What if Nigeria suddenly demanded that all the export would be done in btc?

[trismegiste]

If, at this point in time, a government like Nigeria decided to only sell its resources for Bitcoin.

What would the implications be for the Trade in Nigeria and for Bitcoin?

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[DhaniBoy]

if it is to be applied in Nigeria, the infrastructure must be equipped, among others, a stable internet connection, if there is damage to the backup power should exist to make the internet to stay connected, bitcoin can not be separated from the internet, so that nigeria should prepare power reserves in quantities large enough, then that must be ensured that the entire people of nigeria are already familiar with the Internet, it depends on the socialization of the government, hopefully this can be quickly realized in nigeria ... 

[lihuajkl]

You just made an assumption about a scenario one day may happen. But it can't be over night.

[BRE]

Its good for btc world , but you know and we know about magic of nigeria 
Too much internet scam come from that country.
And their Gov will not approved that , maybe only personal transaction from some individual merchant.
And its more save use $ than btc for now.
too much risk for a country who dare to accept BTC for their export payment.

[MrTeal]

Its good for btc world , but you know and we know about magic of nigeria 
Too much internet scam come from that country.

Some internet scams, and the fourth largest exporter of oil in the world.

[MsCollec]

Its good for btc world , but you know and we know about magic of nigeria 
Too much internet scam come from that country.

Some internet scams, and the fourth largest exporter of oil in the world.

Nigeria is not the hub of internet scam, some people even pretend to be a Nigerian just to scam people 

Nigerian Economy Overtakes South Africa’s on Rebased GDP.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-06/nigerian-economy-overtakes-south-africa-s-on-rebased-gdp.html

[scarsbergholden]

If, at this point in time, a government like Nigeria decided to only sell its resources for Bitcoin.

What would the implications be for the Trade in Nigeria and for Bitcoin?

the market cap for bitcoin presently is not at a level to be able to handle a country the size of Nigeria.   Notwithstanding, how is your internet infrastructure for areas outside of major cities?  You know cryptocurrencies are all internet based right.    Physical cash will be with the world forever, just look at how thing go when a blackout occurs and people are unable to get funds from ATMs or credit/debit cards.   

A complete blackout puts everyone on the same level, but to have no net while atms, debit, credit, and wires can still operate will just highlight why you can't have all of your money in any one currency.

This is a good point about the market cap of bitcoin not being large enough. One of the princes of a middle eastern country suggested something similar with their oil exports and the counter-arguement was the same.

Another point is that since the dollar is still the world reserve currency, all that would happen is, people would buy bitcoin to buy the resources then would sell the bitcoin for the resources then the selling country would have a bunch of bitcoin that they cannot spend because what they need is not priced in bitcoin so they end up selling the bitcoin

[pattu1]

I guess the lead could be taken by a small country. Then as international practices become established, others could follow.

[mmsen]

The Nigerian economy is too big and btc is too unstable - the Federal government would not be keen on such an idea and might take steps to hinder such a plan. They refuse to allow anyone to exchange their national currency with an entity that is outside of the purview of the Nigerian legal system, for them to completely relinquish control of all currency decisions would be a huge step in another direction.

OP doesn't seem to understand the nature of the Nigerian economy - it is very much based upon private commerce but licensing and government oversight plays a role. Even if you got the businesses on side they push them into operating outside of the law.

OP may as well ask what would happen if America traded in btc instead of dollars...

[oblivi]

Do you think the average nigerian can afford a personal computer/smartphone? because I dont think so.

[mmsen]

Do you think the average nigerian can afford a personal computer/smartphone? because I dont think so.

A lot of Nigerians have smartphones from what I saw, particularly the youngsters.

[Dalmar]

That would be idiotic. Why would a country sell their valuable commodities for a speculative digital currency controlled by people who bought it for pennies just a few years ago.

Perhaps if bitcoin was a bit older (over a decade) and more stable it would feasible, but now... no way.

[boumalo]

Hopefully news like that will come up in a few years

We already see an increasing of countries trading in Gold or other currencies than the USD

[Grand_Voyageur]

If, at this point in time, a government like Nigeria decided to only sell its resources for Bitcoin.

What would the implications be for the Trade in Nigeria and for Bitcoin?

