Bitcoin Forum

 

This is absurd. Must be another hidden reason that bitcoin is declared as illegal. It is crazy to think that the gangsters will stop their illegal activity because of this action of the Taiwan Authorities. I think that for sure it is a way to deviate the attention of the people from the fact happened. I cannot find another reasonable justification. Maybe they think that asking bitcoin the kidnappers will have more possibility to hide their money but this cannot be possible. Every transaction it is showed in blockchain and, if followed, can be monitored and blocked and founded the owner. Even if is used the tor browser. Otherwise how was possible everything happened with Ross Ulbricht. The Authorities find him and him's bitcoins.

Sound to me like they are using whatever they could get as an public excuse to fight Bitcoin. Sound obvious to me they want to attack Bitcoin because they lose control over a portion of their citizen's economy.

Any Country that want to exploit their citizens will try to fight or ban Bitcoin.

That is quite a strange twist of events, in my opinion this is temporary and will change in time.
Right now it's a sad sign of the criminal activity being treated as equal to Bitcoin just by being the means of exchange.
You cannot blame BTC for ransoms.

Yep or maybe some corruption is involved too.

Its just pure hypocricy that 99% of crimes are done with fiat, yet if 1% is done in bitcoin, you immediately ban bitcoin.

Lets all declare fiat illegal, it wa s users in high profile ransom cases..

Man, what are these people thinking over there? Not normal..

It's reasonable why their goverment doing this. Bitcoin has it's advantage point for some bad people to use bitcoin as ransom payment.
Whenver it's illegal , bitcoin still can exist as internet payment as we can see the value got increased yesterday. Something positive happen.

It might only be one case so far but I can guarantee you it will be the first of many instances where bitcoins will be requested as payment for ransoms. Unfortunately it's the perfect option to facilitate these types of crimes as there's no safe way for kidnappers to pick up cash but Bitcoin gives them the perfect  opportunity to remain in the shadows whilst they get what they want. It likely won't be long before most kidnappers request payment in btc so it quickly could become a problem or at least a tricky situation to deal with.

I'm pretty sure they're just using the kidnapping as an excuse to ban Bitcoin. This is actually bullshit when so many people are being held up with fiat.   

People were saying that Bitcoin was banned already in Taiwan in 2014. I guess that now it is official. I doubt that Bitcoin was banned in Taiwan because of this on incident, someone must have done something to trigger this out of the Chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission. Many of these kidnappings have happened with fiat, but they never made fiat illegal. Maybe the Taiwanese government didn't really like Bitcoin in the first place, and now they have an opportunity to make it illegal and they strike. Well I guess more people are getting to know about Bitcoin and some are not because the country they live in has made Bitcoin ILLEGAL.

It is not more reasonable than banning knives because of that many crimes are associated with them.

They should be seeking for criminals, not for the instruments they use.

Any time I see that a country has banned Bitcoin, I actually go and look at what really happened and it is some entity without the authority to make anything illegal or they are merely "banning Bitcoin from their banking system".
Something tells me that the chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan likely cannot unilaterally pass laws.

These types of things also give a glimpse into how closely tied the central banks are to many governments in the world.

I think that this is just stupid as the same kidnapper, or someone else will just demand a payment in cash or as an online payment. This certainly does not solve anything!!

IMO this is just temporary.

Hmm that is sad :/ well good luck Taiwan Bit-coiners.

Taiwan government may think that the use bitcoin is wrong, perhaps because many illegal transactions that occurred in Taiwan by using bitcoin, but I think it should be reviewed by the government of Taiwan

Wrong move by the FSC for implementing such rule as I understand them sighting the recent gathering as excuse for making the use of bitcoin illegal in Taiwan however there has to be a hidden agenda to that because the criminals could just move to another virtual currency instead and do the same thing... The move is not good specially that they want to notify other countries for such regulations that other's may follow

First Russia and now Taiwan. I don't really understand the reasoning to ban Bitcoin because of this one case.

Idiots! that will only make the volume go higher. Didn't they already learn from what happened in Russia once Putin banned Bitcoin?

http://coin.dance/charts/image/RUB.png

At what point will governments realize the fact that this technology cannot be stopped and that the only way to go is to go UP? Embarrassing presidents not understanding anything as always.

That's just being naive in my opinion. What about all ransoms in cash or into swiss bank accounts back in the day? Are they gonna ban cash now too?

