Bitcoin Forum

Hello !


I know for example that in Russia, Bitcoin is now considered as illegal since few months.

And I just want to know if someone can give me (give me a website link) where is an exhaustive country-list about  whether this money is legal or not ?
I did not find it on Internet ...

Thanks in advance !

Are you sure that Bitcoin is actually illegal in Russia currently? According to that Wikipedia list, it's not.
Here's a list of the legality of Bitcoin per country, but I don't know how up to date it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country

I don't think either Bitcoin is illegal in Russia. There were some rumors about it but as far as I know Russian government hasn't actually declared Bitcoin as illegal. And even if it is that wouldn't stop Russian hackers from using it it's their best income source. Maybe it would have become even more popular.

As of November 2016, Bitcoin are "not illegal" (this according to a Russian federal tax service letter): https://news.bitcoin.com/russian-tax-office-legal-bitcoin/ (https://news.bitcoin.com/russian-tax-office-legal-bitcoin/)
Earlier Russia had intentions to announce bitcoin as illegal currenyc, but strangely, these plans didn't turn into reality.
You can check bitcoin legality by country here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country). As you can see, bitcoin ilegal in Bangldesh, Thailand, Bolivia, Kyrgyztan and some other countries. But mostly countries have no reguations to bitcoin.

Not only Russia many countries till now not declared bitcoin is illegal. Many people are actively using bitcoin for their daily need and profits making through bitcoin. Even in some countries has given permission to people to exchange bitcoins to their fiat currency. Till now no government ban bitcoin and din't announce bitcoin is illegal activity.

There has been raids of mines in Venezeula so that would be a sort of ban on bitcoin in a way.
Their government is not wanting those mines to exist because of their current situation with their fiat not being worth so much and I would assume that means they can not and are not collecting taxes on it. So they do not want anyone to be able to legally use it.
That is the main reason why governments want to ban it in the first place.
Atleast that is how I see the major reason in them to do so.

I know Russia backtracked its ban on bitcoin. Though I'm not really sure.

Link: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/top-10-countries-bitcoin-banned/ (https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/top-10-countries-bitcoin-banned/)

Also, I don't know if the list is updated or not. I see India and China in the list,
I know bitcoin is not ban in those countries, they are just being regulated right now.

Is This Real ? BTC Illegal in Russia ?

no it's not banned or either illegal, they are still deciding how to identify it

i know that for the time being it's illegal in bangladesh and thailand, and they arrested some miners in venezuela, you can take a look here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country

Problem with Russia is that one time it looks like they (at least some high level politicians) are quite Bitcoin friendly, where later articles find their way to the net that Russia is planning to highly restrict Bitcoin usage.

These constant opposite signs of acting make all news in this matter that come from Russia untrustworthy. Not sure whether or not it's (on purpose) wrongly translated, or that Russia really doesn't know what to do with Bitcoin.

But the best thing is to take all these news articles with a grain of salt, or better said, a truckload of salt. Especially in a time where fake news articles are popping in big numbers.

Yes. It looks like there's a lot of contradiction with regards to bitcoin acceptability in Russia
And it looks like Russia are banning a lot of websites recently like putting a internet crackdown
of sort. So they are putting a lot of censorship, and it looks like bitcoin will be affected, And
definitely one should take news coming from Russia with a grain of salt.

You can google it down that in which countries bitcoin is illegal .but i am sure of thing that russian has not banned bitcoins , they are deciding till now what to consider bitcoins as.as of my information till now, my neighbouring country does not allow BANGLADESH does not allow the use of bitcoins at all . Anyone possession bitcoin , under federal offence would be under custody.

In some of the countries where one often can hear that "Bitcoin is illegal", things are not so clear.

One example is Ecuador. What the Parliament of this country did in 2014 is prohibe the emission of "money" by entities not authorized by the government. But in no point of the law cryptocurrencies are mentioned, so it's not clear if "money" applies to cryptocurrencies, or if they are a kind of "token" like airline miles. And in another article of the laws it says, "the sole money in Ecuador is the US dollar". So one could interpret the ban as be directed to counterfeiting.

