Bitcoins have been in the news, after a story about an unfortunate fellow who jettisoned his computer’s hard drive that contained (apparently) the code he needed to access his stash of this electronic currency — its value more than £4 million. I don’t even pretend to have an opinion on bitcoins. I only just, and most imperfectly, understand what this electronically traded currency is and why it appeals to people.
But it has got me thinking. A bitcoin is a single currency, a global currency, a currency beyond the reach or control of national governments around the world. In theory (unless governments try to ban the bitcoin) it would be politician-proof.
So my question is this: what would a Eurosceptic anti-single-currency-wallah make of bitcoins, or any transnational or world currency? What would be the ideologically correct response of the sovereignty-conscious right to the emergence of tradeable units of value whose price was fixed entirely by international supply and demand?
Because, you see, it’s my belief that British conservatives’ detestation of the European single currency, though usually couched in strictly economic terms, is actually rooted in a detestation of Europe, rather than the theoretical concept of a single currency.
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