Saying they will ban btc is like saying they are going to not let you torrent movies anymore. Sure both are illegal but how many are getting caught with it?

The government doesn't have to state the real reasons for the ban. This ransom demand provides them a convenient excuse to ban Bitcoin.
Taiwan's loss could be other countries' gain. Other countries will benefit from the Bitcoin economy.

russia is very big, and their decision could somehow affect the price(but maybe not so much, because many russians don't even know about the bitcoin existence, only hacker there...) but taiwan..

taiwan is very small(not even 24M people there), with or without them, nothing will change

I just feel sad about the people there who would want to use bitcoin and get into it, and actually have use for it cause of the small transactions fee's.

Now most will obviously not touch it for reasons being declared by higher up idiots who know almost nothing about it. A whole country being banned from using a new technology. GG world.

I can't understand why they want to fight against bitcoin, they need to fight against kidnapping and other crimes, not against a currency. I supose that there are crimes before bitcoin in taiwan, they will not solve it blocking one system of payment.

A guy working for the OECD has published a paper that says the possibility a virtual currency could be made illegal erodes confidence in it's capability of storing value. He goes on to say his views are not necessarily the OECD's. He's talking rubbish and the OECD shouldn't let him publish papers like that if they don't reflect its views.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115540/oecd-discussing-possible-bitcoin-illegality-is-mutually-damaging

Who cares about Taiwan. Not really that important market and I m also sure they ll change their opinion soon. As BTC grows stronger, I highly doubt any country can afford to stay out.

Thats your "democracy" folks! :D

Politicians will just do whatever they want and dont care about what the sheeple voters want.

Many of the kidnappers in Taiwan asked for NT$ for ransom as well... are they going to make it illegal soon?

Taiwan gov wanted to ban Bitcoin and this ransom is only (bad) excuse. Nothing new, goverments are corrupted and who knows what is real reason to they decide that. Sure they would not aknowledge that bankers want btc weak there and pay them to ban it, so they use realy shitty excuse.

Taiwanese can still buy the bitcoin in foreign exchanges. The ownership of bitcoin is not banned in Taiwan.

If it is total ban, the economy in Taiwan will suffer in the next few years. Bitcoin and Blockchain is the driving force behind a new economy.

Taiwanese government will by itself lift the ban in future.It is a childish act to stop growing and popularity of bitcoin.Actually the government is afraid as it is a big step towards blockchain technology which will make all spending transparent so from now they tried to stop bitcoin as act of preventive but they can't realize now no ban will be helpful as it too late to stop it.

Well if they declared illegal because of that kidnapping,
Then maybe they are right, because they think that will stop this phenomenon.
But in generally soon they will update it to a legal coin for sure.

This is so dumb, just because of a ransom demand made in bitcoin they make it illegal. Yea its harder to track then normal currency like the U.S. dollar but come on! How many kidnappers really are going to go through the trouble of using bitcoin for ransom? When someone kidnaps some else and holds them for ransom, I assume they want to get there payment asap and get the hell out of town before getting caught. Most people dont have any idea what bitcoin really is still nevermind having enough bitcoin to pay ransom or know where to go to get bitcoin if needed for a ransom. Are they going to ban all other currencies as well and just make everyone use credit cards or something from now on? Maybe they should just get rid of all money and currency all together and just make everything in life free. Then theres no need for anyone to be held for ransom.

So let's say that tomorrow a Taiwanese kidnapper seizes someone and demands a bitcoin ransom. What are the authorities going to do, say "You can't do that! Bitcoin is against the law!"

Then again maybe this is a brilliant tactic. Because the kidnappers just might die laughing at the government's response.

it easy for them to ban it because goverment didnt get anything from bitcoin like tax they will not loss anything if they ban it or not
second is the anonymity of bitcoin will make them more work to trace it
or even impossible for them to solve the cases if bitcoin will be use in illegal things in their country

That is ironic how communist china didn't even declare bitcoin illegal and Taiwan is the one punishing capitalists.

If next time, kidnappers ask a ransom in US $, will Taiwan ban that currency. This is stupid, and it's sad because Taiwanese are smart, educated hard working people. BTC had huge opportunities in Taiwan, so I hope this will not pass into law.

Russia did it, but most Russians are poor and uneducated, Taiwan deserves better.

