Australia and Bitcoin: Is This Love?
Recent estimates show that Australia manages 7% of the global Bitcoin market of $5 Billion, a very impressive amount of control for a nation of less than 25 Million people, mostly within the last two years. To put this market into better perspective, the amount of Bitcoin owned and controlled in Australia would give every Australian citizen $15 in Bitcoin. Australian Senator Sam Dastyari said:
“There is going to be a place for some digital-style currency. There is (the) inevitability that it will play some role (in our economic future). Do you go and start regulating it first, or wait for the International Monetary Fund to do it first and come on board?”
Mastercard has just gone on the offensive against Bitcoin’s growth and regulatory interest in Bitcoin, showing impressive hypocrisy in their argument. According to Mastercard, Bitcoin doesn’t have enough protection for consumers. This from a company that has seen incredible identity theft issues in North America with credit cards and consumer information stolen from retailers at an unprecedented rate. Those Mastercard lobbyists are weighing in directly and somewhat publicly on Bitcoin shows you how big Bitcoin has gotten in Australia.
Meanwhile, enrire Australian towns are looking to convert entirely to Bitcoin, without ever converting Bitcoin into fiat currency. Launceston is a city of over 100,000, and they are looking to do many common local and municipal transactions in Bitcoin for 2015, as initiatives go to the Launceston City Council.
