Bitcoin Forum

http://calvinayre.com/2017/02/08/business/central-bank-rolls-new-rules-philippine-bitcoin-exchanges/

After the declaration of the Central Banks that they see merits in the use of bitcoin as well as in the financial exchange the Central banks sets out rules for the exchanges. This rules are placed in accord with  the BSP Circular No. 944 that states " businesses that convert real money like Philippine peso to virtual currencies like bitcoin, and vice versa, will “soon be required to register and report to the central bank.”". This rules are set so that money laundering and other illicit activities will not affect the economy of the Philippines but rather with this policies the Central Bank has seen that bitcoin will bring economic advantages to the country.

this will be a good news for every crypto people residing inside Philippines with adopting and allowing crypto currency surely will add good impact to our nations but the problem would be its no longer anonymous if we needed to reveal ourselves, but anyway that's already what is happening with the local exchange here we do need to provide government i'd before we can use if in full function and it has limitation with deposit and withdraw.

This is really a good news for people who reside on Philippines and you are right you would really need to give their government id and other documents which would really expose your identity which is really strict because its part of the law to avoid money laundering and other stuffs.

Well, that's understandable, protecting the economy of the Philippines, but they should've done it sooner(if that is the only reason)
I'm pretty sure money laundering disguised in bitcoin transactions has already happened. but can't to still prevent the future
money launderings to use bitcoin as a front for they're illegal activities.

As far as I know, exchangers in the Philippines have started to be strict even with out this new circular from Central Bank of the Philippines. It's sad to say that there are users in the Philippines who took advantage of a promo of an exchanger by creating multiple accounts signaling the site owner to start asking for more identification before they can cash out. Only exchangers are affected by this new BSP circular.

This will be boost up for bitcoin community in Philippine, now the people from those country can directly exchange their bitcoin under the regulation of Central bank than. With this new rules from Central Bank now bitcoin illegal activities will control in Philippine. So every should come forward with this new rule so that it can reduce illegal activities with bitcoin.

I though bitcoin transaction are de-centralized and pseudo-anonymous? With this development, the Philippines Central bank will not have total control and the local exchanger registered users are now subjected to the new circular. So goodbye for being anonymous which defeat the purpose of using bitcoin as mode of online payment and transaction.

Nope it will not, the only thing that this BSP Circular did was at least let the people know that BSP is monitoring the exchangers activity in the Philippines.


Bitcoin users in the Philippines has been using exchangers without the supervision of BSP, this circular will just increase the fees and ask for more identification before Bitcoin users can cash out. So nothing new exactly but I think this will turn off more people in using Bitcoin. We want to use Bitcoin because we want anonymity but with this exchangers asking for a lot of ID's then its RIP anonymity.


Like what kind of illegal activities in the Philippines do you know that Bitcoin was used.

Bitcoin transactions are anonymous if you move your coins from one wallet to another one.
In exchanges, you convert bitcoin into fiat or other crypto currencies. That is something different.
Most countries have laws that exchange owners have to get some form of ID from their users if fiat money is involved.
This is some sort of protection against fraud and money laundering I totally agree with.

Yes it will reduce illegal activity on the use bitcoin in Philippines because to convert peso to Bitcoin or otherwise there will be control in the central bank in the country. That would reduce illegal activities such as money laundering, and I think it was very nice. Maybe there will be a tax that costs will rise but it is very useful for the progress of bitcoin in this country.

It's fine I think...

No need to think about anonymity in exchanges... Besides, when you exchange your bitcoin to fiat, you are being asked who will be the recipient or who will be receiving the money on the other end... Unless we want to hide something...  :)

Anonymity is the best in online, but when you are converting it out to fiat, no need to think about that, and exchanges are the only affected by this, and if it is bad to them or not going to be good for the users, they would have send emails regarding it...  :)

Do we have a list of the Philippines Local exchanges? I know only 1 which is
coins.ph and I think they have a official thread here. I also checked there
blog.

How will my Coins.ph account be affected by this new regulation?

Coins.ph has long believed that the Blockchain has tremendous potential to help pave the way for a financially inclusive future and that a clear regulatory environment that promotes both innovation and accountability is a necessary step forward. As such, we welcome this new development as it both recognizes the potential of the technology and also sets standards that need to be met by the players in this industry.
Over the past few years, Coins.ph has taken great effort to build a strong compliance program, including obtaining BSP registration as a Remittance Agent in advance of the new regulation, and implementation of a strict KYC and Anti-Money Laundering program. Fortunately, this means we can expect fairly minimal effect to our operations, as we continue to uphold the same stringent KYC & AML practices we have held so far.

The reason I'm asking is that I want to know if other local exchanges are complying
in this BSP circular. And it only said that who do not meet the requirements will face
fines and get their permits cancelled. But it didn't mentioned about how big is the fine
is. I also want to see how the local Central Bank is strict in implementing this circular.
Maybe other Asian countries are looking at how the Philippines will implement it and
perhaps will follow suit as well.

