Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#1

Post by bfwi » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 4:09 PM UTC

Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency
bloomberg.com

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#2

Post by billyhoffman » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:04 PM UTC

Given Ecuador's financial situation, this seems like a plan to print money to pay bills, and make that "virtual" money to saving on printing :-)

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#3

Post by salibhai » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:43 PM UTC

51% attack, anyone?

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#4

Post by mr_luc » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:44 PM UTC

Oh, boy.

I have a house in Ecuador. I am a fan of Bitcoin. And I am, on the whole, probably still a fan of Correa.

But ... yikes.

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#5

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:48 PM UTC

billyhoffman wrote: post #2

Given Ecuador's financial situation, this seems like a plan to print money to pay bills, and make that "virtual" money to saving on printing :-)

[deleted]

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#6

Post by jordigh » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:48 PM UTC

What's virtual about it? I can't tell from reading the article. Is it virtual merely because none of it will be coins or bills?

Do other such "virtual" currencies exist, i.e. virtual merely because they only exist in ledgers and bank balances? I mean, other than the vast majority of US dollars and other traditional currencies.

All this talk of virtual currencies reminds me of how Europeans viewed Chinese paper money with suspicion when it was first described in The Travels.

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#7

Post by berns » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:49 PM UTC

salibhai wrote: post #3

51% attack, anyone?

It could be a proof-of-stake based cryptocurrency and the goverment would initially own the total supply.

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#8

Post by jordigh » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:53 PM UTC

salibhai wrote: post #3

51% attack, anyone?

The article is scant on details the actual currency, but it doesn't sound like they are intending to make it decentralised nor a cryptocurrency.

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#9

Post by evbogue » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 5:56 PM UTC

Perhaps a smarter idea for Ecuador is to take all of the USD they're circulating and convert it into an existing and proven cryptocurrency. While becoming the best place in the world for a unhindered exchange of USD --> BTC, they'd also not have to worry about all of the problems of building and administering a centralized virtual currency from scratch.

Re: Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency

#10

Post by ddt » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 6:01 PM UTC

Sounds like they're doing something closer to URVs [1] than Bitcoin.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidade_real_de_valor