Quote from: paulk on April 06, 2013, 09:24:23 PM

Quote from: walker05 on April 06, 2013, 09:06:37 PM

I also live in the Netherlands, however not from here originally. What do you think about the chances of bitcoin becoming mainstream in Holland?

I see these factors:
-general public does not like the euro in general
-distrust in the banking system
-does not like bailing out the southerners with their hard earned tax money
-very strong sense of freedom and individualism
-modern libertarian society
-good track record of accepting new ground breaking ideas (example: reformist church, birth control, euthanasia, same sex marriage etc)
-high tech IT literature population

Could Holland be a pioneer country for a decentralized currency?

I would say definitely yes, because we already had noppes, which was a local currency. In the beginning it wasn't worth a lot, but at a certain moment you could buy diamond rings with it and hire an advocate. It broke down, because the tax agency started to restrict the use of free noppes. You can have 3000 noppes now then you have to pay taxes.

There are a lot more of these systems. (E.g. http://www.letsnijmegen.nl/) I think bitcoin (or a fork tailored for local usage) could be used as a strong, safe for taxation, backbone for these local currencies. Maybe somebody should tip them. I am not sure, if they are aware of the possibilities.

Another thing I observed, is that a lot of dutch are using silkroad and atlantis. It is also quite easy to change your bitcoins to normal money in cash. At least in Amsterdam, it is. For your daily food, you don't have to touch the ATM, if you have some bitcoins lying around.

But what do you do to complete these purchases like in a cafe or something, you use a tablet/smartphone to do the BTC transaction?