I don’t want to post this as ASB cos it’s a sensible potential scenario even if it wasn’t ever likely to come true IOTL. Call it a ‘thought experiment’ instead. I simply want to understand the potential political and economic implications if such an ‘event’ had ever come to pass. I’ve used Albania here as an example but I suppose you can use any other country with a relatively small population. The point of this WI is to gauge the potential implications had a whole nation received such a massive windfall ‘out of thin air' so to speak.
So here goes…
A rumour spreads in Albania...
New Year’s Day in Tirana, 2010. Its cold, its grey, its snowing. Amongst the muddle of empty raki bottles an almost believable ‘rumour’ is doing the rounds. “Bitcoin is the way to go… invest now and secure your future tomorrow.” Albanians have seen pyramid schemes like this come and go before and the rumour gets ignored. But 3 months later and suddenly the whole nation is on board, nearly every adult having purchased on average $5 of bitcoin at 0.003 cents.
Roll on December 2017…
December 2017. Albanians are watching the BTC market with eagle eyes. The price of bitcoin seems to be rising… and rising... and rising. But Albanians are savvy. The 'Great Albanian sell-off' starts to happen close to the 17th of December 2017 and soon after...
Suddenly, those who had put a fiver on Bitcoin 7 years earlier now have $30 million in cash. The whole of Albania is suddenly awash with money… "a Monaco on the Adriatic"
Questions:
* In such a scenario, would Albanian or foreign banks block Albanians from transferring BTC to $... ?
* Economically, would such an overnight windfall destroy the Albanian economy (ie inflation) or would the opposite happen?
* If such a windfall were to have no detrimental effects and simply made a whole nation rich overnight, which countries of the world would pose a potential conflict risk in amassing such a sudden fortune?
Please feel free to replace Albania with any other nation of your choice (… if you think the ‘WI’ would be spicier as a result)