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Soon, a nation might realistically buy $100 B + of bitcoin and declare it a national currency.

londons_explore 6y ago
There are very few nations that don't have their own currency. That's because part of being a stable government is being able to have monetary control. Without that, it's only a matter of time before some expensive event (pandemic, war, drought, recession), people lose faith in government bonds, the government runs out of money, can't pay its workers, and a civil war ensues. Sure, some small island nations manage it. But in general, no big country can manage without monetary control.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago
  Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Ecuador, El Salvador, Zimbabwe. Then there are some areas like Costa Rica where it is a quasi-local currency.
  - londons_explore 6y ago
    All the EU ones have at least some monetary control over the Euro. They also get support when they start struggling due to lack of monetary control (eg. Greek Bailout and Debt haircut of 2012). The other countries in your list (Ecuador, El Salvador, Zimbabwe.) I wouldn't say are bastions of government stability...
anewaccount2021 6y ago
80% of transactions are settled in USD so they'll either become an economic island cut off from the world, or just buy back USD later, possibly at a loss
ddalex 6y ago
That is, assuming there isn't a nation state keeping one of these whale wallets that never was touched after initial mining.
peteretep 6y ago
> a nation might realistically buy $100 B + of bitcoin and declare it a national currency We have polar opposite impression of what the world "realistically" means here.
rapsey 6y ago
They won't for the same reason currencies are not on the gold standard anymore. You can't print bitcoin and that actually is NOT a good thing. Unless you like falling into a great depression like event.
xiphias2 6y ago
Lots of countries are already putting Bitcoin in their pension fund, but keeping it secret. Microstrategy's institutional interview series had some interesting insider information about it without naming the countries themselves.
- scsilver 6y ago
  Do you have a link?
  - xiphias2 6y ago
    The sessions are up, I listened to all of it, but 99% of it is really boring. https://www.microstrategy.com/en/resources/events/world-2021/bitcoin-summit https://www.microstrategy.com/en/resources/events/world-2021...
RivieraKid 6y ago
No, it might not for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
CJefferson 6y ago
I have no idea what kind of nation would decide to put their national currency in the hands of Chinese miners and the bitcoin dev team. Also, if a serious bug ever was found in the bitcoin code / algorithms (increasingly unlikely, I'll admit), you could completely wipe the currency out overnight.

There are very few nations that don't have their own currency. That's because part of being a stable government is being able to have monetary control. Without that, it's only a matter of time before some expensive event (pandemic, war, drought, recession), people lose faith in government bonds, the government runs out of money, can't pay its workers, and a civil war ensues. Sure, some small island nations manage it. But in general, no big country can manage without monetary control.

tonyedgecombe 6y ago
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Ecuador, El Salvador, Zimbabwe. Then there are some areas like Costa Rica where it is a quasi-local currency.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  All the EU ones have at least some monetary control over the Euro. They also get support when they start struggling due to lack of monetary control (eg. Greek Bailout and Debt haircut of 2012). The other countries in your list (Ecuador, El Salvador, Zimbabwe.) I wouldn't say are bastions of government stability...

anewaccount2021 6y ago

80% of transactions are settled in USD so they'll either become an economic island cut off from the world, or just buy back USD later, possibly at a loss

ddalex 6y ago

That is, assuming there isn't a nation state keeping one of these whale wallets that never was touched after initial mining.

peteretep 6y ago

> a nation might realistically buy $100 B + of bitcoin and declare it a national currency We have polar opposite impression of what the world "realistically" means here.

rapsey 6y ago

They won't for the same reason currencies are not on the gold standard anymore. You can't print bitcoin and that actually is NOT a good thing. Unless you like falling into a great depression like event.

xiphias2 6y ago

Lots of countries are already putting Bitcoin in their pension fund, but keeping it secret. Microstrategy's institutional interview series had some interesting insider information about it without naming the countries themselves.

scsilver 6y ago
Do you have a link?
- xiphias2 6y ago
  The sessions are up, I listened to all of it, but 99% of it is really boring. https://www.microstrategy.com/en/resources/events/world-2021/bitcoin-summit https://www.microstrategy.com/en/resources/events/world-2021...

RivieraKid 6y ago

No, it might not for (hopefully) obvious reasons.

CJefferson 6y ago

I have no idea what kind of nation would decide to put their national currency in the hands of Chinese miners and the bitcoin dev team. Also, if a serious bug ever was found in the bitcoin code / algorithms (increasingly unlikely, I'll admit), you could completely wipe the currency out overnight.