Can Greece adopt Bitcoin? The answer is No

[chek2fire]

they would do much better with their own currency after some time.

By devaluing it into oblivion like they did (several times) in the past, before adopting the euro?

Did you know that, despite the fact that most Greeks dislike the EU, more than 63% of them want to keep the euro as their currency? They remember how it was before, when they had their own currency that the government could devalue at will.

While many people in Greece blame Merkel for their economic woes, it is not really Germany's fault for being reluctant to pay other people's expenses. It is the fault of the Greek governments (several of them) that they have taken on huge debts (using the fact that the market demanded very low interest rates since those were "bonds of an EU country") and wasting the money on stupid socialist projects and welfare (14th monthly salary anyone?).

Of course, the EU also has done some pretty stupid things. "Austerity" when you are up to your neck in government debt is a good idea only if implemented properly - which means cutting government expenses drastically but also cutting taxes and letting the private businesses flourish. Instead, the troika has insisted on cutting government spending and raising taxes, which is a recipe for disaster.

Not to mention that the original idea of imposing a single currency on the Eurozone without a single Eurozone debt was an economic idiocy that guaranteed that the current economic crisis was going to happen. Imagine the USA with no Treasury bonds, only state and municipal bonds, but the states cannot print money and cannot be allowed to go bankrupt. If that were the case, the USA would have disappeared by now into economic oblivion. Which is where the EU seems to be firmly headed.

SYRIZA is a rather fascist/nationalist party that is making an opportunistic power-grab, exploiting the fact that the people are angry with the status quo. It is, actually, quite likely to win the elections. It is not, however, likely to improve things there. Oh, well. At least it is not the Stalinist party or the openly fascist Golden Dawn. Yep, they have those there too. When the economy turns down, the cockroaches start crawling.

The topic should really be "Can <insert country> adopt Bitcoin? The answer is no".

You are wrong in something and i think is not your fault but the propoganda from global financial system about Greece and Greek people.
First the 14 salary is a contract between employer and company to keep every month some money from employer salary to give all of them in specific time of the year like christmas . Is not a gift from state to the employers.
Second the several government that you say is two political parties like i write before. They rule Greece for half century,
And the last Syriza is a traditional europe left political party that for someone who live in USA is difficult to understand. The left parties for a USA citizen is evil and they compare them with North Korea. In europe the situation is very different and this parties is more democratical than other right or libertarian political parties.

[Zawamiya]

i don't think greece will adopt bitcoin, but we can get positive news from russia or india about bitcoins
seems like they are getting interested in bitcoin

[Robert Paulson]

it can and should.
if they adopt bitcoin their government will not be able to continue borrowing money with zero interest rate and will have to cut spending, allowing the free market to bring prosperity back.

[Vessko]

First the 14 salary is a contract between employer and company to keep every month some money from employer salary to give all of them in specific time of the year like christmas . Is not a gift from state to the employers.

Yeah, right. And the union benefits that bankrupted Detroit were "voluntary" contracts between the employer and the employees too.

Second the several government that you say is two political parties like i write before. They rule Greece for half century,

Whatever. My point is that the problem arose because the government(s) who ruled the country since it became a member of the Eurozone till the financial crisis took on a lot of debt and wasted the money (like governments are wont to do), mostly on socialist idiocies and welfare, instead of letting the private business develop.

And the last Syriza is a traditional europe left political party that for someone who live in USA is difficult to understand.

In case you don't know, so were the Nazis. The name is an abbreviation for "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei", which means "national socialist workers' party of Germany". Left or right, socialism always ends in a dictatorship, eventually. It believes in "distribution of wealth" (i.e., theft), which cannot be accepted voluntarily by those from whom the wealth is taken, so a legal/political/military system is necessary to beat them into submission.

Oh, and I don't live in the USA. Thank goodness. It's bad enough here; I have no need for it to be even worse.

[bitcoinmining]

bitcoin = no tax available (try to freeze an bitcoin adress ...) = corruption decline = done.
fiat = tax + freeze + inflation + printing money = poor people = war.

i prefer the first solution ...

Well said, I think Greek people prefer the first solution like you do. Probably they know nothing about Bitcoin, so it's time to introduce Bitcoin to Greek people. Maybe they can use Bitcoin(or nationally created GreekCoin) instead of Euro in the future

[BitmoreCoin]

The Greek is spending too much money buying weapons, mainly from Germany. Without that it could be in better financial position. However, it might not be able to fight Turkey as a result.

[botany]

it can and should.
if they adopt bitcoin their government will not be able to continue borrowing money with zero interest rate and will have to cut spending, allowing the free market to bring prosperity back.

Even if it is possible, this is absolutely the wrong time.
You should wait till the economy stabilizes and starts chugging forward.