They are obviously using it as an excuse to ban it. It does not matter if the citizens are smart and educated. If the governments don't want Bitcoin to undercut their earnings, they will ban it. =/

Do they plan to ban alcohol, guns, knives and coffee too? After all it is all harmful for your body.
This decision is so immature on so many levels that I can't even express my thoughts.
Bitcoin will now be underground payment method. Way to go Taiwan!

this is good news - when people feel threatened by a technology, it means they understand that it's effective!

is this news legit? i cant find any other source to prove that expect cryptocoinnews article.

Very strange news here....... ??? ??? ???

In Taiwan, bitcoin is treated as a virtual goods. So it cannot function as a currency. So it is legal to own bitcoin. However, the situation will change as bitcoin is widely adopted in other parts of the world.

To my knowledge it is, the informaton seems to have spread from the cryptocommunity blogs and has not been picked up by the mainstream media.
Either because they are confirming or denying it themselves or it was somehow missed on the radar.
No sourcing that I could see besides the focus taiwan article so perhaps it is a hoax.

This is the source
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aeco/201511020025.aspx

I wasn't even able to open that page. But i did a quick google search and I can't almost find anything on taiwan declaring it illegal except for some bitcoin articles that people had posted and practically copy-pasted.

Taiwan will regret their decision and backtrack on this in the future. Old people in government are afraid of new technology.

The reason some governments look to ban bitcoin is understandable If we consider the geo politics. Its not the coin or the technology they dont like, its their fear of American backed NGO's creating dissent inside their countries financed with bitcoin. The worst recent cases of these trouble makers backed by the US government and the CIA was in Russia. Around a dozen so called charities and human rights organisations have been closed and the mostly Americans sent packing. They were there actively trying to create conditions for a  revolution and Bitcoin was used for some of this. You wont hear about this in the MSM of course but make no mistake about it those warmongering US establishment are interfering in as many countries as they can and its certain Bitcoin is being used to finance. Any threat to Bitcoin wont be from a country like Taiwan, it is and always will be the USA.

It could be a hoax considering only one news source have this news
But then again, no mainstream media is care about Bitcoin community and when they do its always about negative things to drive people away from using bitcoin  >:(
I think the only way to know is by asking the bitcoin users in taiwan itself ;)

in my opinion is a hoax.

Well according to recent news this isn't correct at all. They have obviously been praising btc now after all the old scandals have started vanishing from people's heads. Now btc and the blockchain are a godsent to the media.

This is ironically always good news for Bitcoin. Everytime Bitcoin has been banned, we've seen more and more interested within people on that particular country, just look at Russia or China, they are becoming leaders in volume traded and will only keep increasing as their ridiculous governments keep screwing up with people's wallets.

Ban bitcoin in a whole country for just a one crime? Thats is questionable and absurd. What happens to other good users there.

They still cane their school kids in Taiwan amoung many other profoundly ridiculous things in this day and age

I had been caned when I was at school. And it is a bad experience but taught me how to be disciplined. There is good in bad ways.

I prefer to stay away from Dictatorships thankyou

After there ban people at dark net will become more active.After the ban bitcoin users wont go down for sure.
They have banned it so that the govt. can find a valid reason to punish the people who are using it for DARK THINGS.

Just remember, nothing is ever made illegal.

1. Only certain people declare a thing to be illegal. Usually they do it for their own advantage in some way.

2. When something is made illegal, what is really happening is that people are being limited. If you like limitations, simply limit yourself. Don't take my freedom away by limiting me.

:)

This is human evolution:

http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/0/0/2/2/9/1/9/7/7/dddd-61521427952.jpeg

It makes you wonder...

It is probably hard for people to protest and get BTC legalized, as they would fear getting labeled as Criminal partisans.

Basically a lot of FUD is being spread as Bitcoin being a criminal's money, even though in reality BTC does not even have 1% of the market cap being used in criminal transactions.

Considering how oblivious the masses are to the facts, truth and just plainly what Bitcoin is in the first place, i don't see mass protestation really happening. =/

This is a problem for everyone because letting a country making BTC illegal create precedents for other Governments to use against Bitcoin.

Kidnappers taking 1.6 mil of bitcoin wont need to worry about spending it in taiwan.  Same as any other crime for a large amount they can use it elsewhere.

Why would you want Bitcoin or anything else legalized? Legalization takes away freedom.

Let government get their thieving fingers off everything, and get rid of both, legalization and illegalization... SO WE CAN BE FREE.

