Paying a Small Country to Make Bitcoin an ADITIONAL Official Currency

[Gordonium]

I'll drink to that!

[nebulus]

Basically, you are talking about bribing some politicians... In my mind this would be a sinkhole investment...

[WiseOldOwl]

So I have shopped for islands before.
There are some big ones available.
If we get one (an island) next to a fairly underdeveloped nation, and arm ourselves to the teeth, and offer some type of positive outcome for them like production of some kind or we could even beef up there technology sector and offer serious upgrades and expetise. Then they probably would rather allow us to operate then invade us.
But we have to make ourselves beneficial or we are going to war (or just failing all together).

[Welsh]

It's a good idea and you would have to be pretty convicing and show them it's not a 'bubble'. Most countries are wary of  Bitcoin because of the DDOS lately, However Bitcoin is rising once again and pretty much shows the strength of it. I would suggest contacting the guys who created the documentary and see if they can go out and find a country who would be willing to accept, If I had the money I would buy my own island and set this kind of system up, sadly I don't have that kind of money.

[phelix]

In Germany Bitcoin is already treated like a foreign currency

What the hell are you talking about and what absurd place in Germany is this?

I bet it's Berlin, what with all their crazyness and being totally broke and all that.

The German federal financial supervisory agency wrote Bitcoin is a "unit of account" and these are treated like foreign currencies. If you wait for a year before selling you do not even have to pay any tax on profits. True story.

If bitcoin becomes an official currency, the decentralized idea will disappear as with any country and currency there is a controlling institution over it.

Yeah, like all the small countries using the dollar more than their own currencies totally control it.

Basically, you are talking about bribing some politicians... In my mind this would be a sinkhole investment...

It would be a one time investment. Once they would announce it the cat would be out of the bag.

[nebulus]

It would be a one time investment. Once they would announce it the cat would be out of the bag.

What makes you think they would not pocket the money? UN laws?

[Praxis]

I would move there.

[benjamindees]

Basically, you are talking about bribing some politicians... In my mind this would be a sinkhole investment...

It would be a one time investment. Once they would announce it the cat would be out of the bag.

It's an interesting idea from a publicity standpoint.  I think, it would have to be a fairly unique situation, like a small European principality or something, to turn into much more than that.  But I'm not sure that lack of publicity is what's holding back Bitcoin at the moment.

[surebet]

So, what will happen with Satoshi Dice then?

[Gordonium]

So, what will happen with Satoshi Dice then?

?

[waxwing]

Iceland is to me the obvious candidate. At 350000 it's a bit bigger than what the OP had in mind but it really ticks all the boxes:

Fiercely independent and isolated geographically. Forward thinking technological people. Energy independent (geothermal) so not having to constantly beg others. Seriously burned by the financial crisis and notably, the only country that reacted honorably to the disaster - they actually prosecuted financiers. And currently they have a currency which has crashed - they even considered converting to the euro but then regained their sanity.

As for people worrying about centralisation, just think about it for a minute - this is not a "sovereign" currency, there is no seignorage.

[surebet]

So, what will happen with Satoshi Dice then?

?

The blockchain shat itself trying to process 40k transactions recently. Not withstanding the rest of the traffic, how do you think you'll be able to cover even the smallest country's transaction volume with SD sucking down the available place?

[Come-from-Beyond]

So, what will happen with Satoshi Dice then?

?

The blockchain shat itself trying to process 40k transactions recently. Not withstanding the rest of the traffic, how do you think you'll be able to cover even the smallest country's transaction volume with SD sucking down the available place?

Very good point.

[phelix]

It would be a one time investment. Once they would announce it the cat would be out of the bag.

What makes you think they would not pocket the money? UN laws?

escrow

Iceland is to me the obvious candidate. At 350000 it's a bit bigger than what the OP had in mind but it really ticks all the boxes:

Fiercely independent and isolated geographically. Forward thinking technological people. Energy independent (geothermal) so not having to constantly beg others. Seriously burned by the financial crisis and notably, the only country that reacted honorably to the disaster - they actually prosecuted financiers. And currently they have a currency which has crashed - they even considered converting to the euro but then regained their sanity.

As for people worrying about centralisation, just think about it for a minute - this is not a "sovereign" currency, there is no seignorage.

Would be nice but probably too expensive.

[...]
[troll attempt to derail the thread]
[useful part:] how do you think you'll be able to cover even the smallest country's transaction volume
[...]

There is no need for the country or the citizens of the country to do even a single Bitcoin tx.

[surebet]

There is no need for the country or the citizens of the country to do even a single Bitcoin tx.

So you want to sell the gold bitcoin standard to a country?

[Bitcoinpro]

Basically, you are talking about bribing some politicians... In my mind this would be a sinkhole investment...

giving away coin 

[waxwing]

It would be a one time investment. Once they would announce it the cat would be out of the bag.

What makes you think they would not pocket the money? UN laws?

escrow

Iceland is to me the obvious candidate. At 350000 it's a bit bigger than what the OP had in mind but it really ticks all the boxes:

Fiercely independent and isolated geographically. Forward thinking technological people. Energy independent (geothermal) so not having to constantly beg others. Seriously burned by the financial crisis and notably, the only country that reacted honorably to the disaster - they actually prosecuted financiers. And currently they have a currency which has crashed - they even considered converting to the euro but then regained their sanity.

As for people worrying about centralisation, just think about it for a minute - this is not a "sovereign" currency, there is no seignorage.

Would be nice but probably too expensive.

Sure, sorry for a moment I forgot you were proposing to pay a country to change their national currency

Honestly, though, it might happen without any payoffs.

[phelix]

[...]

Sure, sorry for a moment I forgot you were proposing to pay a country to change their national currency

Honestly, though, it might happen without any payoffs.

Not "their" national currency but an additional national currency. Can a country have more than one currency? 

Giving away bitcoins to politicians or governments = money down the drain, because they will find ways to accommodate their banker donors within their future plans too.

On the other hand, if you give bitcoins to every resident of that country, bitcoin will become the currency of that country by default.

Either way, I think it's a waste of bitcoins. Bitcoin has so many advantages that it will become widely established on its own merits. As an alternative to giving away Bitcoins to a small country, it would help Bitcoin more to post a big bounty for a user-friendly interface to multi-sig transactions. If people can easily keep their bitcoins safe, they're more likely to use them.

It might offer some protection against getting prohibited. Should that ever happen in several large countries the price would probably drop so we could not it any more.

[surebet]

There is no need for the country or the citizens of the country to do even a single Bitcoin tx.

*cough*

Still waiting...

[mugdesign]

i think it sound a really long procedure but not impossible at all, i can see where you are comming from