms are indeed personally buying btc in secret.

[thelibertycap]

I don't think anyone in front of any government would/will buy Bitcoin in the name of their government or country. Some may do it at a personal level and in an undisclosed way, though, why not?

I don't think governments buying into Bitcoin is a good idea... I hope they don't even touch it in any way.

There could be a referendum or a ballot and then they would have to at least consider it and a talk about it. The Swiss voted on not increasing the gold reserves last time I remember.
I am not suggesting it is likely to happen anytime soon with Bitcoin but it might some time later, perhaps. Who knows how will things play out.

[unamis76]

Rumor on the streets is many executives at banks and trading firms are indeed personally buying btc in secret.

That's at a personal level... Fine by me, as long as they're not buying in the name of the companies or government they work for. They're as much of an user as us, and if they're buying into Bitcoin they want it to succeed as much as we do.

There could be a referendum or a ballot and then they would have to at least consider it and a talk about it. The Swiss voted on not increasing the gold reserves last time I remember.
I am not suggesting it is likely to happen anytime soon with Bitcoin but it might some time later, perhaps. Who knows how will things play out.

Just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable... Governments should stay put with Bitcoin.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

With the market cap as it stands now?  Bitcoin is tiny and there are over 200 countries in this little world we inhabit.  If bitcoin reaches a market cap that's at least an order of magnitude greater than it is now, forget about this.  But it is a good idea, sir.

[franky1]

With the market cap as it stands now?  Bitcoin is tiny and there are over 200 countries in this little world we inhabit.  If bitcoin reaches a market cap that's at least an order of magnitude greater than it is now, forget about this.  But it is a good idea, sir.

200 countries and bitcoin market cap is in the top 150 and moving up

im just saying.. so dont shoot the messenger.

to me bitcoin doesnt need to be tethered to a country.. bitcoin can be its own country, where the land is the internet and the laws are programmed into the protocol and the citizens is the bitcoin community, where no one needs a passport or ID just to be a "citizen"

[European Central Bank]

It would be horrible but pretty amazing to watch if countries did decide to take a bitcoin position. To get to that point it would already have to be ruling the world I mean everyone everywhere can agree that gold has value. Bitcoin's a long way away from that.

I don't believe it'll ever happen and they'll probably hijack miners before spending actual money on it.

[thelibertycap]

Liberland certainly has a reserve in Bitcoin but it is just a work of fiction at this point.
Some real but tiny government could invest and it actually makes sense. Why buy shares of Apple and not Bitcoin? 0.5% of reserves in Bitcoin is a low risk high reward investment.

[KabaaL]

iam sur one day the governments will take the control of bitcoins !!! :s

[Milkduds]

The problem as I see it is the nature of the internet and how Countries are jockeying to position themselves in a way that they control it.
We can see big companies as well that want to be in on the action and limit those that want a wide open platform.
So without addressing that,you really can not establish a Country or bank that people can use strictly with bitcoin in mind.
If by chance we can create a web outside the system we could develop a system that functioned in this manner.
But again..Once you do create something like that the concept would have to constantly evolve to keep out of the cross hairs of government.
In essence we are shit out of luck when it comes to some sense of economic freedom.

[MyBTT]

I really hope so too. Banks dont just publish their own currency's value, but their exchange rate on other currencies.

Just like there's XAU, we need XBT.

[btvGainer]

I don't think anyone in front of any government would/will buy Bitcoin in the name of their government or country. Some may do it at a personal level and in an undisclosed way, though, why not?

I don't think governments buying into Bitcoin is a good idea... I hope they don't even touch it in any way.

And there is no reason for a government to buy bitcoin.Why would they invest in bitcoin when they can buy dollar ?As long as bitcoin doesn't get recognition by some economically strong governments,no government will buy it

[n691309]

We see that most of the countries have issue with finances and putting their money in bitcoin is not the best move because we see that the bitcoin price can be easily manipulated from big early adopters and can bring a country to bankrupt (if they invest a lot) and since bitcoin does not belong to anyone, to any country then it's hard for a country to decided to invest in bitcoin.

[JeffBrad12]

I don't think anyone in front of any government would/will buy Bitcoin in the name of their government or country. Some may do it at a personal level and in an undisclosed way, though, why not?

I don't think governments buying into Bitcoin is a good idea... I hope they don't even touch it in any way.

And there is no reason for a government to buy bitcoin.Why would they invest in bitcoin when they can buy dollar ?As long as bitcoin doesn't get recognition by some economically strong governments,no government will buy it

And what the government is needed for buying a dollar? and I think they're just focussed in their economic for getting more strongly for their local currency with the dollar.

[yayayo]

[...]

I don't think governments buying into Bitcoin is a good idea... I hope they don't even touch it in any way.

Why isn't that a good idea? Actually I think this would be the smartest decision ever done by any central bank. Even a central bank from a small country (say Liechtenstein) could acquire a significant chunk of Bitcoin with a tiny percentage of the total available capital. This would be at a time, when Bitcoin is still cheap.

But the best part of it: The subsequent disclosure of a central bank of having purchased Bitcoin will automatically lead to a valuation explosion for Bitcoin, because the general public suddenly becomes aware that Bitcoin is a sound and trustworthy financial asset like precious metals. A massive media exposure for Bitcoin will follow. Subsequently, other central banks may feel competitive pressure to purchase Bitcoin as well - albeit to much higher prices.

Therefore the first central bank acquiring Bitcoin would be doing a very smart move with an extremely good risk / reward ratio.

ya.ya.yo!

[Yakamoto]

It would be fun to see a national bank (state owned) publishing the increase in holdings to various assets with the addition of Bitcoin on the list.
A well known country with diverse holdings like Switzerland with its huge stake in Apple could perhaps dip a toe.
Gold stockpiles are reported although one could guess not every country publishes its stake very accurately.
Is it possible that some clever finance ministers start accumulating and perhaps don't bother with putting it on the books? Is it even possible to buy in any reasonable quantities?
It could fail, but if it doesn't, they could buy a huge stake of power in international finance for pocket money. That would require the dreams of the Church of Satoshi coming true.

Just remember that countries last a long time and can hodl for a long time.

Crypto-revolution antifragility V CHECK

It would be very embarrassing to show they bought into an obsolete money with hard earned and taxed cash.

It would definitely be interesting to see something like this happen, and I wonder what would happen to Bitcoin if that much money was invested. While I think there are at least a few prominent figures throughout the world who own Bitcoin in some capacity, I don't think we're ever going to see a massive dump of money from a bank into cryptocurrencies, at least not for a while.

[Shiroslullaby]

I think that if a bank etc were to buy Bitcoins on a large scale, it would be for some nefarious purpose.
If someone spent enough money to purchase coins and took them off the market, they could manipulate the price of Bitcoin very easily.
Just remember that to a large bank, a Billion dollars really isn't that much.
If they felt threatened, they could definitely cause some real issues for any of the crypto currencies.

I would be interested to hear what people would think if suddenly 75% of Bitcoins were bought up and never seen again.
Would the remaining 25% go up in price?
Would there be enough coins to sustain the market?

[Wind_FURY]

Bitcoin would be too exotic for traditional banks. I could not imagine them having a stake in something they cannot fully control and understand. Plus there is no market for this among themselves unless they set one up where they can sell them and let some other bank "hold the bag". If one bank becomes interested in investing in it they would have to deal with who? The Bitcoin exchanges? Well if it is Coinbase then maybe they can.

[clickerz]

As of now, I think there are banks who are already adapting blockchain technology and also bitcoins. Even some countries are recognizing bitcoin as a currency in coins. Slowly, the government will pass laws to regulate and control this bitcoin.