George Osborne has ruled out a currency union with Scotland, while entry into Europe and the euro looks like a sticky prospect. So what will First Minister Alex Salmond do for money if the country votes for independence in September?
How about Bitcoin? It would be more 21st century than a return to groats and bawbies. Ben Bernanke, former chair of the US Federal Reserve, had given the digital currency a cautious blessing, saying it “may hold long-term promise”.
The Treasury also seems open to the idea. “We would recognise a country using that currency,” a spokesman told me yesterday, though “the way that Bitcoin is currently set up ... I’m not sure how we’d interact with it.” The Economist’s Daniel Knowles tells me the digital currency, with a reputation for being used for selling drugs, “would serve Scotland’s Trainspotting generation particularly well.”
The only people not buying into our visionary currency solution for Scotland so far seems to be the Scots. “Bitcoins?” said a puzzled spokesman for the Scottish government. “I’ve never heard of them, to be honest. How is that spelt?”
