Bitcoin Forum

Nice read ;)

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/is-2016-the-year-russia-legalizes-bitcoin/

Quote Wikipedia - "Russia - As of January 2015, a bill explicitly banning bitcoins does not exist in Russia, although it appears a de facto ban is in place."

Doesn't this mean that Bitcoin is already legal in Russia?

Legalizes Bitcoin = Regulates Bitcoin.

Well every year seems to be the legalization/regulation of Bitcoin, and thus a major country regulating Bitcoin wouldn't exactly be something unexpected. Topics like this don't really contribute much, since some of these become self-fulfilling anyways.

There is just a proposal for 4 years in prison for bitcoin/ruble exchange.
http://www.finanz.ru/novosti/valyuty/v-rossii-vvedut-ugolovnuyu-otvetstvennost-za-operacii-s-kriptovalyutami-1001066331
(IN RUSSIAN)

Hopefully the government of Russia opens its eyes and embraces bitcoin. Whether it be 2016, 2017 or sometime in the future. I'm keeping my hopes up that they see the light.

I don't think that Russia will legalize bitcoin this year, few months ago russian authorities wanted to ban it and jail the bitcoin users. Its good to know that they are studying about bitcoin economy and looking how russia can benefit with bitcoin, but i think that they will need more than one year to change its opinion. Will be good if they are neutral with bitcoin and don't put problems on russian bitcoin community.

What would a ban even look like? Are they able to control the Internet that well?

It should be embraced, but embracing a currency that takes power away from the government is unlikely for any country. It is, however, inevitable.

who cares about russia, let them fall behind from the rest of the world.

all i care about and am watching closely is China and what they are planning to do. "they want to announce bitcoin as a real currency"
if this happens the bitcoin price is going to explode to the moon and beyond that.

It is quite interesting to me and no matter who takes initiative to legalize bitcoin first but it matters that some country started it and then other countries might follow it so on and on and some day it might really go the highest level if such thing becomes true in future about its legalization.

What if Russia can't regulate bitcoin? ==> "Illegalizes" bitcoin??

it's better for them to regulate bitcoin than simply banning it, because in the latter scenario there is no real ban people will use it regardless, in the first scenario thye will at least retrieve some tax, and make more people willing to use it safely

Lol yeah. It is so hard to keep up with what countries Bitcoin is legal, and not legal in.

To be honest with you, base on the situation in Russia since past 2 years (I've been following since I have friends there), I still doubt this year will be the year. IIRC somewhere in 2014-2015 was a debate and Russian lawmakers mostly wanted ban on BTCitcoin usage and only few of them were supporting BTCitcoin and the signs is still in favor of them not legalizing BTCitcoin although there is a chance for them to regulate it in the future. I would give them another 2 years before they take any noticeable steps towards BTCitcoin legalization.

any country that legalizes bitcoin and sets some clear laws about it (in order to regulates the transaction) means they are setting some taxes for services that use bitcoin so in some sense it is a form of control

also more services will use bitcoin if it becomes regulated, which will lead to higher prices

LOL, a Bitcoin "investor" detected.

Russia like to controle things so it will be big news if they will legalize it.

not exactly.. the article in january was about if people trade bitcoins without registering as a money transmitter business, they would get fines if they are individuals and only jailtime if its a institution found to be doing trades related to criminal activity

ill quote myself from an earlier topic
note the "without statement of person or persons performing such issuance".. this is him saying if your not doing KYC
note the "not provided for in the legal codes" meaning its not to be used for crimes (drugs guns etc)
note the "in violation of procedures established under the legislation" not used for money laundering.

in short its not saying anyone will be arrested and jailed just for touching bitcoin.. but for using it wrongly


also januaries debate about bitcoin jailtime was based on a video, so here is something else to add
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1355282.msg13800226#msg13800226

It will be big news, but it wont' happen.
Russia is in crisis. Bitcoin is a way for investors to export money outside the country which is terrible for their economy.

Loool ... they have been saying they will criminalize bitcoin, now this? But ok, if China legalizes it, I guess most countries will follow.

It good that Russia Legalizes Bitcoin .
Russia has approximately 200,000 users adopting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. So, its the good option for many Russian citizens and a big boost to bitcoin userbase..

Generally speaking its the right trend if all the countries follow this.
Those calling for cryptocurrencies to be banned pointed to the notion of its criminal usage, should get discourage by this action.

Wow. I didn't know that that many people use Bitcoin in Russia. They really need to legalise it soon.

The population of Russia is 145 million I highly doubt it's only 200k users the number must be greater plus many Russians are computer-literate.

to my knowledge, they have never prohibited bitcoin usage that hard. it has always been our news network that translates the Russian bitcoin related news in a bad way and try to make it look worse than what it actually is.

that is why most of the time I don't believe what I read on these websites anymore. they are mostly trying to increase their website traffic and earn money through their advertising network. they don't care about bitcoin at all.