Bitcoin as Zimbabwe's official currency + Prince of Sealand interest in bitcoin

[briannguyen]

http://www.bitcoinrumors.com/2013/04/17/prince-of-sealand-mentions-interest-in-bitcoin/

http://www.bitcoinrumors.com/2013/04/17/zimbabwe-officially-approves-bitcoins-as-official-national-currency/

News about new official currency for Zimbabwe sounds very interesting but not much information provided yet. If you know anything more, please comment.

[virtualmaster]

That sounds great but is it real or a joke ?
Would they use Casascius coins in the everyday life ?
I am very surprised.
It could be like the Euro for small nations. On one side to have the bitcoin symbol on the other side a national symbol.

[caveden]

Zimbabwe is not that small. Its M1 is $12G according to the CIA. That's much more than Bitcoin's monetary base has ever been, even during its all time high. I have a hard time believing this.

The Sealand story is more credible though, as that's a really tiny sovereign country (smallest on Earth?) and its prince seems to be tech-savvy. (they attempted to make Sealand a data haven, for ex.). But still, I wouldn't hold my breath. Let's see.

[briannguyen]

I still dont know how people living there can use bitcoin to purchase food? Bitcoin Credit card?

[Brushan]

I think i read somewhere that digital cash is already very popular in Africa and that they do most payments with their cellphone. Not sure though. As for the Zimbabwe story, sounds more like a joke to me.

[caveden]

I still dont know how people living there can use bitcoin to purchase food? Bitcoin Credit card?

I don't think they can, as of today.

If this was for real - I don't think it is - then eventually the means would show up. Physical representations of BTC could be used, although they should be discouraged due to counterpart or counterfeit risks.
Something like Coinapult SMS wallet could work well too. SMS payments thrive in Kenya, I've heard.
Of all nations on Earth, I doubt there's anyone more used with price instability than Zimbabwe. So that shouldn't be as big a problem to them as it would be to others, even because with BTC prices would be mostly falling, making them richer, not the opposite they're are used to.

tl;dr: It would be great for them to do it.

I just don't believe it's going to happen.

[Brushan]

I don't think it will work for any country to implement bitcoins as the official currency. The deflation would take away all the export gains of the country and isolate the whole country.

[Bitcoinpro]

I don't think it will work for any country to implement bitcoins as the official currency. The deflation would take away all the export gains of the country and isolate the whole country.

could you just run through this process a bit better it seems as though any deflation you mention would be greatly offset by purchasing power

also the country would be able to implement regulatory controls aswell

[tysat]

Until I read news like this at a website that doesn't have "bitcoin" in it's name, I'm not going to believe anything like this.

[Bitcoinpro]

Until I read news like this at a website that doesn't have "bitcoin" in it's name, I'm not going to believe anything like this.

Zimbabwe dosn't have a currency it collapsed they use euro usd etc, bitcoin is a global currency its has official status everywhere

[Herodes]

sealand is within uk territory now after they extended what is brithis (ie not international waters any more), i would think that platform is uk territory ?

[salihno71]

The Sealand story is more credible though, as that's a really tiny sovereign country (smallest on Earth?) and its prince seems to be tech-savvy. (they attempted to make Sealand a data haven, for ex.). But still, I wouldn't hold my breath. Let's see.

Interesting link: http://www.sealandgov.org/title-pack/lordladybaronbaroness

It seems that you can buy a title for £29.99. Nice

[Come-from-Beyond]

It's a fake to make you to buy more bitcoins.

[jubalix]

So Zimb goes from being the most inflationary country to the most deflationary country in one hit.....

[virtualmaster]

I don't think it will work for any country to implement bitcoins as the official currency. The deflation would take away all the export gains of the country and isolate the whole country.

I think they don't export so much and they are already isolated.
May be they are meaning to introduce bitcoins for foreign trading which would help imports.

[Bitcoinpro]

It's a fake to make you to buy more bitcoins.

lol mentioning Zimbabwe is not going to do Bitcoin any favours its pretty funny though, they should try litecoin or something more suited to

their weak monetary base

[Operatr]

Bitcoin has never been tried at such a wide scale in a single country, this is probably bupkiss though given their hyperinflation problems making their existing money absolutely worthless I could see this happening in some country sometime soon.

Why is deflationary a bad thing? Is it bad your money continues to appreciate in value over time instead of losing it like the Euro of Dollar never to recover their spending power? People need to disconnect fiat currency from crypto-currencies, they do not work the same and cannot be compared in an economic way. Bitcoin's deflationary nature ensure hyperinflation never occurs which I think has been proven to be infinitely worse for an economy.

[zvs]

Zimbabwe is not that small. Its M1 is $12G according to the CIA. That's much more than Bitcoin's monetary base has ever been, even during its all time high. I have a hard time believing this.

The Sealand story is more credible though, as that's a really tiny sovereign country (smallest on Earth?) and its prince seems to be tech-savvy. (they attempted to make Sealand a data haven, for ex.). But still, I wouldn't hold my breath. Let's see.

yeah, run by HavenCo

there was some news article I read in February this year that said they were going to attempt to start it up again "later this year"

[virtualmaster]

CNN reports also:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-957375
Lets see.
It bitcoin goes up this month over 500 $ then we know why.

[silzero]

CNN reports also:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-957375
Lets see.
It bitcoin goes up this month over 500 $ then we know why.

Its a CNN iReport by "BitCoinSachs".  Yea right  . And since when did CNN become an authority on Bitcoin?