Bitcoin Forum

With the issue of hackers of amassing huge amount of money and the issues on Money Laundering the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is looking forward to create a cyber surveillance division whose function is to monitor and implement virtual currency regulations in the country. Having seen the increase of bitcoin users in the country and the huge amount flowing in bitcoin activities, the government has included bitcoin in its watch list. Soon there will be regulations and policy covering bitcoin operations in the Philippines.

Very interesting. But I don't think the Philippine government can do much, judging by everything else they do.

Although, I wonder if its going to be "tax the hell out of you" or "don't do shady shit and rob your clients". I guess we will wait and see.

I believe that is is a probability given the new president whose been historically chosen by people to stop corruption, criminality and drugs. The new president is a straight one and a person who has an iron grip. In his administration this things are possible hopefully for the good of the country Philippines. The exact time is not clear but it is a well plan that need to be implemented.

I think it would be ok that there be some regulations on the use of digital currency, like bitcoin, but not to tax what we have, but just to monitor what are the things that are being exchanged with the transactions. If the new administration is serious about stopping corruption and drug problems, they should focus on catching the big fish and not feast on those small time drug dealers and criminals.

I think its way to far to be happen because bitcoin is not known in philippines and only those enthusiast are using it as you can see in outside world we can count only those people who use it because majority of people are merely not known about this coin existence thats why i think its so early for bitcoins to introduce in philippines it cannot gather trust in short period of time.

can you give me a source of this information, if this is real I'm very exciting with this. The Philippines became one of some countries can make a new blow for another country who always relies on fiat currency became their value. At the same time, this will give some usefulness for Philippines to leave from another countries domination for their currency.

Is it good or bad for those people in Philippines who use it?

This will be bad since other countries will get Philippines money online via hacking and Philippines can't do anything to defend their selves on other countries. And I don't think Philippines have a good system to do this.

Good for those who treat bitcoin as currency.

Bad for those using bitcoin as a pure investment, they hate tax without knowing that local exchanges has putting a same tax scenario when it comes to converting bitcoin to fiat.

However, the government here will not focus on providing regulations in using bitcoin for now seeing how government is spending some time in one thing.

Just in case you guys have never seen the new President of the Philippines. In less than a month, people in my area are admitting that they are drug addict/users and has took an oath that they will never do it again. The news is all about the new President. Sometimes it's starting to become boring because it's all about killing drug lords and stuff.

In other words, Mayor Duterte (we call him Mayor for some reasons) has the power to do these things. Anyway, I'm not brainwashed or something to say this but all of his actions are focused on making this country a better one. If he makes a cyber surveillance division, then surely his intentions are purely for the safety of the online money that we all have. And he doesn't want to make money out of this action.

Hope they regulate it the right way, not criminalise average Bitcoin users.


Is it the same guy who proposed killing drug addicts, or was it just rumour?

you could say this is good news. Now some countries are beginning to pay attention to the movement and development of bitcoin in the country. hopefully some future time in several regional countries will adopt a system like phillippine government. This is an improvement for bitcoin world.

Such actions by government are not motivated by fighting (cyber)crime. This is just a pretext. The true reason for "regulation" (read: restriction) of Bitcoin use is the understandable fear of the government that people no longer use the inflationary fiat junk money provided by central banks. Using money outside of governmental control bereaves the government of one of its most important sources of power.

Fortunately these initiatives of shortsighted officials are destined to fail. They will only work as long as people convert Bitcoin to fiat money. But what if people use Bitcoin for direct payments? There will be no way for the nanny state to prevent that.

ya.ya.yo!

Yep, it is the same guy. He won the election. A lot of drug users/addicts especially drug lords has been killed already. Not by him, though. I don't expect much from the new President in stuffs like cyber crime because his focus is on drugs and other crimes. But cyber crime is just another type of crime and we all know that a lot of scams are happening nowadays. It's likely that the President would ask for help from another country (USA or other first world country) to do such action. Philippines alone can't do all these things.

you should add some links for things you post here so we can research further about them easier :)

anyways, i think this can go both ways (good or bad) because usually regulations lead to more taxes and people and merchants staying away because they would have to pay more taxes or get in troubles for unpaid taxes,...
but also it is good because it also can lead to more people trusting bitcoin because it is regulated and approach it which will help the mass adoption in long term.

