Can Bitcoin support a country?

[Opsamk]

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

[bryant.coleman]

Right now, if some small island nation such as Nauru or Palau adopts it, I think it could be handled without any major issues.

[AlbertKing]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

[EvilPanda]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

There was an idea on the forums to buy an island and declare it a BTC republic. Some of them cost just a few mil $.

[hilariousandco]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

There was an idea on the forums to buy an island and declare it a BTC republic. Some of them cost just a few mil $.

Ha, that would be great. Some of these Bitcoin millionaires should club together and buy their own.

[bythesea]

Don't think so. Too much of a hassle.

[EvilPanda]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

There was an idea on the forums to buy an island and declare it a BTC republic. Some of them cost just a few mil $.

Ha, that would be great. Some of these Bitcoin millionaires should club together and buy their own.

And they are really affordable. Just check this out http://www.privateislandsonline.com/islands/nanuya-island-resort

Imagine creating a BTC only town on one of those islands, with some hotels and bungalows for rent. People would go there just to check out the one and only BTC banana republic  

[melvster]

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

Sure, quite easily.

The main gov website would probably do most transactions tho, and the block chain would be used sparingly.

[psybits]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

There was an idea on the forums to buy an island and declare it a BTC republic. Some of them cost just a few mil $.

An artificial island nation would be the go - some BTC billionaires could seriously afford this now.

[hilariousandco]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

There was an idea on the forums to buy an island and declare it a BTC republic. Some of them cost just a few mil $.

Ha, that would be great. Some of these Bitcoin millionaires should club together and buy their own.

And they are really affordable. Just check this out http://www.privateislandsonline.com/islands/nanuya-island-resort

Imagine creating a BTC only town on one of those islands, with some hotels and bungalows for rent. People would go there just to check out the one and only BTC banana republic  

Wow. Peeps should actually do this. As long as you can turn it into your own sovereign nation and have Bitcoin as it's currency this would be a great idea. I bet you'd make your money back if you built hotels/property on it. Imagine all the free publicity you would get as the media would be all over this.

[zimmah]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

There was an idea on the forums to buy an island and declare it a BTC republic. Some of them cost just a few mil $.

some cost even less.

i'd be down for donating to buy one, as long as the 'laws' of the republic would be good enough. (altough i don't have that much money)

the cheapest i know of right now is close to canada (but still in the USA) on the eastcoast for  just $40,000, it's just 1 acres though.

I think the best thing would be buy a nice cheap island in a nice climate area and just build some hotels and stuff on it for tourists (just don't build too much because you want to preserve nature), maybe even make some kind of 'open zoo' from the island, as long as you don't mess up the ecosystem too much of course (even better if there's already enough wildlife to begin with).

you could rent out the hotel rooms for bitcoin. (or have a more luxury villa on it instead of a hotel).

maybe we should make a kickstarter for this shit.

[Dafar]

so we can make a sell off and then buy in this whole country?

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

There was an idea on the forums to buy an island and declare it a BTC republic. Some of them cost just a few mil $.

How could you do this if you had the money? Are these islands completely free from the gov?

[GigaCoin]

YOu'd have 3 main problems:

1. Declaring a sovereign nation just doesn't happen that easily anymore, every land on the planet is claimed.
2. Even if you buy an island, the government in which you reside under will still tax you to hell might as well just live in the city or countryside.
3. If bitcoin is rejected by governments and made illegal in the future, you run the risk of being labelled as terrorists and then the drone strikes on your island begin

It would be much easier to get a country like in the bahamas or the pacific to adopt bitcoin as their official currency, then migrate and live there.

[Gabi]

Doable but the block size must be increased. 7 transactions per second is not enough.

[EvilPanda]

There are many countries where you can have a lot of freedom, especially if you're willing to help the population. Imagine moving to an island on the Pacific, somewhere near Indonesia or New Guinea. My wild guess is that their governments would greet such investor with open arms, especially with a lot of bitcoiners involved in charity. Of course you'd have to pay taxes but my guess is they woud give you a lot of freedom to accept only BTC on your island and do what you like, as long as you pay.

[hilariousandco]

YOu'd have 3 main problems:

1. Declaring a sovereign nation just doesn't happen that easily anymore, every land on the planet is claimed.

Anything can be bought if you have the right amount of money  , but yes, it's very hard to create your own nation. I guess it needs to be for obvious reasons. If you piss America or Britain off I'm sure they'd be over there in a jiffy to blast you out of existence, but as a libertarian I do love the idea of Bitcoinland.

[proton]

Can BTC replace fiat currency altogether in a country, if that is what they wanted?

7 transaction limit per second means, there is a limit on the amount of economic activity BTC can support.  Based on my calculations, BTC cannot replace FIAT in G20 countries (20 countries with the largest GDP).

It cannot do so for those countries with large populations either, regardless how rich/poor they are. (It goes without saying that it wont work if the infrastructure is not there which leaves out all the poor countries).

The largest country/economy where BTC would work may be those like Norway, Sweden.

Where this would make most sense? It would be for countries like Argentine, Ecuador, Cuba where the national currency is not really trustworthy and where they have a sufficient degree of computer/network infrastructure.

[franky1]

buying up a private island is cheap.

constructing buildings, residences, utilities, power generation.. that is the lengthy and costly part

[zimmah]

buying up a private island is cheap.

constructing buildings, residences, utilities, power generation.. that is the lengthy and costly part

you can buy islands that come with residences as well.

but if you want an island that can function as an actual nation, rather than a holiday resort, it may get pretty expensive.

[nate008]

If Bitcoin was adopted by a country as an official currency, could the Bitcoin network handle it?

The current network does 7tps. , thats 7 transactions per second , and it comes to around 600000 /day.
Now , if a country bigger than Luxembourg would rely on the current bitcoin network , we would have a major problem.
People will be dealing in back alleys in fiat because they can't get their transactions done with bitcoin