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The Financial Times article outlines the history of the Greek crisis and explains why Bitcoin and digital currencies are not an effective solution to the problem at hand. Citi’s Willem Buiter told FT Alphaville that "Greece adopting bitcoin was probably the stupidest idea since Caligula made his horse a consul."
Taking everything above into account, you can see why bringing bitcoin or digital payments to Greece solves none of the above problems. For one thing, capital controls now ensure there is a limit to the amount of euros that can be swapped into bitcoins or any other virtual currency. So, unless bitcoiners want to distribute coins to Greece for free, there’s unlikely to be much adoption. Second, whether you digitise the new e-drachma or not won’t change the fact that it will depreciate against the euro quickly once it is introduced because Greece doesn’t have the foreign reserves or capital that can support a new currency at par with the euro. Furthermore, if digital solutions are brought to Greece with the intention of helping Greeks skirt capital controls, that only makes the depreciation problem worse for the greater population.