But I have read that there were pressures by authorities to Ecuadorian merchants that have accepted Bitcoin to cancel this payment option. But trading seems going fine there.

The point is: It is not easy for a (~democratic) government or legislature to ban bitcoin completely. They would have to justify why the ban only applies to Bitcoin and not to other "private payment tokens" like airline miles, otherwise the ban could be against the constitution.

Is Bitcoin legal in India??

indeed in some countries banned and bitcoin recently Taiwanese government strictly prohibits the existence of bitcoin in their country,, https: //www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-declared-illegal-in-taiwan/

yes it is, they even started using it more after they had some of their big note banned

in the past it was controversial, there was a time where in india it was made not really usable, maybe not exactly banned, but people ere fearing the government which was agianst bitcoin, then they changed their mind later

probably all those government that change their mind against bitcoin is because they admit that they can't stop it....

Thank you for information.

Now I see some speculation going in India regarding bitcoin, One of their parliament members announced that bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. But people are still using bitcoin in India without any problem.

I will say in most countries it is considered illegal by those countries that have developed enough to take a stand concerning the legality of bitcoin. In other places where the law is still silent and government is yet to take a position, we can say its not illegal but the body language of agencies of government is suggesting to the negative as in tending to the illegality of bitcoin eventually...

It's not technically illegal.

As others have already said, It's a tricky issue because bitcoin "technically," qualifies as an alternative method of payment, but not an alternative currency.

So several countries (like Bolivia) have banned all other currencies other than their state dollar, but not all alternative payment methods.

Thus, it's somewhat arbitrary whether Bitcoin falls under the domain of a payment method which is able to be banned or not.

I'd personally say don't worry about it!  :)

Most countries don't even have a clue about what bitcoin is atm. Unless bitcoin starts to harm their economy, tax returns, banks, fiat money etc countries won't give a damn. When bitcoin gets big and starts to harm countries, it will cause problems. We are good for now.

In addition to bitcoin start hurting the economy, which wont start until large corporations start using bitcoin with large amount of money being moved without authority taking note of such and this is eating deep into the revenue base of the country then the countries will sit up and the moment they realise there is no loop hole to exploit, then they will maintain a position in order of urgency.

the legitimate status of bitcoin differs considerably from nation to nation and it is yet indeterminate because it's legal or illegal status is changing day by day in many countries. While a few countries have expressly permitted its utilization and exchange, others have prohibited or limited it. Similarly, different government offices, divisions, and courts have characterized bitcoins in an unexpected way.

I guess because bitcoin transactions do not go through the bank, because that's what the government can not control whether it's a legitimate or unauthorized transaction.

I think bitcoin does not ilegal in rusia, if not mistaken, some time ago I've read an article, inside it in writing .. that the demand for electronic currency in Russia is high, and they believe that it takes a flexible approach to regulate blockchain.
By 2018, Russia may legalize bitcoin and other cryptocurrency types.

In markets or countries where Bitcoin would be deemed illegal, it would be just that, illegal. Trading, on-loading/offloading and accepting Bitcoins (as a business/individual) would be restricted. Having said that, it would most likely increase demand and a parallel grey economy that would support all facets of bitcoin trading/buying/selling.

Many people said illegal, because their country the government not legalized yet. So for their country bitcoin is illegal.
But actually for my country, my government not legalized bitcoin yet. But many people use bitcoin to invest and do transactions.
They believe one day (in the future) the government will legalized bitcoin.

I'm the one of all that have an thinking like that, all the governments of each countries certainly have a differences of opinion on bitcoin, and I believe in the future about legal or not legal.. it would be more considering by all the countries, it will be a bad news or a good news.
As long as the government doesn't really ban us to selling bitcoin to local currency or engage in activities such as investing, trading, seeking for other profits in various ways (except spending it on goods), I think no need if we too focused it must be legal in our country, as a good citizens.. we can only hoping about that and it can be the best for us.

For some governments like China, but no one can control Bitcoin or Regulate Bitcoin, so whatever they say, Bitcoin will be ruling.