Bitcoin getting regulated by the government is not a bad thing as long as they don't impose a lot of taxes on the annual Bitcoin profits. Actually it may be a benefit to the Bitcoin community in the country if the government officials help to curb down all the scams and thefts that seem to be rampant in the Bitcoin world right now. Of course some people won't like it being looked into by the government but in this day and age I don't think we could get much privacy any more unless we move to live in the mountains  ;D

If they make their internet a bit slower, bitcoin won't work anymore :D

On a serious note: they can regulate the exchanges of course. Even without living there I know coins.ph, that's how big/famous it is. I read about it on multiple locations.
I don't even think regulation is a bad thing. Illegal trading will continue anyway, and government approved legal trading could be an incentive for more users.
Considering how expensive it is to send money to/from the Philippines, Bitcoin can very well be competitive for overseas workers.

It is really good news because this what Bitcoin is missing right now. Bitcoin will be regulated easy by easy in many countries and all this will back it by providing strength. Bitcoin will open new opportunities and will grow up much more fast. In spite of all fears related to this regulation there are hidden hopes and opportunities in my opinion.

A shame, regulations by government only stifles growth.

Well done, I'm very glad to hear that the philippine is wanna making a regulate for bitcoin to prevent all of their issues and solve the problem. but never see about this rumour on the internet, I need a reliable source for this. but I sure for certainly there is any interest by some parties in this policy. ???

I have an exact opposite belief though.  If that is true then no business will boom at all.  I believe this regulation if implemented is for the better. Security and anti fraud, legal merchant  will welcome this.   And I hope OP will give  us the link of the information about Philippines plan on regulating digital currency.  

That's a good news for the citizens of Philippines as well other nations. At the same time while regulating government should not have control over it. If control gets into the hands of government periodically they truly destroy the anonymity.

TL;DR: No more signature spam?

i have yet not hear that news. if it is true news that is really a good news to hear. i think now the momentum has started. now so many other countries will also take a positive step about bitcoin.

Yeah i notice they are now increasing security and they are asking the real identity right now before you can withdraw your bitcoin into fiat using coins ph..
I think we are not anonymous right now unless if we are making new account not verified account can only withdraw 20k php or 0.6328 btc..
I hope they dont do that because we are using bitcoin to be anoymous but looks like they are increasing the security and more will happen soon.

i think not only Philippine are going to regulate bitcoin but most of the countries of the world are thinking about it to regularize bitcoin and to give a legal status to the bitcoin.

Anyways, that's the job of any responsible government to try and regulate any excesses which is towards good social system which is the primary motive of this action but government all over the world cannot be trusted as they look for reason to clampdown on any thing not going their way 'the idea of give dog a bad name in other to hang it' approach is the other of the day that's why citizens need to stand as check against this government they install even all over the world...my 2 cents...

Ah well,  this is a harbinger of things to come all around the world.   Is gambling a big thing in the Philippines?   I mean like bigger than other countries?   Is it legal there?   I'm also curious how big bitcoin use is in that country.   I've known Filipinos who were very twch savvy but dirt poor.

I agree that bitcoin lacks regulations, but i'm afraid of how those regulations are going to be enforced. They can't force people to obey what they dictate, but
i have a feeling that there will be restrictions in the way of regulating money coming in and out of exchanges and bank accounts associated with them.
That is the most vulnerable link in this stage of bitcoin revolution per se.

If it is true,it is good as bitcoin regulation will pave way for bitcoin related business to operate in friendly environment.It will also make people more attracted towards bitcoin

I don't think bitcoin regulations are going to be something that will attract people, but quite the opposite, but it all depends on how they implement/enforce them.
Anything they do to counter illicit use will fall under i think, because there will always be ways to bypass whatever they set in place.

As long as they don't deem it illegal, then I don't see this having an huge impact on bitcoin around the world. Of course we also don't want regulations to be too tight and the government monitoring it so closely that it takes away form some of the anonymity.

the same for me, i doubt that it is such a bad thing if bitcoin will still be illegal in philippines, in my opinion it might be even better that government pays attention to bitcoins, i believe we will deal with the regulations in the future

I doubt they'll straight outlaw Bitcoin. Philippines are massive recipient of remmitance money, Bitcoin remmitance companies (or using BTC directly) may be a small percent of market, but they do enforce the big players to keep the fees on reasonable level. And less fees means more money coming in. There are also other benefits.
That being said, Bitcoin is a game changer in terms of cybercrime (or tax evasion), and if they have not enough experts in the law enforcement to deal with it, then declaring Bitcoin illegal is the simplest option. Hope it doesn't come to that.

Really? Any data to backup those claims? I didn't know BTC was so big in the Philippines, nor that there are many hackers there. Isn't that just government propaganda to try to control BTC? What BTC activities are in the Philippines?