[2018-04-23] NPR - How the tiny nation of Georgia became a Bitcoin behemoth

[gentlemand]

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/23/597780405/how-the-tiny-nation-of-georgia-became-a-bitcoin-behemoth

A very interesting read about the distortions that occur when Bitcoinland descends on a small economy. Right now it doesn't look like Georgia itself gets all that much out of it. I hope that changes.

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[Ognerubov]

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/23/597780405/how-the-tiny-nation-of-georgia-became-a-bitcoin-behemoth

A very interesting read about the distortions that occur when Bitcoinland descends on a small economy. Right now it doesn't look like Georgia itself gets all that much out of it. I hope that changes.

 very interesting 

[Theb]

Quote from the article your provided:

That is the question. Is this crypto boom going to help or hinder Georgia, a country still struggling with widespread poverty?

Talking about a smaller cut, Georgia is only benefiting a little compared to what the U.S. Base cryptocurrency mining company (located in their country), Bitfury, is making, their electricity is subsidized meaning one of their operational cost is cut considerably. This company is running its operation in a equivalent of 120,000 Georgian household or 10% of the population and as a U.S. based company they are only paying either Income Tax or Capital Gains tax to served as a "fee" for their operations. Sadly it won't be enough to solve the issue of poverty in this nation. Bitfury is basically taking advantage of their situation.

They have also posted that only some of their citizens are into mining cryptocurrency, where the one they interviewed only earned 800$ by mining Zcash monthly. Not to get me wrong but 800$ is also a big amount of money but it won't help improve their economy if only few Georgians are into mining or even trading. If Georgia as a nation wants to take advantage of the situation they must encourage local competition against Bitfury or even think of ways to milk more money out of the foreign company.

[buwaytress]

I immediately called my former boss up in Georgia this morning when I read this because just last year I was telling him I wouldn't be surprised if Georgia were to silently become some kind of power in crypto. We're seeing Eastern Europe trying to become crypto friendly regulations wise.

But in Central Europe they're a bit more discrete. Yet quietly building really tight foundations for economic diversity... Mining may not be the brightest idea for the long term but it's certainly helped flagging economies for the foreseeable future.

[hatshepsut93]

We're seeing Eastern Europe trying to become crypto friendly regulations wise.

But in Central Europe they're a bit more discrete.

I guess it can be explained by the fact that most Eastern European countries are poor, so they are more willing to take risks that might have big payoffs, while Western Europe is more careful towards innovations because they don't want to risk what they are already have. But I also don't believe that Eastern Europe is completely crypto-friendly, corruption is a common problem there, and government officials might view crypto only as a tool to preserve and increase their own wealth rather than the country's.

[MoonJeina]

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/23/597780405/how-the-tiny-nation-of-georgia-became-a-bitcoin-behemoth

A very interesting read about the distortions that occur when Bitcoinland descends on a small economy. Right now it doesn't look like Georgia itself gets all that much out of it. I hope that changes.

That is quite a news for a developing country like Georgia . I have seen this alot that developing countries are more open -minded about accepting the block chain technology , mining and acceptance of crypto since all their efforts are to raise their country to the level of all those "branded countris" .
After the major mining activities were banned in China , it was expected that the mining centers would shift to the countries with more or the same type of natural resources in order to save the cost in cooling . Georgia is totally appropriate for this.