Its better this way than they declaring bitcoin banned. Im sure it will intensify the progress of bitcoin community in the Philippines now that government is now sets out policies for bitcoin exchanges. Actually im okay with this. Maybe its a bad news to thise who are doing illegal things.

That's sounds great for the Filipino Bitcoin enthusiast, I just hope and wishing that because of this announcement the oppotunist people who owned the MLM company in the Philippine will not use this to take advantage the Filipino citizen to deceive them just because of money.

This sounds good and it will be encouraging for Bitcoin users in Philippines. It's also a way to regulate Bitcoin but in positive manner and example that not every regulation has to be bad for Bitcoin. I'm sure Bitcoin was and is used for money laundering purposes and that can't be completely avoided but maybe could be diminished.

Yes, there are local exchanges here in the Philippines, I only know two which are big... But same as you, I only tried coins.ph...  :)

The fines and penalties are mentioned on  page 5 of that memorandum circular 944... Violation of RA 7653 ( New Central bank act ) and RA 9160 ( Anti money laundering act ) - Just check out what's the penalty of those two....

The rest are violation of the said memorandum... - Just read the whole page 5, penalties are there already...  :)

I just get a point if the Philippines is allowing the bitcoin service to run in his environment. But it's mean the central bank will try to restricting the bitcoin business. and Will it become the same future like coinbase?

This is not just a good news to the Philippines but to all bitcoin users all around the world. First reason is that more Pinoy users are going to use bitcoin which lead to an increase in demand and will eventually  resulting to an increase in price. Secondly, if the Philippines as nation has accepted bitcoins, they will serve as a model for other countries to accept bitcoin in their countries leading bitcoin to be accepted mainstream.

Wow, its wonderful to hear that bitcoin sooner will be accepted in the Philippines. But now I will focused to continue learning about bitcoin investing and trading to earn a lot of bitcoin and to have enough knowledge about bitcoin. And because I live in the Philippines I'm one of the some members in this forum benefits this news. Thanks for the news op.

This is such a good news because bitcoin is being noticed in the Philippines and it seems that because of this news and because of this action of the Philippine Central Bank, it will attract a lot of investors to bitcoin and it will benefit us, the bitcoin community. I hope more countries will notice and study about the bitcoin so they can use it too like us.

We all hope for the best and if their policies will affect the exchangers and Bitcoin positively then we are all for it. It should be done globally though and not just the Philippines so that all and sundry can benefit from the positive policies.

you forgot that bitcoin was never anonymous, by the time you use an exchange you have destroyed your anonymity with bitcoin, if you want anonymity you need to use monero, this policy imho it's great for regulating bitcoin and making it adopted for philippine people


they are not restricting anything they are regulating to avoid illegal usage of the money, and this is a good thing, people will trust more bitcoin and their exchange and the usage will increase

It is a great news for bitcoin enthusiasts in the Philippines we are happy for you guys but I just wish others could emulate and implement such policies in their countries so that all will feel safe in dealing with Bitcoin and not push it to the dark world of the internet.

Well I hope this is for the better. I'm still quite a newbie with regards to bitcoins and I use coins.ph to store whatever meager amount of coin I have. They are already quite strict even before this circular. I had my photo taken as well as asked to submit an ID and it took them days to confirm it. Maybe this would better the reputation of bitcoin here and banks in general. The scandal caused by the Bangladeshi stolen fund was definitely an embarrassment for the country.

Users can still be anonymous if they do not use exchanges here in the Philippines.  If people will keep on Bitcoin only, they do not have to submit all those documents because only the exchanges where being regulated not the Bitcoin users themselves.  But the moment we use these exchanges to convert Bitcoin to our local money, then we have to follow the rules since from pseudo-anonymous and decentralized currency (bitcoin) to centralized currency (money).  We are dealing with local money here so it is normal that you present your personal details.

Quite standard move, nothing unexpected and drastic. At least Philippines recognized bitcoin as serious phenomena and now will standardize bitcoin law.
Let's hope that will only bolster consumer protection as only professional exchanges will be allowed to exist under this new act.
Unfortunately without AML regulations there is no way we will be able push bitcoin adoption further.

it is funny that nobody talks about it, Philippines, Canada and other countries have set so many regulations for bitcoin and its usage Coinbase which is located in US is working with the IRS and reporting every single user's transaction to them. and nobody talks about it.

but when China wants to prevent money laundry through exchanges, everybody panics!

If by 'everybody' you meant small number of Chinese traders then yes, they are extremely susceptible to even slight dose of FUD.
You can meet weak hands everywhere and it is quite a shame that actions of minority might influence bitcoin's price on a global level.
They need to educate themselves of bitcoin legal status outside China, then maybe they realize China's bitcoin regulation is rather lax.