The Pacific Nation of Vanuatu has announced earlier this week that they will be accepting bitcoin in return for its $200,000 per individual or $235,000 for a family of up to four citizenship program, which makes them the first sovereign country to accept bitcoin for citizenship status.
Earlier this month, Geoffrey Bond, Chairman of the Vanuatu Information Center (VIC), who is overseeing the citizenship application in the country, sent a request officially for the permission of the government to accept bitcoin as a mode of payment for citizenship which was granted last week by the Parliament Secretary of the Prime Minister, Andrew Solomon Napuat.
Vanuatu is a member of the British Commonwealth, which has 82 small islands in the South Pacific with a population of about 286,000 residents and being a citizen gives you access to 113 countries including the UK, Russia and European Union states.
James Harris, MD of VIC, in his statement said;
There remains some suspicion surrounding the use of crypto-currency in financial transactions, and some fears that it can be related to undesirable activities.
In fact, the opposite is true, as crypto-currency exists in a fully traceable ledger where the entire history of its creation and trading is visible,” he said.
Christian Nesheim, a specialist in investment migration who was the one who advised VIC officials to accept bitcoin, is very confident that accepting this digital currency will give Vanuatu a fierce edge in the citizenship market.
What do you think? Do you think this is a great move by the officials of Vanuatu and do you think it would have a huge Impact on the development of Bitcoin.