If Nigerian export will be denominated in BTC sure enough the next Nigerian scam emails will ask you BTC instead of US$. By the while some exports as oil are priced on Exchanges in world trade standard currency, not in national one.

[CryptoCarmen]

If, at this point in time, a government like Nigeria decided to only sell its resources for Bitcoin.

What would the implications be for the Trade in Nigeria and for Bitcoin?

Nigeria would be full of BTC.

[pereira4]

Do you think the average nigerian can afford a personal computer/smartphone? because I dont think so.

A lot of Nigerians have smartphones from what I saw, particularly the youngsters.

Most i've seen is really, really old cheap and used ones that would struggle when trying to deal with a wallet. All they could hope for is accessing it via an online wallet in blockchain.info I guess.

[mmsen]

Do you think the average nigerian can afford a personal computer/smartphone? because I dont think so.

A lot of Nigerians have smartphones from what I saw, particularly the youngsters.

Most i've seen is really, really old cheap and used ones that would struggle when trying to deal with a wallet. All they could hope for is accessing it via an online wallet in blockchain.info I guess.

I guess it depends on locale and the people you associate with.

[painlord2k]

Nigeria export $93.55 billion (2013 est.)

Given 13 M BTC

93,550 M$/13M BTC = USD 7,200/BTC
And they would end with all the existing BTC in one year (if the price was fixed to 7200$).
If we suppose they just keep the difference between imports and exports (35 billions) the price would be 2888 $.

Now, given the quantity of coins really available on the market to be bought is a lot less than 13 M, the price would go a lot higher (say around 5-10 higher) and this without taking in account the fact prices are determined at the edge and not from a mean.

The problem is they would end with all BTCs in one year at these prices.

If they just used BTCs to pay for imports and bought the exact same number of BTC with their imports (and kept the profits in something else), they would need to receive and send 13K BTC every day at a mean exchange rate around 1200 $. They would, also, be prudent to keep at least ten days of BTC as reserves (130K BTC - little less than 30 days of mining).

[Window2Wall]

Nigeria export $93.55 billion (2013 est.)

Given 13 M BTC

93,550 M$/13M BTC = USD 7,200/BTC
And they would end with all the existing BTC in one year (if the price was fixed to 7200$).
If we suppose they just keep the difference between imports and exports (35 billions) the price would be 2888 $.

Now, given the quantity of coins really available on the market to be bought is a lot less than 13 M, the price would go a lot higher (say around 5-10 higher) and this without taking in account the fact prices are determined at the edge and not from a mean.

The problem is they would end with all BTCs in one year at these prices.

If they just used BTCs to pay for imports and bought the exact same number of BTC with their imports (and kept the profits in something else), they would need to receive and send 13K BTC every day at a mean exchange rate around 1200 $. They would, also, be prudent to keep at least ten days of BTC as reserves (130K BTC - little less than 30 days of mining).

Wouldn't nigeria need to spend some of the money it receives from exports domestically? Most countries do and I don't see any reason why they would not. Also I don't see why they would need to keep the money they receive from exports in bitcoin even if they did not need to spend it as bitcoin is very unstable and is far from certain to increase in value

[Grand_Voyageur]

Nigeria export $93.55 billion (2013 est.)

Given 13 M BTC

93,550 M$/13M BTC = USD 7,200/BTC
And they would end with all the existing BTC in one year (if the price was fixed to 7200$).
If we suppose they just keep the difference between imports and exports (35 billions) the price would be 2888 $.

Now, given the quantity of coins really available on the market to be bought is a lot less than 13 M, the price would go a lot higher (say around 5-10 higher) and this without taking in account the fact prices are determined at the edge and not from a mean.

The problem is they would end with all BTCs in one year at these prices.

If they just used BTCs to pay for imports and bought the exact same number of BTC with their imports (and kept the profits in something else), they would need to receive and send 13K BTC every day at a mean exchange rate around 1200 $. They would, also, be prudent to keep at least ten days of BTC as reserves (130K BTC - little less than 30 days of mining).

If we scale up your argument...the maximum theoretical value of each BTC would be 5.7M$. Accordingly to CIA's World Factbook the World GDP last available figure was 74.31 trillion $, so each of the 13 million BTC would be valued at $5.7 million. Nice to know but sad it cannot be reached for a very long time (if ever).