[Q7]

When you are in a mess you need a monetary system like fiat to bail you out. That means printing more and more of those paper money. Sometimes, even when the contingency plan is in place, it will still remain the same. That is when you know the mess you are in is just too deep to crawl out. Bitcoin is different, you can't print more of it. You can bluff your way through. Nobody can manipulate it. And that is what I like about the system.

[turvarya]

First the 14 salary is a contract between employer and company to keep every month some money from employer salary to give all of them in specific time of the year like christmas . Is not a gift from state to the employers.

Yeah, right. And the union benefits that bankrupted Detroit were "voluntary" contracts between the employer and the employees too.

What are you even talking about?
There is also a 14th salary in Austria, often also in german contracts. It has nothing to do with welfare. Is that really that hard to understand?

[ensurance982]

I find the idea of "adopting Bitcoin as a state-currency" highly interesting, but I fail to see how this exactly would be done. Would you buy a large amount of BTC and distribute them to the citizens? Would you switch over every transaction to be done in BTC. What would be the best way to do this in order to profit from an appreciation of BTC's value (and it's stability in terms of an independent currency)?

[Elwar]

You could have replaced the word Greece with "United States", the parties with "Democrat" and "Republican", the same types of financial elite, corrupt banks, etc..

The United States will not adopt Bitcoin either.

The people of the United States can though. The people of Greece can as well. If people are not technical enough...then they can stick to their corruption. Bitcoin allows people to leave that all behind.

[BitmoreCoin]

I find the idea of "adopting Bitcoin as a state-currency" highly interesting, but I fail to see how this exactly would be done. Would you buy a large amount of BTC and distribute them to the citizens? Would you switch over every transaction to be done in BTC. What would be the best way to do this in order to profit from an appreciation of BTC's value (and it's stability in terms of an independent currency)?

What the state can do is to accept BTC as taxes, and then spend it for government expenses. It can also borrow BTC and spend it.

Buy the BTC before government adopts to profit from it.

[afkmember]

Bitcoin could help greece and financial problems but there is no way it could happen.

[ChuckBuck]

I think before Bitcoin can replace or supplement a currency, it still has alot to grow up itself.  It has alot to fix on BTC's side first.

It's not Bitcoin's currency, protocol, or tech itself that caused the BitStamp problems, since it is supposed to be decentralized yet is traded on a centralized exchange like Stamp.  It still is perception though, fair or not.  To the average joe, Gox = BTC and Stamp = BTC.  Whether it's a hack, hot wall issue, code issue, does not matter.  Things like this should never ever happen to an exchange dealing with millions of dollars on a daily basis.

There's has to consensus shift away from centralizing everything, and though there are burgeoning Decentralized exchanges popping up, most of the major players(whales) are on one of Big 4: BitStamp, BTC-E, Bitfinex, and Huobi

Bitcoin can't be a currency for Greece, until it fixes it's own issues.

[tzortz]

tend to agree with op
it is quite backward country, that relies almost totally on tourism and people are avoiding now because of problems

they have an amazing history as a country, but you have to go back a LONG way

Dumbest post read in this forum. Be more educated before posting nonsenses.



To the op, definitely BTC is not the ideal currency for Greece.
Greece needs to inflate its currency to get more flexible paying for its internal expenses.

This cannot be done with the Euro, since the Central European Bank prohibits printing more Euros (see Germans decisions) .

This cannot be done either with BTC, since the protocol has predetermined amount of coins to be issued/mined (which is given to the miners not to the Governments, anyway) .


Sorry but, technically,  Greece needs Drachmas.

[chek2fire]

I think after the recent election in Greece the right person to speak about Bitcoin to the new Syriza Goverment is mr Antonopoulos. He must act now and explain the new currency revolution with Bitcoin and the opportunities thatt will bring to Greece.
Can anyone contact him here to explain the situation?

[alani123]

Syriza isn't liberal enough for bitcoin apparently. We'll have to deal with it. Bitcoin will probably never gain mainstream interest in Greece. And that's a sad realisation to come to especially since I'm Greek.

[HCLivess]

ded country

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

Greece will get kicked/leave the European Union soon. The stockmarket is crashing hard and the risk premium is off the charts. Interesting times......

[numismatist]

With the recent political crisis in Greece and the fear of the global financial system that a far left party will be the government for the next years the situation is more than tough about Greece financial future.
Is this the real picture behind the financial situation in Greece?
Does anyone know what real happen in Greece?
And the last question is will Greece adopt bitcoin and get out from euro?

Will Greece officially adopt? Unlikely. They are held hostage in euro union.

Will some greece citizens know about Bitcoin now? Definitely YES on that.
Some might even find it usefull.
At least the existance of an unblockable electronic money transfer system will shape the form of the so called "Grexit". One cannot "isolate" a whole country from wire transfers.