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It seems that at some point countries will start cracking down on Bitcoins. And Bitcoin is designed to handle that. However, are there some countries that are openly friendly to bitcoin businesses and/or have a history of permitting additional currencies.

To put this question in another way, are there countries that are to Bitcoins like Switzerland is to banking?

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One possible location would be Nowhereisland - a new nation born from an arts project. It is extremely liberal in it's views and is still in formation.

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  • I recall something about some dudes buying an old ocean liner and anchoring it in international waters off the coast of San Francisco. I thought this was the same thing. – shoeless joe Dec 22 '11 at 3:21
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    The Nowhereisland project is a bit different, it's more about bootstrapping a nation with absolutely no history to get in the way. What would you do if you could influence the birth of a nation? – Gary Rowe Dec 22 '11 at 10:38
  • I don't know. I watched a documentary about Tristan Da Cuhna, and it seems very lonely being a country by yourself. – shoeless joe Dec 23 '11 at 17:46
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Sweden has a pirate party, which "received 7.13% of the total Swedish votes in the 2009 European Parliament elections", though only 0,63% of the votes in the national parliamentary elections, according to the Wikipedia article. Support for such parties, will make other parties think twice before waging a war on something like Bitcoins, so they do not risk loosing votes to the pirate party.

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  • This is the same Sweden which is trying to charge Julian Assuage with rape. Maybe they will not war against bitcoin but they will charge us all with rape. – shoeless joe Dec 28 '11 at 17:26
  • The rape charges are a good point. I believe that the current concervative government is very weak against pressure from the US, which is how I see those charges, so if the US would apply pressure to persecute businesses accepting bitcoins, then there is good chance they would. – David Dec 29 '11 at 11:53
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I truly believe the USA is very unlikely to crack down on Bitcoin. Despite its flaws, the USA still has a robust and deep-seated history of allowing innovations and freedom. The reason we hear so much noise and fury over US government proposals to do X, Y and Z is precisely because US culture is so comparatively good at protecting freedoms. Crackdowns like the war on drugs, the war on terror and the war on piracy, are actually just high-profile exceptions to an otherwise remarkably free society. Americans: your country ain't perfect, but you don't know how good you have it! :)

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    I think the fact that we call Bitcoin a currency is problematic. If we all just start calling it a virtual commodity, then I think there is less likely to be persecution. – shoeless joe Dec 28 '11 at 17:24
  • @shoelessjoe That comment is an excellent point worthy of a lot more attention than it will get here. I have thought about the same, and maybe re branding to Bitcoin - The virtual commodity, could be a first line of defense. It would, though, make Bitcoins a lot less exciting for new users. – David Sep 10 '12 at 8:48

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