Bitcoin as emergency currency for use in Egypt?

[Stephen Gornick]

Will we see Bitcoin used by those who were left unprepared for the current situation in Egypt?

But with banks closed and many ATMs out of cash, some are already feeling a pinch in their pocketbook.
"We can't get any money out and we have less than 1,000 pounds ($170) in cash at the moment so we're buying what we can now and we'll try to get by," said Rafik Baladi, a 59-year-old musician and writer.

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110131/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_protest_daily_life

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[kiba]

The internet is down. How are they supposed to use bitcoin?

[Anonymous]

The internet is down. How are they supposed to use bitcoin?

tor ?


actually its kinda scary that all the isp's folded. It could give politicians in other countries ideas....

I dont like what happens when pollies get ideas.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/some-weekend-work-that-will-hopefully.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/MKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29


Perhaps a useful thing to build is a way to interface with voicemail to send commands to a remote bitcoin server.

So just like accessing telephone banking you would access a bitcoin bank account via voice.

I used to think there wasnt a use case for a bitcoin bank but now this provides some sort of demand for it.

[kiba]

The internet is down. How are they supposed to use bitcoin?

tor ?


actually its kinda scary that all the isp's folded. It could give politicians in other countries ideas....

I dont like what happens when pollies get ideas.

All the ISP are down.

[Garrett Burgwardt]

And the fact that I don't think many people there know about bitcoins. If it were 20 years in the future and bitcoin was accepted more widely, maybe. But not likely I don't think.

[bitdragon]

I quite like the idea of

http://www.pcworld.com/article/218155/get_internet_access_when_your_government_shuts_it_down.html

http://wiki.daviddarts.com/PirateBox


With enough wifi ap and a solid app, a network can arise without the need to be connected to the ISP-

Imagine a city like NYC? , with a wifi network totally independent.

not sure how this fits in with bitcoin but http://deaddrops.com is a nice idea too

[Ricochet]

And the fact that I don't think many people there know about bitcoins. If it were 20 years in the future and bitcoin was accepted more widely, maybe. But not likely I don't think.

Agreed.  We don't really know how many people there even have Bitcoins, or why they'd need to use them.  I haven't been following the situation as well as I perhaps should have, but the main issue is the lack of Internet access, right?  Has the local currency folded as well or is there another reason why they can't use what they've already got?  EDIT:  I fail at reading the first post, my bad >_>

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/some-weekend-work-that-will-hopefully.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/MKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29

Perhaps a useful thing to build is a way to interface with voicemail to send commands to a remote bitcoin server.

So just like accessing telephone banking you would access a bitcoin bank account via voice.

Rumor has it that landline service will be cut in the next few days as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if those rumors were true.

[mimarob]

I heard something on the news, that google put up a phone number where people would call in and talk in a message. That message would then be sent on twitter.

[BitterTea]

I heard something on the news, that google put up a phone number where people would call in and talk in a message. That message would then be sent on twitter.

http://twitter.com/speak2tweet