Greek government confident of lifting capital controls, pessimists lean towards Bitcoin

Greece is set to lift capital controls at the end of the year, which is surprising. Not long ago, the Greek economy was in great trouble, and after much effort to revive it, for some unknown reason, things seem to be going much better than most people expected.

Many people have been watching the news from Greece, worried that the situation in the country will get worse as time goes on. Capital controls are annoying, but the government has no choice but to do them. As a result, consumers and businesses are facing many restrictions on how they can spend, send and receive money. But it seems that everything has stabilized again.

Lifting capital controls

We all remember the € 50 billion crisis in Greek banks in November 2014 and 2015. From this point of view, it seems impossible to improve the Greek economy. In addition, there are concerns that Greece will abandon the euro and resort to emergency borrowing. However, Louka Katseli, chairman of the National Bank of Greece, believes that most capital controls will be lifted by the end of this year.

Nevertheless, Greece still has to comply with the regulations until they are lifted. Greece successfully concluded a review of its emergency aid reforms this month, restoring investor confidence in Greece, although it is difficult to predict whether things will develop as expected.

Assuming what the Greek side is saying is true, the next step would be for the ECB to help Greek banks with cheap funding. The ECB would accept the Bank of Greece as collateral. However, to most people, this looks more like another disaster. Moreover, the ECB has no reason to do this, as they will not gain anything from this move.

But even if all this is achieved, Greek banks must also comply with two points. First, effective bad loan management must be established. Second, all deposits must be returned to Greek banks. Both of these points are difficult to achieve, and the deregulation deadline may encounter unforeseen obstacles.

Bitcoin is still a safer option

Although these promises sound good on paper, it remains to be seen how people will react to them. After all, saying and doing are two completely different things. For consumers and businesses who are not optimistic about the Greek economy, Bitcoin may be a good choice. Banks will not exert control over the funds of Bitcoin users, and there are no capital controls. In this regard, Bitcoin has more advantages than Fiat currencies.