Bitcoin For Greece

Bitcoin can’t be seen or held in the palm of your hand. At its heart are just lines of code and a simple public ledger. Yet, somehow its simplistic beginnings have created a decentralized currency controlled only by its users. Many supporters believed one-day Bitcoin could change the world. That day came on July 11 in Athens, Greece.

  (Via CNN)

In the span of a week in June this past summer, the Dow Jones fell nearly 500 points amid speculation Greece would default on its debt and leave the Euro. While Greece accounts for 0.3 percent of the world’s economy, the possibility of the so-called “Grexit” cost investors billions worldwide.

The Greek government imposed capital controls on bank accounts, withdrawals and deposits. Many citizens were restricted to withdrawing less than 600 Euros a day, a small sum when trying to cash-out life savings in five-hour ATM lines.

No good sign: a queue even at the ATM inside the Athens parliament. #Greece pic.twitter.com/ObZUVDiRxZ

— Zacharias Zacharakis (@zacys) June 27, 2015

When banks began closing, people tried to store their wealth any way possible. Some bought small amounts of gold, if they could find it. Others riskily bought more available consumer goods. From televisions to cars, they hoped to sell it all for cash once the Grexit decision was made.

“The capital controls had a massive effect both on the national economy and the psyches of the Greek citizens,” said Thanos Marinos, creator of Greece’s only Bitcoin exchange, BTCGreece. “Many citizens began turning to Bitcoin as not only a store of value, but in order to continue operating businesses under the capital controls.”

The absurdity of trying to pay someone in gold or televisions for business transactions and a shortage of cash led to increased Bitcoin usage in Athens. U.S. based Bitcoin exchange Coinbase reported a 300 percent increase in Bitcoin purchases from Europe over the course of three days.

On July 11, the price of Bitcoin hit a year-high $316, a 20 percent increase of value in one week.

“At the moment Greece is ground zero for Bitcoin,” Marinos said. “Bitcoin is giving real solutions to real problems in Greece right now.”

July 11 showed the true potential of Bitcoin. No longer the suspicious darknet commodity, a real problem-solving currency emerged.

 (Via CoinTelegraph)

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It’s hard to grasp value when physically a commodity doesn’t exist. With a set maximum of Bitcoins, value is guaranteed. Currently there are 14 million Bitcoins in circulation, with a set maximum of 21 million in the future, no more. It cannot be counterfeited or spent on credit. These qualities attracted many early adopters when the coin began gaining popularity in 2012.

Nikos Choutas is believed to be the first ever Bitcoin user in Greece. He’s most definitely the owner of the first Bitcoin accepting business in Athens. A small, traditional Greek restaurant, Tavern Agelos began accepting the cryptocurrency in 2012.

“I liked technology very much,” Choutas said. “I prefer digital payments and in 2012, Bitcoin was something new to the world and I wanted to try being a Bitcoiner. Since I ran the restaurant at the same time, I began accepting Bitcoin and was the only store around all of Greece that did so.”

In 2012, before there was a large number of Bitcoin accepting businesses, many users of the currency traveled to places specifically to spend the Bitcoin in physical person-to-person transactions. It was a connection that brought lovers of the coin together.

“No one knew about Bitcoin when I started accepting it in 2012,” Choutas said. “In 2013 I had customers come for the first time just to spend Bitcoin. They were all tourists, no Greeks. In 2014, there was more customers paying with Bitcoin. This year many, many more Bitcoin users, even Greeks.”

Choutas encourages customers to use Bitcoin and wants to help spread the currency in Athens. Tavern Agelos even offers a 20 percent discount to Bitcoin customers.

“Bitcoin can benefit Greece, it just needs more companies, stores and people involved with it,” Choutas said. “We need more sites to exchange Euros for Bitcoin, more Bitcoin ATM’s.”

Tavern Agelos is hoping to install a two-way Bitcoin ATM in the near future. The ATM would allow users to deposit Euros for Bitcoin and transfer Bitcoin for Euros.

“The goal for BTCGreece is to create a complete Bitcoin ecosystem with payment providers, BTC ATM’s, exchanges and blockchain uses in companies,” Marinos said of his company’s plans.

Marinos is looking to install more than 1,000 BTM’s throughout Greece within the next year, a monumental project. For scale, the United States has the most BTM’s in the world with 168. Marinos says more than 300 shops have already asked to be recipients of the machines.

In a country as small as Greece, 1,000 Bitcoin ATM’s could alter its entire economy. Marinos believes the only roadblock hindering Greece from fully accepting Bitcoin is the difficulty surrounding purchasing Bitcoins for average citizens. That would change when it becomes as easy as using an ATM.

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Financial leaders are beginning to see the blockchain as the single most important component of Bitcoin. It is the public ledger that records every transaction ever made with Bitcoin. It allows users to see where their money goes instantly and serves as a checks and balances system to fault fraud and misuse.

“The blockchain can provide the transparency element that is missing in a corrupted economy like the Greek one,” Marinos said.

Large companies like Bank of America, Citi Group and Visa have already started developing bank transfer systems on the Bitcoin blockchain. Its adoption would mean increased usage of Bitcoin throughout the financial world.

Re/Code describes the blockchain as 100 percent self-verified proof of your transactions. While normally using the internet, users trust their deposit is sent, trust their bank statement is correct. On the blockchain anyone can verify these events.

The blockchain is beginning to bring in more and more venture capitalist money. According to Coindesk, more than $820 million has been invested in Bitcoin startups since 2014. The largest being Coinbase and 21Inc.

“I think it will continue to grow,” Choutas said. “It won’t be fast, but slow stable moves that makes Bitcoin even more powerful. There’s more and more companies, we just need them to come to Greece.”

       (Via DonaldCoin)