Turkish Residents Flock to Bitcoin During Military Coup By Jamie Redman - July 18, 2016

 The Turkish government  is currently rounding up members of the groups that launched a military  coup in recent days. During the coup, citizens ran to their banks and  local ATMs to get their wealth out of the system as Turkey’s currency  dropped significantly in value. Also read: 34 Bytes Bitcoin POS Terminal Starts Beta Testing 

Bitcoin Supporters Tell Turkish Citizens to Turn to Cryptocurrency

As usual, many Bitcoiners believe  residents living in Turkey should look to bitcoin to preserve their  wealth. The Turkish Lira’s value has suffered as the military coup  stirred fear throughout the country. With the civil unrest unfolding,  media publications such as Seeking Alpha are reporting about bitcoin being used as a financial safe haven.  Seeking Alpha reporter Scott Tzu states:  

“Ten years  ago this article would have been about gold. Today the conversation  turns to bitcoin, and why we have a small allocation toward the digital  currency.”
 

When the military coup started on June 14, reports and photos of bank runs and long ATM lines surfaced on the Internet. The banks in Turkey tried to quell the financial fiasco by offering unlimited liquidity, and the Turkish Prime Minister told the world that  “macroeconomic fundamentals remain solid.” Officials from the region  wanted to reassure investors the coup would not cause turbulence within  the country’s economy.  However, the various reports and images confirm that the coup has indeed affected the Turkish economy.      Often times, when economies fail,  such as in Greece, Venezuela, and the recent Brexit, Bitcoin supporters  seize the opportunities to raise awareness about the advantages of  Bitcoin.  It seems that Turkish residents got the message, as BraveNewCoin’s Bitcoin Index has shown a significant spike in BTC/TRY markets.  With the coup now over, and rebel  forces tracked down, maybe Turkish citizens will look to the  cryptocurrency to hedge against chaos caused by future conflicts.    Bitcoin  users are not affected by military coups, bank failures or government  intervention. The cryptocurrency has been fully-functional since its  inception, and has never seen market blackouts. Bitcoin is truly  peer-to-peer, decentralized and open source for the entire globe to  share. Without a doubt, Bitcoin is one of the best forms of money.    Spreading information about Bitcoin’s virtues as a monetary safe haven, free  from typical controls governments place on wealth, will most likely  continue with increasingly bleak outlooks on growth in the mainstream  economy. Many governments are falling to the wayside due to financial  difficulties, and nation states in general are becoming more irrelevant.