Topic: [FANTASY] What if.. the Greek people choose Bitcoin/Crypto as a currency? (Read 2505 times)

I'm not up to date on the tricks people can use to perform a fraudulent (double spend) transaction, but I would bet that the cost (to the criminal) would be much higher than the amounts of money you're thinking of, which would make it unprofitable to the criminal. But worth looking into. Also according to the link below, there are ways to insure against double spending. Do BitPay and / or Coinbase insure against that? Not sure but I would almost be surprised if they don't.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Double-spending


I would definitely agree with that.

I don't think Bitcoin is capable of being a currency on a country level yet, not even a #2 currency (though that can change).  The government will never accept it... but the people might vote with their feet anyhow (Democracy is their word after all, meaning literally "mob rule"), and we may see an interesting new view of the people and what the the purpose of government is (at least from a monetary pov).

It could be used for large purchases as a previous poster mentioned (eg. cars where you can wait an hour), and also for a cup of coffee where you don't worry about the risk without having confirmations, but it seems to me there's a gap in the middle sized transactions.  For online stuff where things are shipped next day it's no issue, but if you're doing a weeks shopping in a supermarket then a fraudulent transaction could wipe out a low margin shop sustainability in no time, and for that I don't think it's appropriate in its current form.

I think for some Greek entrepreneurs there is a *huge huge huge* opportunity here. If Gov't were to get involved in an opportunity (which I doubt) then they have potential to catapult themselves to the top of the world and be a leader, debt free, have kudos, and show the rest of the world how it's done.  I won't be holding my breath, though I would love to see Greece do a smack down on those that are pressuring them right now (I'm from England by the way so have no skin in that game, but I would be a cheer leader for them all the way).

 There is already project complimentary currency for Greece

You can read about on fundrising campaigne

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/greece-new-currency#/story

Geece is blackmailled.opressed and i think Tsipras lost his head,looks like he had brain washing in Brusseles

Whtever wecan expect Eurogeddon soon,question is,what will be after

The people of Greece were recently dealt another blow with the latest terms.  From what I understand it's a far worse deal than the one they rejected.  Perhaps this could be the tipping point that will at least get people thinking more about Crypto.

This may have originally started off as a fantasy, but as we get deeper into this it seems that such a fantasy may not be impossible.

Even when the banks re-open, I expect there will still be a huge run.  I can't image anyone with some degree of intelligence will continue to keep large amounts of their life savings in a bank after what's happened.

I thought my fantasy was unlikely bc it was based on the idea of a "Graccident" due to unusually inept Syriza party leadership. And I thought that was unlikely. Well, that may be exactly what we have. I can't imagine a better way to drive a population into the arms of cryptocurrency than to do exactly what Tsipras is doing. Presumably this is not on purpose, although I'm starting to have my doubts.

technically greece wont adopt bitcoin, people of greece might. and yes if people in greece adopt bitcoin, the bitcoin value will again hit crazy figures. but i dont think that it is possible to adopt virtual money as a local currency to buy and sell daily goods.
it would be very difficult for greece to adopt virtual currency.

Assuming they did have the ability to sustain bitcoins, I assume that the reason the Greek economy collapsed was because they couldn't fucking afford euro. They still went through with it and fucked it all up creating a huge debt. I don't understand if it would be a logical solution to choose a currency which will multiply 55 times just as they adopt it. The increase in price will screw them over again, do you think they have that much money in their reserve to even fucking buy enough bitcoins to make it their national currency anyway?

Or the Greek exporters could just, well, lower their prices. They would get fewer bitcoin per sale but the bitcoin is worth more so that would even out.

Export would potentially be annihilated if the currency is worth too much.. Nobody would buy expensive Greek products then..

I don't even know where to begin here. Looks like a group of posters either didn't understand the tittle or skipped it.
It clearly says 'FANTASY' :
Stop discussing why it can't/won't happen, but rather what will happen with Bitcoin if they do.

There are other solutions but they aren't achievable in this corrupt system. However, with Bitcoin the story is different. Certain groups of people will lose their control, something that should have been done a long time ago. I should be the owner of my money, and the banks should not be able to touch it. If you remember the situation with Cyprus, you would know. They just take a cut of your hard earned money, one didn't even have a say in it. This might happen to Greece as well.

In the scenario mentioned in the title: I think that the price and adoption (outside of Greece) would rise exponentially. Greeks would increase the price enough for others to join, and so the ride would begin.

and i'm sure that with large purchase you are willing to wait more, i mean if i want to purchase a car waiting 10 min for the first confrimation should not be a problem for me or waiting even 1 hour or two, it shouldn't either

i don't need to wait in front of my car, i can wait at home and then go there two hours later to take the vehicle


it is because of security, many attack can be performed based the 51%, like finney attack on zero confirmation

Don't you think that's like the best thing they can do to themselves? Adopting Bitcoin as their currency. But unfortunately , Greece doesn't have the kind of infrastructure to support the decentralized Bitcoin system.

without confirmation anybody can easily double spend their bitcoins and then only one receiver will receive the bitcoin, which means one shop is going to be left without their payment because they have accepted it without confirmation.
but i kind of agree with BTCtrader71 since on small transactions the risk of person cheating with that amount is small and also the loss is going to be small.

I doubt they will until some sort of agreement is reached with the Euro...

Why would anyone have to wait for confirmation for any size purchase? the block chain sees transactions almost immediately.

After what is happening today this may be much more a reality than a fantasy.

 Greek banks to remain shut in coming days.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/greek-banks-to-remain-shut-in-coming-days-reuters-2015-07-06

That would only be an issue for large purchases. For small ones most shop owners would not require waiting for multiple confirmations. I bought a beer in DC with bitcoin recently and it only took a few seconds.

the price would definitely explode to insane levels. it would show how capable bitcoin is a currency. no more having to worry about banks going down with your money.

since the price of bitcoin is not stable and more importantly can no be measured for the single country all the Greeks are going to be f**ked. they will be millionaires one day and broke the next day.
also for buying anything they have to wait at least 5-15 minutes for their transaction to get confirmed and then get out of the shop!

One third of all Greeks don't even have a bank account and credit or debt cards. How do you want to set up a virtual currency for such people on the county. i don't think Bitcoin would not work as a first currency in a countries like Greece.