If this is legit and not corruption and bitcoin eventually takes off to ungodly levels, imagine the biggest bet in history paying off and their country turns around as an economic powerhouse. Risky and stupid but would make a good movie.
The only thing keeping them a powerhouse would be a number on a computer that can be stolen. Question is, would people try to steal from a nation rich enough to be a powerhouse and how sophisticated would those theft attempts be?
That's my point. If a country really did build up enough Bitcoin it became a world power, those Bitcoin would probably be stolen. If it can happen to gold, it can happen to Bitcoin even easier.
It has to be easy enough to move the Bitcoins that it can be done when needed. For example, if you split the password up among too many people, then you could "disappear" one of those people and then the Bitcoins suddenly cease to exist (or practically so).
So there's a balance. If it's easy to move the Bitcoins, then a thief can find a way to move all the Bitcoins into their own wallet. Or, if it's very difficult to move the Bitcoins, then an adversary can find a way to make it impossible to move the Bitcoins, essentially destroying them.
Why faster? The gold was in a ship because the gold had to be carried, which isn't the case with bitcoin. If there is no ship you can steal, you won't get anything
If I can steal your cryptographic key (a number), I can write to the Bitcoin ledger "I Mubelotix give Buttons840 all my Bitcoin", and then it's done, the transaction is complete, it's written on the immutable public ledger with your own private key. If I can get your private key then I can take all your Bitcoin and you cannot stop me, nobody can, no court, no nation.
What I'm saying is that if a country did built up a world altering amount of Bitcoins, a James Bond 007 Super Secret Agent Man would come and steal the cryptographic key associated with your Bitcoins and as soon as they have that it's over, all your Bitcoin are gone.
Is it? Like, when any one of the people with access to the key has a standing offer of 1 billion dollars and a life a luxury in another country, are you sure none of them will take the offer? What about when their families are threatened? What about when they get kidnapped and hit with a wrench?
I'm just saying, if we're talking about so much Bitcoin that it alone makes a country a world power, that's enough Bitcoin that things have moved beyond law and order and is in the ugly and dangerous realm of war and espionage.
I really wish for them to hit the jackpot and break the cycle, but so far, everything valuable in the region was quickly turned into poverty and famine. It's like a bad magic trick.