BTC = tally stick 2.0 = legal tender ?

[mai77]

if any country wanted to introduce BTC or a surrogate/clone as their national currency, that should work fairly easy.

remember, some king of England once declared hazelnut twigs to be legal tender, called "talley sticks".

they were split in half, thereby unique and hard to forge.

Then he declared the hazelnut twigs to be good for paying taxes, which guaranteed a market and acceptance level.

So, Mont-Serrat could basically do the same thing. US gov lists Montserrat as the most broken country, cash-wise.

[herzmeister]

Bitcoins are a hard asset, i.e. debt-free.

The modern version of tally sticks as debt-bearing contractual instruments would be barter networks, time banking, or Ripple.

[mai77]

yeah but the twig is not debt laden, the citizen is. Why not declare a hazelnut twig debt free, like most twigs growing nowadays?

[herzmeister]

hazelnut twigs indeed may have a market value if you collect enough of them. 

a tally stick is an instrument, basically a ledger (with only one entry).

so you may try to settle your debt recorded on the tally stick, the time banking or ripple system with gold, silver, bitcoins, or lots and lots of hazelnut twigs.

[mai77]

I see your point