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Ask HN: What could happen if Russia adopts BTC as a currency?

13 points by gw67 5y ago

The world was able to slow Russia attacks due to monetary sanctions because they are in EUR or USD. What if they have a non-censurable currency?

hsnewman 5y ago
I guess that would be the death of BTC.
- randomhodler84 5y ago
  BTC cannot die, it can only amass more users. You will see that the wishes of man or government are irrelevant. To kill Bitcoin, you would need to kill every human that runs a node.
  - rvz 5y ago
    Correct. It won't die. The pyramid ponzi scheme will just get larger and once everyone is in unrealized profit (another ATH) and start selling, the latecomers will remain hodling their life savings at a very high price. Everyone knows that 'Bitcoin' is not useful as a currency but it is very useful as a ponzi scheme instead.
mw888 5y ago
The market cap of Bitcoin is still small enough to be manipulated, and to swing wildly. For large trades you need massive liquidity, and Bitcoin’s liquidity can’t handle taking on all of Russian finance overnight - not to mention that no broker is likely ballsy enough to facilitate such a deal.
bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
Russia could adopt BTC as a reserve currency and issue a digital ruble CBDC on top of it. If they don’t do it, another country eventually will.
- cuteboy19 5y ago
  Why would they need to do that? Neither of those things are helping them at this time
randyrand 5y ago
BTC is censurable. Wallets of known russian accounts could be tracked and made illegal to do business with, and the wallets those accounts touch.
throwmeariver1 5y ago
Nothing and they won't because bitcoin is not stable enough it can still be manipulated you still don't know if a giant amount of bitcoins are lost or just held by an unknown entity. No, sane central bank would ever adopt bitcoin. It might be a cryptocurrency in the future but it will not be bitcoin.
sph 5y ago
Basing your economy on a deflationary highly volatile hyper-speculative product, what can go wrong? There are many types of cryptocurrencies and the only thing Bitcoin has got going for it is being one of the first, and the drawbacks many and well documented. An ad-hoc crypto with not as many shortcomings as Bitcoin would be better suited, if one really needs to go crypto.
decebalus1 5y ago
The premise doesn't make a lot of sense. > monetary sanctions because they are in EUR or USD Yes, because that's what the contracts specified as a currency. Russia uses the ruble as a currency, which is not censored, it's just not 'in demand'. Adopting BTC how? Do you think Germany et al would be willing to pay for oil/gas in bitcoin when the contracts already specify a currency? Or adopt BTC internally? Like all the babushkas fighting in line for sugar would need to have crypto wallets now? Also, wallets of Russians could be denied transactions. Also, BTC is small enough to be manipulable by an alliance of state actors if push comes to shove.

13 points by gw67 5y ago

The world was able to slow Russia attacks due to monetary sanctions because they are in EUR or USD. What if they have a non-censurable currency?

hsnewman 5y ago

I guess that would be the death of BTC.

randomhodler84 5y ago
BTC cannot die, it can only amass more users. You will see that the wishes of man or government are irrelevant. To kill Bitcoin, you would need to kill every human that runs a node.
- rvz 5y ago
  Correct. It won't die. The pyramid ponzi scheme will just get larger and once everyone is in unrealized profit (another ATH) and start selling, the latecomers will remain hodling their life savings at a very high price. Everyone knows that 'Bitcoin' is not useful as a currency but it is very useful as a ponzi scheme instead.

mw888 5y ago

The market cap of Bitcoin is still small enough to be manipulated, and to swing wildly. For large trades you need massive liquidity, and Bitcoin’s liquidity can’t handle taking on all of Russian finance overnight - not to mention that no broker is likely ballsy enough to facilitate such a deal.

bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago

Russia could adopt BTC as a reserve currency and issue a digital ruble CBDC on top of it. If they don’t do it, another country eventually will.

cuteboy19 5y ago
Why would they need to do that? Neither of those things are helping them at this time

randyrand 5y ago

BTC is censurable. Wallets of known russian accounts could be tracked and made illegal to do business with, and the wallets those accounts touch.

throwmeariver1 5y ago

Nothing and they won't because bitcoin is not stable enough it can still be manipulated you still don't know if a giant amount of bitcoins are lost or just held by an unknown entity. No, sane central bank would ever adopt bitcoin. It might be a cryptocurrency in the future but it will not be bitcoin.

sph 5y ago

Basing your economy on a deflationary highly volatile hyper-speculative product, what can go wrong? There are many types of cryptocurrencies and the only thing Bitcoin has got going for it is being one of the first, and the drawbacks many and well documented. An ad-hoc crypto with not as many shortcomings as Bitcoin would be better suited, if one really needs to go crypto.

decebalus1 5y ago

The premise doesn't make a lot of sense. > monetary sanctions because they are in EUR or USD Yes, because that's what the contracts specified as a currency. Russia uses the ruble as a currency, which is not censored, it's just not 'in demand'. Adopting BTC how? Do you think Germany et al would be willing to pay for oil/gas in bitcoin when the contracts already specify a currency? Or adopt BTC internally? Like all the babushkas fighting in line for sugar would need to have crypto wallets now? Also, wallets of Russians could be denied transactions. Also, BTC is small enough to be manipulable by an alliance of state actors if push comes to shove.