How would a government go about getting into BTC?

[figmentofmyass]

there's always this approach: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

For sure mining. Because mining also secure network. Not to mention that they can get electricity cheaper.

I guess mining makes the most sense. It's the 'cleanest' method of obtaining coins. However there aren't all that many coins left to mine.

relative to the entire circulating supply, no, but how much gold do central banks own relative to the total supply?

it also depends how the fee market works out. during the 2017 hype, there was at least one occasion where block fees were greater than the 12.5 BTC subsidy.

[BitHodler]

The Dutch government would probably lose an usb-stick with the private keys in a taxi at some point.

I'm curious how they would trust employees to keep funds safe.

I assume that everything will be held in multi-sig wallets so that individual employees won't be able to have control over any funds themselves, especially when it comes to large amounts.

It wouldn't even surprise me if they make use of an external custodian to take care of storage. In all cases, governments and everything related to technology is a bit of a shaky combination.

I have seen myself how certain departments of the government here use windows XP, and that while you don't want them to take care of your information when they use such outdated operating systems.

[exstasie]

The Dutch government would probably lose an usb-stick with the private keys in a taxi at some point.

I'm curious how they would trust employees to keep funds safe.

I've always wondered how that works with exchanges. Beyond egregious screwups like that, there's the threat of inside jobs too. The Bitfinex hack always smelled like an inside job to me, as one example. Can you imagine how it might work at Coinbase, given their cold storage? No matter what, no matter how many signatures are required to spend from multi-sig addresses, it seems like insider collusion is always possible.

[cellard]

I've see some of these news recently:

https://bitcoinist.com/russia-ditch-usd-bitcoin-prof/

Apparently Putin is interested in Bitcoin to surpass US sanctions. It would be a great move, to use a neutral asset in order to stop the US government nonsense.

As far as an institution getting in, needless to say a mammoth like Russia, it would need huge liquidity. I don't see them going in some of these dumb exchanges, it must be something like Bakkt otherwise it's going to be a bit of mess. They can buy a tiny amount and drive the price to $100k next month.

[figmentofmyass]

I've see some of these news recently:

https://bitcoinist.com/russia-ditch-usd-bitcoin-prof/

Apparently Putin is interested in Bitcoin to surpass US sanctions. It would be a great move, to use a neutral asset in order to stop the US government nonsense.

i would take that article with a grain of salt. it's just based on the speculations of some university lecturer. there's no evidence that putin is interested in bitcoin at all.

at this stage in the game, bitcoin isn't even useful to evade sanctions. bitcoin's economy is still utterly dependent on fiat exchanges. the USA can easily slam exchangers with secondary sanctions if they're known to be dealing with putin and his cronies. there's just no liquidity in the market to cover the hundreds of billions of dollars these russian entities need to move.

[timerland]

So there's been some Russian no mark dribbling on about his government getting on Yobit and spunking their reserves on Bitcoin in the next few weeks.

Of course, dear.

But on a purely practical level if a government were serious about acquiring some, how do you think they would go about it?

Would they keep the stuff nicked by law enforcement? Look into mining? Buy through intermediaries? Be open about it or do it on the sly to make sure us scum didn't pump to rinse them? Would they collude with other governments or establish a position in secret before anyone else?

The law enforcement route could be possible.

If they were keeping the proceeds of what was sold of seized coins anyways, then if they ever wanted to get into investing in bitcoin as a reserve asset (maybe to replace gold as a reserve asset), they could theoretically just keep the coins for themselves instead of making a public auction.

They could also buy in the open market, but the volumes that they would require would quickly pump prices up in my opinion, so I don't think it's a feasible route. Perhaps OTC trading between large institutions as well as other countries central banks once more countries accept bitcoin as a reserve asset will be the way to go.

But either way, it's too early to say the method a country would use to acquire bitcoins for its reserves, when no one has actually done it yet. This can and will change in the future in my opinion, when more countries see how bitcoin can indeed offer a global store of value, just like gold, but much more convenient, portable, and liquid.

[OrangeII]

as government, maybe they need to provide various kinds of regulations regarding this, but as an individual, I think they also see the potential of bitcoin. well, of course I also think that they are using it, or working with several crypto companies to benefit from it. well, that happened in my country, it's just that the news isn't that big because there are people who don't understand cryptocurerncy besides bitcoin.