Greeks are rushing to Bitcoin

[TampaAnimusVortex]

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/29/technology/greece-bitcoin/index.html

Still, this is a pivotal moment. Bitcoin was created as an independent, computerized money in 2009 to provide a stark alternative to government-issued currency held at banks. This could be its moment to shine.

But keep your wits about you. Filip Godecki, the spokesman for the Bitcurex marketplace, said it's unrealistic to think Greeks everywhere will suddenly ditch the Euro and start conducting business in Bitcoin.

"I'm not so sure Greeks will start buying cheese with Bitcoin on Wednesday," he said. "But I think something changed in their minds [with the bank closures]. Greek people will start thinking about fiat currencies as something not so safe for savings."

[dembotoz]

1. Wish them luck

When faced with strange situations you make strange adjustments

[SheilaT]

2. A few years ago it was being said

by some that Bitcoin was absolutely the currency of the future, and would replace all other currencies.

Hasn't seemed to have happened.

Can't imagine Greeks abandoning the Euro just yet. A year or so ago it was conventional wisdom that the Euro was dead and that most of the EU would revert to its own currencies. And that hasn't happened yet.

Anyone predicting that any one country will go to a different currency needs to think through the logistics that are involved: re-printing the paper currency, re-minting the coins. Then deciding what the exchange rate will be. Then making sure that the replacement currency is in place. Not as easy as it sounds.

[TampaAnimusVortex]

9. Actually it has been predicted dead many many times...

http://bitcoinobituaries.com/

[Blue_Tires]

11. And your bunch has been been predicting global acceptance for how long?

[joshcryer]

17. It's failing daily stress tests.

Almost anyone with a few thousand worth of bitcoins can take down the network with ease. It's why they're trying to come out with 20mb blockchains. This entire thing is a ruse to get people to rush to buy bitcoins so people can dump their coins now that they've realized it was a ponzi scheme.

[closeupready]

3. The bitcoin is up about 10% on www.xe.com

since last week.

[TampaAnimusVortex]

4. The term for Bitcoin is it's "Antifragile"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragility

Simply, antifragility is defined as a convex response to a stressor or source of harm (for some range of variation), leading to a positive sensitivity to increase in volatility (or variability, stress, dispersion of outcomes, or uncertainty, what is grouped under the designation "disorder cluster&quot . Likewise fragility is defined as a concave sensitivity to stressors, leading a negative sensitivity to increase in volatility. The relation between fragility, convexity, and sensitivity to disorder is mathematical, obtained by theorem, not derived from empirical data mining or some historical narrative. It is a priori".

[closeupready]

5. Thanks. That, and also historically, it's a truism

of economies experiencing stress or instability that the black market gains in strength relative to the legitimate market/economy.

The bitcoin is not, of course, the big bad 'black market', but the bitcoin is used by illegitimate entities. Thus, it has more immediate value than something like a reintroduced drachma would.

[Blue_Tires]

12. It's still way down from where it used to be...

[closeupready]

13. But still way up from where it used to be ...

In the first two years or so after it was introduced, it was $10 - $20 per bitcoin.

[joshcryer]

6. Pump and dump.

Greeks have been targeted because the currency is in a slump.

[PoliticAverse]

7. I think rather they are rushing out of the banking system and into cash Euros. n/t

[TampaAnimusVortex]

8. And yet some there are some in fact rushing to Bitcoin

From the article:

"Ten times as many Greeks are registering to trade bitcoins on the German marketplace Bitcoin.de than usual, according to CEO Oliver Flaskaemper. Bitcoin trades from Greece have shot up 79% from their ten-week average on Bitstamp, the world's third-largest exchange.

Even trading platforms in China are getting interest. LakeBTC, headquartered in Shanghai, is seeing a 40% increase in visitors using computers in Greece."

[Blue_Tires]

10. Following up one dumb move with another?

Sure, why not??

[Warpy]

14. Desperation does that

Have you been keeping up with what the IMF, ECB and EC have been doing to them?

Don't think the US is immune from it, either. It can happen here.

[joshcryer]

16. It's all fake, there's zero interest in Bitcoin in Greece.

It's the people outside of Greece, mostly pumper and dumpers, who are trying to make bank on ignorant people who believe that Bitcoin is making some kind of comeback.

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. The value of cryptocurrency isn't as an investment.

It's insurance against exactly what is happening in Greece.

[joshcryer]

20. Mt. Gox says otherwise.

Greece got fleeced by corrupt cronyism. Same thing happened to Bitcoin when Mt. Gox blew up ($450 million vanished).

Don't get me started on the underlying issues currently facing Bitcoin with blockchains and transaction fee attacks (which some in the community want to fix by overhauling the protocol while others just want to kick the problem down the road, because they want to keep miners profiting). There is latent cronyism in the entire community.

And some people do feel it is an investment. Others are trying to push that idea, too. Thus the pump and dump scheme.

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. This will be interesting.

I think it's going to encourage the powers that be to make a deal sooner rather than later.

And there's nothing magic about federal fiat currencies - in fact, as the Greek system shows, if that government can close the banks it was never really "your money" at all.

[joshcryer]

18. Total trade value of all Greek owned bitcoins is around $15000...

And some of the payment options (pay by mail) are untenable...