[2018-09-11] IMF warns marshall islands over crypto experiment

[European Central Bank]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45485685

'IMF directors said the potential benefits of the move were much smaller than the potential costs of "economic, reputational and governance risks".'

i can't say i'm too surprised at this move. it's one thing if somewhere relatively substantial tries it, it's a whole other thing if somewhere tiny and easily cowed tries this move. the IMF, or rather the banks behind them, is basically threatening them by reminding them of their dependence on foreign intervention when things go wrong.

will they plow on?

[TraderTimm]

"How dare you side-step our carefully contructed cartel!"

On the other hand, using ETH's ERC20 tokens is a mistake, but its hilarious that the IMF is all up in arms about it.

They deserve to lose control, bunch of centrist jackholes.

[senin]

Since the IMF threatens the Marshall Islands not to provide financial assistance, if this republic does not reconsider its decision to introduce its centralized crypto currency as the second legitimate money, then this is not an economic benefit, but simply a political decision on the official transition to the use of crypto currency. The IMF does not want to lose financial power over the whole world. Therefore, they want the dollar to rule everywhere.

[snipie]

The IMF, the world bank are just made up to control the whole world monetary system and to make poorer countries poorer and to control its souls. Every move to get ride of its control will be threatened. As TraderTimm mentioned,  they are a legal cartel backed by some individuals!

[European Central Bank]

On the other hand, using ETH's ERC20 tokens is a mistake

https://twitter.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1040058994889576449

this sounds like a bit of a skeevy project overall. some ICO assholes are taking half of the money raised, not that I've ever understood why any national currency ever needed one anyway.

once again the original principles of crypto are railroaded by greedy scum.

[buwaytress]

"How dare you side-step our carefully contructed cartel!"

On the other hand, using ETH's ERC20 tokens is a mistake, but its hilarious that the IMF is all up in arms about it.

They deserve to lose control, bunch of centrist jackholes.

Indeed, to commission a report like that, warning Malta to back off? Smells like they they've been sweating for a long time. Probably already made their threats earlier. Reminiscent of when Estonia announced that they were going ahead with their national tokens last year right after Euro Bank warned them not to. Economic threats short of sanctions were too much to ignore and Estonia finally caved in and scrapped them. Malta will do the same, or at least find a way around it.

Don't get why none of these countries just opt fot Bitcoin instead. Tap into an existing network that's already immune to any interference from these financial cartels. Maybe a Bitcoin state convert isn't too far away...

[Kakmakr]

Now, this statement just shows to what length they will go to prevent people from doing this :

" Adopting a digital currency as an official form of legal tender would threaten both financial integrity and the nation's key relationship with the US bank. The result could be disruption to foreign aid, according to the IMF. " 

They know if one country does this successfully, then a lot of other countries will follow and they must squash this like a little bug, before this turns into a global trend. 

[European Central Bank]

Don't get why none of these countries just opt fot Bitcoin instead. Tap into an existing network that's already immune to any interference from these financial cartels. Maybe a Bitcoin state convert isn't too far away...

that's one leap too far for any nation state. for many the attraction is an increase in control. taking up bitcoin would be the exact opposite of what they want to achieve.

[Kemarit]

Now, this statement just shows to what length they will go to prevent people from doing this :

" Adopting a digital currency as an official form of legal tender would threaten both financial integrity and the nation's key relationship with the US bank. The result could be disruption to foreign aid, according to the IMF. " 

They know if one country does this successfully, then a lot of other countries will follow and they must squash this like a little bug, before this turns into a global trend. 

Yes, probably it will set up a precedence and an avalanche of small countries opting for crypto rather than USD. And then IMF will be useless to say that least. Why not let that Island experimented it first and see how it goes? Why the threat from IMF? Are they going for economic sanctions because its possible that Marshall Islands no longer needed loans in foreseeable future if this experiments become a success?

And as per article:

"The IMF is not strong-arming the Marshalls, what they're doing is describing what will obviously happen if they proceed - the large correspondent bank will be quite worried," he added.

LOL. That bolded statement sums up everything.

[RodeoX]

I just contacted their tourist board and told them I was interested in vacationing there because I heard they take bitcoin.
  Fuck the IMF!

[LeGaulois]

There is just one domestic commercial bank in the country and it is at risk of losing its only correspondent banking relationship with another bank in the US.

The islands are free from The US administration for decades, for sure they won't have any problem to get another relationship with another foreign bank, and still in USD, so the argument is invalid.
"reputational and governance risks" which ones are they referring too. They won't get a coup d'etat and they won't have the reputation of pirates

[deisik]

There is just one domestic commercial bank in the country and it is at risk of losing its only correspondent banking relationship with another bank in the US.

The islands are free from The US administration for decades, for sure they won't have any problem to get another relationship with another foreign bank, and still in USD, so the argument is invalid.

I'm afraid it doesn't work like that

It is not like one bank refusing to work with you and you simply go to another. And whether the islands are free from the US administration is also irrelevant here. If the said administration decides to crack down on the isles, there'll be no choice to switch to another bank since they will be switched off from the dollar payment system entirely. That basically means that the only way they can use dollars is via cash only, with their funds frozen in American banks. If you need a real life example, see what happened to Iran. It had billions of dollars frozen when the US cracked down on them. All cashless dollar transactions are going through American banks and they will do whatever Washington tells them