Government adoption of BTC plus fiat-for-BTC? - page 2.

Alex Beckenham

full member

Activity: 154

Merit: 100

Quote from: Anders on May 25, 2011, 12:15:19 PM

Quote from: Alex Beckenham on May 25, 2011, 11:51:41 AM

Quote from: Anders on May 25, 2011, 11:42:05 AM

Island's economy would not be an isolated system.

Well neither is Australia's.

But you don't see the price of a Big Mac in Australia changing every day! The price of a Big Mac, in any country, in bitcoins, WOULD change every day.

You just argued against your own point. It's exactly what I've been saying.

Why should a bitcoin-based island big mac fluctuate when an aud-based australian big mac doesn't?

Anders

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

Quote from: Alex Beckenham on May 25, 2011, 11:51:41 AM

Quote from: Anders on May 25, 2011, 11:42:05 AM

Island's economy would not be an isolated system.

Well neither is Australia's.

But you don't see the price of a Big Mac in Australia changing every day! The price of a Big Mac, in any country, in bitcoins, WOULD change every day.

Alex Beckenham

full member

Activity: 154

Merit: 100

Quote from: Anders on May 25, 2011, 11:42:05 AM

Island's economy would not be an isolated system.

Well neither is Australia's.

kuba_10

member

Activity: 99

Merit: 10

I don't get the pegging idea. Does that mean that, for example La Isla Bonita has $10,000,000 in its vaults and having a 100 pesos bonitos guarantees that $100 from these vaults belongs to the bearer or rather La Isla Bonita writes a financial novelty saying "from now on, 1 peso bonito will buy $10" without any capital?

Anders

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

Quote from: Alex Beckenham on May 25, 2011, 11:36:10 AM

Quote from: Anders on May 25, 2011, 11:31:04 AM

And McDonald's wants dollars. So Island would need to pay McDonald's and all other companies outside Island in dollars (or

Which McDonalds? McDonalds USA headquarters, McDonalds Island edition?

McDonalds Australia still buys meat, bread, lettuce, etc and I'm sure they pay for it in AUD, not USD.

Why couldn't the Island Maccas pay for their ingredients in BTC?

Island's economy would not be an isolated system. Their economy would still be heavily dependent on trading with other countries and large international corporations. So the price of goods and services in Island would still be determined for the most part by the world economy which today in turn is based on the U.S. dollar and other big currencies.

Alex Beckenham

full member

Activity: 154

Merit: 100

Quote from: Anders on May 25, 2011, 11:31:04 AM

And McDonald's wants dollars. So Island would need to pay McDonald's and all other companies outside Island in dollars (or

Which McDonalds? McDonalds USA headquarters, McDonalds Island edition?

McDonalds Australia still buys meat, bread, lettuce, etc and I'm sure they pay for it in AUD, not USD.

Why couldn't the Island Maccas pay for their ingredients in BTC?

Anders

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

Quote from: Alex Beckenham on May 24, 2011, 09:44:13 PM

Quote from: Anders on May 24, 2011, 09:40:10 PM

One problem is that the value of a bitcoin changes so much. So for example a Big Mac costing 3 bitcoins today may cost 1 bitcoin next month, and 0.1 bitcoins in three months. So for practical purposes having a currency directly pegged to the BTC is perhaps only feasible when/if the value of a bitcoin stabilizes.

That's only if you're comparing the currency to USD.

If so, you could say the same thing about the price of a bigmac in AUD, EUR, JPY... and yet in those countries, the price of bigmacs stays the same. Why? Because an aussie in australia using AUD to purchase bigmacs, doesn't care about the USD exchange rate.

Same would be for BTC if the price were set in BTC and it was the official currency of a whole country.

But the bitcoins would still be related to other currencies, such as the USD, in the rest of the world even if Island used only bitcoins themselves. And McDonald's wants dollars. So Island would need to pay McDonald's and all other companies outside Island in dollars (or euros etc) which means that the price for a Big Mac and most other goods and services would change every day! That would be impractical.

Alex Beckenham

full member

Activity: 154

Merit: 100

Quote from: Anders on May 24, 2011, 09:40:10 PM

One problem is that the value of a bitcoin changes so much. So for example a Big Mac costing 3 bitcoins today may cost 1 bitcoin next month, and 0.1 bitcoins in three months. So for practical purposes having a currency directly pegged to the BTC is perhaps only feasible when/if the value of a bitcoin stabilizes.

That's only if you're comparing the currency to USD.

If so, you could say the same thing about the price of a bigmac in AUD, EUR, JPY... and yet in those countries, the price of bigmacs stays the same. Why? Because an aussie in australia using AUD to purchase bigmacs, doesn't care about the USD exchange rate.

Same would be for BTC if the price were set in BTC and it was the official currency of a whole country.

Anders

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

One problem is that the value of a bitcoin changes so much. So for example a Big Mac costing 3 bitcoins today may cost 1 bitcoin next month, and 0.1 bitcoins in three months. So for practical purposes having a currency directly pegged to the BTC is perhaps only feasible when/if the value of a bitcoin stabilizes.

elewton

full member

Activity: 407

Merit: 100

DIA | Data infrastructure for DeFi

Greece. That's where I'd be setting up a Bitcoin exchange if I were a native.

Anders

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

Cool idea. Maybe Island could peg their currency to the BTC. They are very much into the Internet.

TradersEdgeDice

member

Activity: 84

Merit: 11

Sounds like a great idea. I'd like to see a country try a bitcoin like currency.

You're thinking nonconvertible? National currency goes in and doesn't come out? That would mean the government is the sole exchange for awhile.

What country would give up or severely reduce their inflationary powers? I might move there.

The U.S. constitution says the country deals only in gold and silver but we've been strangled by the Federal Reserve since 1913.

Do you have the skills to modify the code?

vess

full member

Activity: 141

Merit: 100

Interesting conversation with a friend last night; over beers we discussed the possibility of a small country, maybe one that currently pegs to the USD, pegging to BTC for their currency.

I'm curious as to people's reactions to this. How would we do such a thing?

My friend suggested the block chain could, for a period of time, allow extra BTC to be generated in exchange for destruction of the existing national currency; separate to his above suggestion, but also intriguing. That is, imagine you're a resident of fijilandia. You'd put in your 50 Fijibucks somewhere, they'd get destroyed, and the next block would include 50 fijibucks worth of BTC for you.

Anyway, fascinating to me. I think it would jumpstart an economy, especially one that produced and exported goods to be based on BTC. I'm trying to figure out how this could be done in a small scale to test viability; maybe some permaculture farmers want to try selling just for BTC?

They'd need to provide BTC purchase access to many of their customers of course; anyway two intriguing ideas.

Topic: Government adoption of BTC plus fiat-for-BTC? - page 2. (Read 3867 times)