:)

If it wasn't illegal to start your own open money system, fiat would have perished long ago. Get rid of illegalization of everything so that we can be free. The only advantage might be that now we have Bitcoin, where we might not otherwise. However, without illegalization of private money by government, we might have something way better than Bitcoin by now.

:)

one thing i can think about would be to increase adoption among those that want to use it only if regulated, and i want assure you that "those" are the vast majority of the population

well for me it is been a little been absurd that because of the kidnapping case the currency being banned,

but i can also understand that this kind of government thinking

yes bitcoin has been label as illegal currency, money laundry currency and other because of the anonymous,

but i think government can think other ways than banning Bitcoin, because bitcoin has a potential become global currency

As I said on an earlier thread on this topic: I don't know anything about the Taiwanese legal structure. I have however directly witnessed instances where 'the cryptocurrency press' had not gotten the story quite right.

In Taiwan, does the chair of the FSC have the authority to enact law by simple proclamation?

if its like Singapore for starters they would try assasination,, f they do go for an arrest

u would need to know the language of the police officers ( not relevant if ur a local)

when they try to arrest u, typically they will go for an arrest if u have had some drinks and

after they have had the chance  to get someone to spike ur drink,, once ur in Jail in one

of these countries ur really really fked they can ban ur bank accounts refuse access to

bail lawayers etc, even the lawyers are corrupt,  so take a Taiwan Ban as complete #&%

#&%%#%&%&%&% !!!!!!!

That's all nice, I guess, but I can't see how that answers my question. Neither does it dispel my suspicion that this is a false rumor.

nah! they won't turn illegal! it would be a huge mistake.

why would taiwan care? my buddy went to visit about 10 years ago and
said under age whore houses were everywhere and no one cared. But they
are gonna take a stance on digital currency? lol

Local things dont matter in their eyes. But bitcoin is international stuff with much media coverage. Plus it might annoy a few banks there.

If the banks have control over politicians there, and they fear bitcoin, they will ban it.

Exactly, there is a huge difference between "banning Bitcoin from their banking system" and actually trying to throw people in jail for connecting to a Bitcoin wallet.

Another news putting bitcoin into bad light. It will attract more criminals to use bitcoin.

They are putting their feet on their grave with this since they are denying a huge booming economy to take part on their country. These clowns will learn the hard way.

This decision  is already history, people. The government has already backed off. It was all absurd news relayed by absurd media.
That was Thailand. But thank you for spreading false rumors about Taiwan anyway :-/

The state wants to keep taxing (stealing) people, and BTC prevents that they do so as efficiently.

Taiwanese government is already failing bigtime at successfully taxing the people right now. But yeah who knows.

I call traditionalism as the reason why the government (and the people) are sceptical about bitcoin and sensationalism as the reason why media circles made the news about it becoming illegal that big.

Who can stop you from collecting Bitcoin and spending it in another country, or better yet, relocating to another country when it does get banned? The media are such a attention whore, and they will jump on the first rumor and sell it as fact within the first hour.

Until Taiwan make a public statement about matters like this, you have to take everything as Media Fud. 

i dont think that this is a legal news,some news also declared its a fake news,but anyway,bitcoin is still have place on asian country.
bitcoin may illegal,but they (goverment) can stop people for use bitcoin.

ofcourse it is the right move for them becasue
after the they gave the ransom money in bitcoin
they have no way of finding on where the money will go.
i mean if its in fiat they will still try to track it down.
but if its in bitcoin the suspect can just send it on a
different wallet in small amounts to avoid suspicion.
theyre just cautious that this kind of way may happen
again.

@quentincole32: It never was really clear but anyway the news was largely broadcasted all over the most prominent media in Taiwan. That's what matters, imo.

But anyway, the guy (Zeng Mingzong) allegedly merely repetead what was already known and was already law in Taiwan, i.e. bitcoin doesn't have any legal status (so what): http://www.cbc.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=43531&ctNode=302 (I'll let you copy paste it in any internet translation service). And yes, this is the Central Bank of The ROC website so this is official stuff there. It was posted on 2013/12/30. Anyway, bitcoin not being legal stricto sensu in any country shouldn't surprise anyone, should it? Then you add the traditional traditionalism of Taiwanese politics on top and you have it: they apparently couldn't make it illegal (?) but they emphasize that it's not backed off by the government either (and yes, "so what", but you lot reacted didn't you? So did Taiwanese people, and that, my good sirs, is the bad news).