Topic: Reserve Bank of #India Looks for Alt Reserve (Read 2867 times)

Am not quite sure what you're getting at but perhaps you might consider putting a reply in the other thread for me to respond to (don't want to derail this thread).

bitcoin has an advantage compared to bankcoin (assuming bitcoin is used as main currency in global commerce): the reserves grow/shrink proportionally with the global economy.

Agreed  (for some reason i thought rchapoteau had mentioned their use as a normal currency in india, instead of just a reserve asset)

I don't see why they would bother with Bitcoin when they could very easily and cheaply create Bankcoin: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/will-bankcoin-be-appearing-any-time-soon-129047

I'll have a crack at answering this one but I'll ask readers to bear in mind my limited understanding of the bigger picture.

If what you're referring to is what the OP is about then what they'd be buying it for is to put into cold storage as a reserve fro the Indian Rupee.  As I see it this is not an increase in distribution nor use for commerce.

In order to buy a proportion that would make any kind of impact on the overall value of their reserves they'd need to buy well more than is currently available at Mt Gox.  All I can see the impact being therefore is a massive inflation of the bitcoin price over a sustained period with an accompanying reduction in bitcoin available for everyone else. 

Of course the divisibility means in one sense it doesn't matter but without being able to justify my feeling about it I would be a lot more comfortable if the cause of such an increase in price and reduction of Bitcoin available to purchase were to happen in conjunction with wider dispersal, more and more geographically distributed nodes and minig outfits and more time for the software and Bitcoin economy to become more robust.

I would also be more comfortable for me, should central banks eventually decide to use Bitcoin as a reserve, if it were much more highly valued and distributed first.  It just wouldn't feel right for me for a single fiat-issuing entity to be the primary beneficiary of all subsequent growth in Bitcoin value.

What exactly would be the problem with a government or a lot of people "snatching up bitcoins"?  As long as the fundamental ideas behind it don't get changed, that would be brilliant in my mind (unless it is a somewhat smallish country with a lot of political enemies, who could view destroying bitcoin as a valid move to hurt the other), greater network power, much greater userbase and legitimate businesses that would use it (and as a bonus higher BTC prices for early investors)... I don't see the problem.

You bring up a good point.  If a country was going to make this their reserve currency, with a finite amount of bitcoins out there, I could see them buying up/controlling it.  India is WAY TOO BIG for bitcoin.  A government with a population of 1.2 billion people snap this up faster than they do our phone support jobs.

If India wants to act as a private entity in the BTC market I am all for that. Although it seems like any government [barring third world countries] could pool their resources en route to controlling the BTC market. What I think is most valuable about BTC is the fact that they are not tied to ANY government, crazy revolutionary organization, etc. They are tied to the world's people.

I'm not saying the people of India don't have technology, I know they do.  However the biggest selling phones over there up until just recently were old school phones on the cheap.  A lot of low end PC's are made for India as well.  Maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem like they would be prepared overall to use it.

Yes I understand that it would be for the government to use, but in a country like India I really don't think something like this would go over well if the population has no access to it, or potential understanding of it.

I think you have a somewhat outdated idea of India. Also, this would be for the government to use, not the general populace, I would assume.

The price probably fluctuates a bit too much for any real consideration.   Also too new.  Maybe in 10 years if it is still around and stable it will be considered more.

I think you are being a bit optimistic here  .  Bitcoin is an experiment, central banks want certainty.
Who wants to be the guy who brought up the idea to buy all these 'bitcoins' as a reserve, if bitcoin should fail?
If bitcoin grows and matures over the next couple of years, hopefully some people will be willing to stick out their neck. 
Right now, I think it is very unlikely...

I think Bitcoin's which require a lot of technology to use, is not a good fit for a country like India. 

Politicians usually have people doing the real work for them if required.

Good point, but I'm quite sure those polititians don't even know how to install a client 

I do beleive that Bitcoin is the answer, but needs more visibility.

I dont think that the Indian government will go the Bitcoin way as yet.

It is interesting however, that most of what they are looking for in a new reserve currency is already present in Bitcoin.

Maybe they are already looking at it .

The solution is to find more than one country willing to trade in Bitcoins.  Then they can capitalize each other, and others will join.

A nation cannot capitalize its own reserve, at least I don't see how it can. It needs to already have a global demand.

I think the major capitalization will happen when polititians learn how easy it is to hide bribes and kickbacks with bitcoin. They will also make sure it stays legal.

That's a chicken and egg problem. Once the central banks of the world started using it as a reserve currency, it'd be well-capitalized quickly

There is not enough capitalization for bitcoin to be used as a reserve currency now.