Paying a Small Country to Make Bitcoin an ADITIONAL Official Currency

[manfred]

Tuvalu, Tonga no hope

Looks like Iceland (Satoshis home country) is the frontrunner to have Crypto money first. Good location, way better than Nauru people know, accept and utilize bitcoins and the pirate party already has a say about it in parliament.

http://falkvinge.net/2013/04/28/icelandic-pirate-party-wins-enters-parliament/

Nauru currently lacks money to perform many of the basic functions of government; for example, the National Bank of Nauru is insolvent.
There are no personal taxes in Nauru. The unemployment rate is estimated to be 90 percent, and of those who have jobs, the government employs 95 percent
Tourism is not a major contributor to the economy
In the 1990s, Nauru became a tax haven and offered passports to foreign nationals for a fee,
The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) identified Nauru as one of 15 "non-cooperative" countries in its fight against money laundering. During the 1990s, it was possible to establish a licensed bank in Nauru for only $25,000 with no other requirements.
From 2001 to 2008, it accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for housing the Nauru detention centre. (reopend 2012)
There are no banks or ATMs in Nauru
Nauru had 9,378 residents as of July 2011.
The country is a member of the United Nations.
The Currency in use is the Australian dollar (AUD)  GDP 2006 estimate Total  $36.9 million
Nauruans are the most obese people in the world.
Nauru is the world's smallest republic.

[Anon136]

Tuvalu, Tonga no hope

Looks like Iceland (Satoshis home country) is the frontrunner to have Crypto money first. Good location, way better than Nauru people know, accept and utilize bitcoins and the pirate party already has a say about it in parliament.

http://falkvinge.net/2013/04/28/icelandic-pirate-party-wins-enters-parliament/

Nauru currently lacks money to perform many of the basic functions of government; for example, the National Bank of Nauru is insolvent.
There are no personal taxes in Nauru. The unemployment rate is estimated to be 90 percent, and of those who have jobs, the government employs 95 percent
Tourism is not a major contributor to the economy
In the 1990s, Nauru became a tax haven and offered passports to foreign nationals for a fee,
The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) identified Nauru as one of 15 "non-cooperative" countries in its fight against money laundering. During the 1990s, it was possible to establish a licensed bank in Nauru for only $25,000 with no other requirements.
From 2001 to 2008, it accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for housing the Nauru detention centre. (reopend 2012)
There are no banks or ATMs in Nauru
Nauru had 9,378 residents as of July 2011.
The country is a member of the United Nations.
The Currency in use is the Australian dollar (AUD)  GDP 2006 estimate Total  $36.9 million
Nauruans are the most obese people in the world.
Nauru is the world's smallest republic.

Look at nauru on the map, that place is SOOO small. And its entirely soveriegn and entirely broke. We libertarians really need to move there and take it over, it would be soo easy. And after we did we would have our own soveriegn nation, totally legitimate, recognized by every nation in the world as legitimate, no bs of trying to homestead some colony out in the middle of no where and spend the next 20 years attempting to gain legitimacy in the international community.

seriously look it up on google maps, you will crap your self when you see how small that totally soveriegn nation is.

[Inedible]

I think everyone is putting the cart before the horse.

There's no country in the world that will be willing to take up Bitcoin as their currency because their financial interactions with the outside world would be at the mercy of the volatile market prices.

Sure internally they're fine. They can price as they please.

Let's say it's 1BTC for a loaf of bread (keeping the numbers simple). Everything is going fine and people on Bitcoin Island do their own thing. All of a sudden, the price of Bitcoin crashes and I decide to pick them up at 500BTC per US Dollar.

Now I can buy up all the bread on Bitcoin Island for a few Dollars.

Note the inverse of this situation isn't true and the islanders are insulated from the outside world unless it's dependent on tourism/exports, in which case those businesses will suffer from being too expensive (to the outside world).

It's not possible to run your country on a currency you don't control without value stability against other financial actors.

[Maciek]

@Inedible
How about to run it on gold, silver and Bitcoins?

[phelix]

[...]
So... what's the exact proposition, bribe a country into saying that bitcoin is now it's official currency, but then let them totally ignore it?

Pretty much.

I remember reading somewhere that there is a South American country who's official currancy is the US Dollar. you might want to talk to them.
[...]

There seem to be a couple of countries with several official currencies.

[...]
I am still not convinced why Tuvalu is not the best place on Earth to keep my cold wallet though...
(sarcasm)

Why would you want to do that?

[...]
you have to make sure they are truly recognized by the international community as soveriegn. But yes count me in, i would pay 1 bitcoin.

Definitely.

[...]
What about creating our own country?
[...]

It would take ages and tons of effort to get it recognized. This is so much more difficult... (The same goes for the whole virtual country idea).

Why do you want to pay another country to adopt Bitcoin if it doesnt fully support the idea in the first place?
All you probably get is some law in their codes that states that "Bitcoin" is officially second legal tender in that state, a PR hit and thats it.

That and legal tender status making it an official currency giving us legal certainty.

They will probably not take any more efforts to propone the use or protection of Bitcoin in any way.

So what?

They may even reverse all those steps as soon as another party apporaches them with a bigger reward/stick in their hands.

This is a big issue....   If some big bully states tells them to shut it we are out of luck. Publicity nonetheless.

Why not try to pursuade any nation to adopt Bitcoin because they would indeed profit from the decision?
This way you get the "full faith and recognition" of the nation, and I know thats worth a lot to some people.
You get an active economy that uses Bitcoin instead of one that rather sticks to its old ways and lots of PR hits in the time to come.
The recent Zimbabwe example was probably a hoax but a realistic one at that. A country like Zimbabwe might very well look at the possible merrits of such a decision and decide for its country to adopt Bitcoin because it would provide an improvement to its current status.

