It is during the toughest times the greatest of ideas and creations emerge. It is the same in Greece. The European Nation has been struggling with the economic breakdown for many years. Things have gotten really worse since the past one year as the country almost defaulted the IMF loan and it was forced to implement new austerity measures to keep the lending nations and IMF happy. This weakened the country’s economic system as it struggles to pull through with a hope of seeing good times in the near future.
While the country as a whole suffers, individuals and businesses are not left out. They bear the brunt of the whole situation brought upon them by few bad decisions made by the politicians, both past and present. The centralized economy means, everyone has to abide by what the government decides, whether they have money or not. The rich can’t move their money due to strict capital countries and the poor can’t withdraw enough money from their bank accounts when in need. The whole idea of bitcoin was to prevent such a situation from ever arising. The money you earn is the money you own. If you have the money, the you have the right to spend how much ever you want and whenever you want without the government’s intervention.
Since the economic collapse, the usage of bitcoin has increased considerably in Greece. But not everyone has access to bitcoin and bitcoin doesn’t come free. So, the residents of Greece have now come up with the next best alternative – the barter system. There are many close community barter systems created across Greece for one purpose – cashless society, where people exchange goods or pay for goods with trading points. This way, they do not use Euros, which is bound by restrictions and not that easy to get by for transactions. For a country where 80 percent of the youth are unemployed and, additional 50000 or more refugees fleeing from war-torn countries are residing, these are hard times.
There are many bartering services like Tradenow, which have emerged as a result of the economic issues in Greece. The hybrid system used by Tradenow will allow people to barter goods and also exchange goods for a pre-agreed set of Tradenow points. The Tradenow points are also accepted by as many as 400 businesses.
The people of Greece are trying to bounce back on their feet, without the help of conventional fiat currency. The barter movement is a stepping stone for fiatless society, which bitcoin has been part of since ages. This sounds like a call for revolution against the existing flawed monetary system which we are all part of. Viva la revolución!
Image Source: MarketWatch