简体中文
Greece is going to adopt the Bitcoin in the event the debt-laden country doesn't reach a deal with Eurogroup, Greek news portal Greek Reporter wrote on Wednesday, citing sources very close to Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, in an April Fool's Day joke, the annual day for pranks.
While Greece's lenders are pushing the Greek government to accept their terms in order to allocate funds so the country will not go bankrupt, Varoufakis pretended to have another ace up his sleeve. The second top thinker in the world, according to prospect magazine, surprised even his closest aids at a secret meeting when he said: "We've had enough, we'll run on Bitcoin," the portal said.
According to the article, many officials objected saying that Greece didn't have the know-how to start such a global movement, but the Greek finance minister said he would do what the Ancient Greeks would have done in his position: be the future.
"As Greeks, we are innovators. Look at our history," exclaimed Varoufakis who added, "the first computer was used in Greece: the mechanism of Antikythira. Nobody knew what we were starting then."
"The future starts in Greece and we will be the first country to use the currency of the future, a currency that doesn't allow third parties to tell us what to do or how to live, this is the Greek thing to do," said the Greek minister.
Varoufakis took over to make it clear the story was a joke through wishing everyone a "Happy April Fool's Day" on his Twitter account with a link to the portal's article.
The prank was made as a Eurogroup Working Group convened to examine the progress made in recent days over the list of reforms Athens proposed last week in exchange for urgent international aid so as to avert a possible credit crunch in April.
