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

[the founder]

Well whatever the report is,  evidently people are buying bitcoins again...  we just passed a billion dollars again (first time in days)  

For the record...  I don't trust that report....  

[Hei_]

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

seems like it saw already some cc

[jago25_98]

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.

Well let's say a corn farmer in Zimbabwe gets paid 10 BTC a month. To be able to to pay him 10 BTC a month the owner has to sell 1 kg of corn for 1 BTC. Let's say his exporting the corn to the neighbouring nations. When the value of 1 BTC rises the corn gets too expensive for the importers and they start importing from elsewhere. A country has to do business with other countries or else it will end up like North Korea. So when the whole world has inflating currencies and 1 country has a deflating currency they will have a hard time.

Yes the farmer doesn't get business but it doesn't matter because he's richer. The IS a argument to be had in that it weakens the people's ability to farm. By being rich you just pay for what you need. That's why us in the wealthy countries have gone soft. And there's nothing wrong with that. "The best thing to do is let other's suffer the death and hardship and then have their babies." -satan

[nameface]

If this piece was better written I would've assumed it was scraped off The Onion... 

[antimattercrusader]

Zimbabwe can launch their own coin with centralized control. Why do they need Bitcoin?

While I doubt this article is true, I can see a use for bitcoin in a nation (like Zimbabwe) where corruption and mismanagement in government has repeatedly proven that they cannot be trusted with the nation's currency. Farming this out to a decentralized uncontrollable base like bitcoin could work, imo. It would force fiscal responsibility, and while I recognize a deflationary economy may have it's theoretical disadvantages (as mentioned earlier), I think it is better than the alternative of hyper inflation even from a conventional sense. When you think of it from a non-conventional sense, like a shift away from debt based economy, it makes even more sense. But... we have let to see if that is viable in a modern world.

I think it is.

[nameface]

Zimbabwe can launch their own coin with centralized control. Why do they need Bitcoin?

Farming this out to a decentralized uncontrollable base like bitcoin could work, imo.

+1
However, without a robust distributed infrastructure for instant digital currency conversion this becomes a massive clusterfuck whenever they see significant BTC price action. IOW, I don't think you can denominate 100% of a nation's money supply in bitcoins, even in the case of a banana republic. It's way too risky, there's too much price instability. But they could use the shit out of bitcoins and gain a great deal imho.

[Hei_]

im nativ. lemme pass to zimbabwe

[virtualmaster]

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/opinion-10878-Virtual+currency+in+the+digital+economy/opinion.aspx

[farlack]

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

If that, they all trade in gold flakes.

Zimbabwe would be the worst thing for bitcoin, most live out in the motherfuckin boonies and probably have only seen a 1995 computer in some store that's a 5 month walk to get to.

Yes, I'm saying Zimbabwe is to poor for us to want them to be the first country to adopt bitcoin.

[WilderedB]

As an official REPLACEMENT currency, no. Not least because they don't have one and are using USD at the moment.

However for anyone in Zimbabwe it makes huge sense to use BTC when possible, and certainly makes sense to accept them as payment.

If it does take off over there I see a great opportunity for selling cheap Android smartphones from China...





AC

[virtualmaster]

Africans are interested in bitcoin:
http://2feetafrica.com/2013/04/5-african-countries-to-install-bitcoin-atm/

[countryfree]

I'm afraid bitcoin is too high tech for Zimbabwe. A scheme like M-Pesa is much better since it works with text messages. We should also consider that many transactions seen as important there, will be seen as dust in America or Europe.

[caveden]

I'm afraid bitcoin is too high tech for Zimbabwe. A scheme like M-Pesa is much better since it works with text messages. We should also consider that many transactions seen as important there, will be seen as dust in America or Europe.

Coinapult SMS Wallet is to Bitcoin what M-Pesa is to whatever fiat currency they transfer.
The problem with coinapult is that their sms wallet is only available in Canada+USA, two countries that don't really need it.
If somebody with good connections with mobile operators in these poorer countries builds something equivalent, there's a chance it'll take of. Actually, M-Pesa itself should seriously consider adding a bitcoin wallet option.