Bitcoin has its biggest potential these days.
E.g.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/03/us-eurozone-greece...
However, Coinbase is not accessible for greeks. So, I would count it as huge lost opportunity.
However I would be surprised if Spanish, Irish and Portuguese citizens are not looking at the Greek situation and wondering if they need to take some action. Coinbase, circle etc need to target these markets before they experience capital controls.
You would be forgiven for thinking there are more troubled countries that could be targeted by speculation. Italy has a 130% debt-to-GDP ratio, is still basically in recession, and has 50% public spending to GDP. Spain is approaching 100% debt, 44% public spending, and it looks like it's getting worse. Then there is Portugal, Cyprus and so on. However, if Greece goes in full default, the Euro will likely get battered and all these positions will potentially unravel, including the Irish one.
It is. Spain is scheduled to elect the local Syriza equivalent in November.
Spain lacks a cultural framework that would make the population want market based reforms, as there is so little trust in institutions, employers and employees. Its labor market is not bad because it's impossible to find productive Spaniards, but because productivity, both at the employee and the firm level, is punished.
Podemos is coming, and it's not going to be good for the country. But the alternatives are pretty bleak. Fortunately for Spaniards, a Greece-like catastrophe in Spain would be the death knell of the Eurozone, so the troika will probably bend to Podemos demands, as far as spending goes, as long as some market reforms are done along with said spending. Spain's one way out of this mess is growth.
I'm no expert on Spanish matters, but didn't they elect their current government, which advocated market based reforms, right in the middle of the crisis??
The austerity has largely been targeted at vulnerable people who don't actually cost very much in total.
https://rwer.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/rwer-issue-57-richard-...
Sure, but then we aren't talking about the Greeks, but about all the Europeans.
And escaping the devaluation of the Euro by jumping to BTC seems like a foolish move: http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/pair/btc/eur/kraken/1-year
There are capital controls preventing transfers to Greece, that would prevent yiu from transferring from Germany to Portugal, so your solution would not work.
As far as I know, the controls limit the amount from Greece, not to Greece. Of course, withdrawing can still be a pain, but so is exchanging BTC for Euros.
In my case, I'd just take a short trip to Spain and withdraw there, or if Spain is also under control, transfer some money to any of my friends abroad and ask them to send it to me in cash.
And if they can take it from one bank they can take it from another.
Who is "they"? The Greek government can't simply take from a German bank, even if the account holder is Greek.
If you look at the longer run of BTCs valuation you see bubbles and the price gravitates back to reasonable appreciations for its market size.
I'm still wondering if this whole Eurozone crisis will cause another bitcoin bubble, though. I have 10 BTC I'd like to see make me some free USD =P
The hoops you propose to jump through to maintain a source of euros is as complex as using bitcoin, however it has more points of failure.
Greeks are currently looking at a seizure of some assets over €8000 held in banks. Yes they may not be able to seize it From a German bank however the germans could seize it themselves. If the shit hits the fan throughout the euro area then your money and savings are at risk.
In both these situations the bigger issue is the failure of euro and that is a potential risk.