That would of course be better but more difficult.

Ok, so if there would be anyone willing to do escrow...
[...]
1st Bitcoin from me. I could send even now - to escrow person.

lol. Easy, we need to take it slow.

There's no country in the world that will be willing to take up Bitcoin as their currency because their financial interactions with the outside world would be at the mercy of the volatile market prices.

You got it all wrong. It would only be an ADDITIONAL official currency.



What does it take to make a currency an "official" currency? Would be enough if small state xy officially proclaims that it will optionally accept BTC for tax and other payments at a rate equivalent of 0.001USD/BTC?

[melvster]

+1 to iceland now that they have the PP in govt.

The founder of the PP gave a keynote at the bitcoin conference 2 years ago. 

They looooove bitcoin.

[Inedible]

@Inedible
How about to run it on gold, silver and Bitcoins?

How do you mean?

[Maciek]

I mean the country would be willing to take TAXES in:
gold, silver, btc and their "old currency"

THIS IS GOOD:

It would only be an ADDITIONAL official currency.
What does it take to make a currency an "official" currency? Would be enough if small state xy officially proclaims that it will optionally accept BTC for tax and other payments at a rate equivalent of 0.001USD/BTC?

[Inedible]

I mean the country would be willing to take TAXES in:
gold, silver, btc and their "old currency"

THIS IS GOOD:

It would only be an ADDITIONAL official currency.
What does it take to make a currency an "official" currency? Would be enough if small state xy officially proclaims that it will optionally accept BTC for tax and other payments at a rate equivalent of 0.001USD/BTC?

You could use Bitcoin as an additional currency but then people would be less likely to be used day to day which pretty much defeats asking a small country to make Bitcoin it's official currency.

The only way you could do it is to have everything on Bitcoin Island dynamically priced so that all your goods prices vary from minute to minute.

[melvster]

I mean the country would be willing to take TAXES in:
gold, silver, btc and their "old currency"

THIS IS GOOD:

It would only be an ADDITIONAL official currency.
What does it take to make a currency an "official" currency? Would be enough if small state xy officially proclaims that it will optionally accept BTC for tax and other payments at a rate equivalent of 0.001USD/BTC?

You could use Bitcoin as an additional currency but then people would be less likely to be used day to day which pretty much defeats asking a small country to make Bitcoin it's official currency.

The only way you could do it is to have everything on Bitcoin Island dynamically priced so that all your goods prices vary from minute to minute.

Love the name "Bitcoin Island"

All you need is for it to be legal tender and backstopped vs a bigger currency by the govt.

[Inedible]

Love the name "Bitcoin Island"

All you need is for it to be legal tender and backstopped vs a bigger currency by the govt.

Not gonna lie. I kinda grinned when it came to mind 

How does backstopping work? In my mind I see one very unhappy Chancellor shoring up the value of Bitcoin as the likes of George Soros bets against Bitcoin (a la Britain being forced out of the ERM).

[Maciek]

How about supporting them:
http://www.seasteading.org/

https://www.facebook.com/seasteading
?

[Anon136]

How about supporting them:
http://www.seasteading.org/

https://www.facebook.com/seasteading
?

here is their address 1FexWDptSXFWsZvdLoBckZgVFWytHjsSu8

[FinShaggy]

Once I've got some money, I am completely down for this.

[Rassah]

Would be nice to have a friendly country to retire in 

[Maciek]

here is their address 1FexWDptSXFWsZvdLoBckZgVFWytHjsSu8

Source:
http://www.seasteading.org/donate/
Bitcoin Donations
Send your Bitcoin donation to this wallet address:
1FexWDptSXFWsZvdLoBckZgVFWytHjsSu8
Note: Donations made in BitCoins are not tax-deductible under current US tax law.

[Inedible]

Would be nice to have a friendly country to retire in 

Shame Bitcoin doesn't guarantee it would be filled with friendly folks. If anything it guarantees there will be scammers close by lol

[Bitcoinfly]

I thought the point of bitcoin is that you don't need a government to adopt it. In which case this whole discussion is beside the point!

+1  Exactly! There's no state where we are heading.

[Spendulus]

I mean the country would be willing to take TAXES in:
gold, silver, btc and their "old currency"

THIS IS GOOD:

It would only be an ADDITIONAL official currency.
What does it take to make a currency an "official" currency? Would be enough if small state xy officially proclaims that it will optionally accept BTC for tax and other payments at a rate equivalent of 0.001USD/BTC?

You could use Bitcoin as an additional currency but then people would be less likely to be used day to day which pretty much defeats asking a small country to make Bitcoin it's official currency.

The only way you could do it is to have everything on Bitcoin Island dynamically priced so that all your goods prices vary from minute to minute.

This assumes that the local currency is stable, but in many places that isn't true.   Cash registers at checkouts in many countries already recoimpute prices on the spot.  It's necessary where the local currency is devaluing rapidly.  Unfortunate, but true.

[Rassah]

Would be nice to have a friendly country to retire in 

Shame Bitcoin doesn't guarantee it would be filled with friendly folks. If anything it guarantees there will be scammers close by lol

Scammers can only exist because they stay anonymous on the web. If they live in close proximity, and continue to scam in person, they'll get screwed rather quickly. If they keep all their scamming to online only, then no one would even know, and it won't affect anyone either way.