Wikipedia is always up to date and I believe it's a fact. I also think that Russia doesn't really make bitcoin illegal but they only just regulate bitcoin to avoid money laundering. That was the last update I'm read somewhere here I guess. And so I think this site is legit, so you can exactly see it here. Also let's just hope bitcoins illegality will soon get revoke on some countries in the world. And don't loose hope if this currency, bitcoin, is illegal at your nation, they will soon accept it, believe me!

You people really don't get it as far as Russia is concern. Russia under Putin will not make bitcoin and any crypto legal because they are afraid that when the time comes, bitcoin will ruin their economy because bitcoin is decentralized and can't be control. This is the same instance of China and Russia is also doing the same. They already have their own government back cryptorubbles. And you need to take everything with a grain of salt the news coming from them regarding crypto's because they always contradicts themselves. That alone means that they are not bitcoin friendly. They are just riding on the popularity of it. And as for their own crypto's it won't be successful because of the high taxes that they are imposing. Imagine a ordinary citizens buying it but with a 12% tax?

Unfortunately, I agree with you. The Russian president and the authorities will not allow the free purchase and sale of crypto currency. Bitcoin will be taxed.

BTH is illegal in five countries that would i know rest of them is unkind

1 Russia
2 Korea
3 United Arab emirates
4 turkey
5 Iran

There are countries that been illegal , or disagree on the bitcoin , and to be honest I'm doing some basic search about it feel free to look at the link , the information that I got is from cnn news. I'm hoping that it would help , feel free to look at it.

Link: https://www.ccn.com/top-10-countries-bitcoin-banned/

In maghreb.

maybe you can get more information on this link,because i also more get information for learn more in here website


 https://www.msn.com/id-id/ekonomi/ekonomi/daftar-negara-yang-melarang-penggunaan-mata-uang-digital-seperti-bitcoin/ar-BBHobgX

According to some online reports, bitcoin is not illegal in Russia but using it as payment is still illegal. Bitcoin transaction are still not allowed because the Russian government fears that cryptocurrencies may be use by some elements to fund terrorism and other ilegal activities that might their economy and national security.
The latest news is there is a pending bill that seek to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges, restrict crypto mining and penalizing coin payments.

And wherever the countries that still thinks it's illegal, it is only a concern that has a negative impact on the country and its citizens, in a various forms which indeed the advantages of bitcoin can be exploited for a negatively things. In addition, the governments is still not deepening about the technology related on bitcoin and other things that must be deepened to be able/that can indeed to advance the country.

Yeah your right, in any country bitcoin was not yet legal. All crypto currencies in different parts of the world were not yet given authorization to used as regular currency. However I believe that some of this day bitcoin will lead of legalization but it takes a lot of consequences before it happen.

I know that Bangladesh government has also banned bitcoin for money laundering.In 2012 month of September Bangladesh bank ruled that if anybody found using bitcoin he/she will be sent to jail for 12 months.Also I heard India has banned bitcoin.for long time although they made it legal on this year.Also Kenya banned bitcoin couple of year's ago.

The problem with Russia is that they never seem to back up their words by actions. It has been the case for years where Russia is jumping up and down with their potential crypto regulations, but nothing has been done at all.

I seriously don't expect anything groundbreaking from the "pending bill", where we may not even hear anything back concerning that bill at all. I have never seen such a clown show.

One day they seem to be in favor of crypto, and the next day they completely change their attitude and seem to prefer a more hostile approach. How are people supposed to take anything from Russia serious with this in mind?

It has been like that for more than 2 year! I rather see them actually do something than repeating this nonsense for a few more years......

In most countries there is no regulation of the use of bitcoin but not a prohibition, here I leave you 10 countries that prohibit the use of bitcoin.

1. Bangladesh

2. Bolivia

3. China

4. Ecuador

5. Islandia

6. India

7. Rusia

8. Suecia

9. Tailandia

10. Vietnam

There are many countries that ban the bitcoin , actually there is some , "some" countries are ban and some is just seeing the bitcoin as a threat on their economy , there is some website , the link is down below and feel free to look at it.

Link: https://www.ccn.com/top-10-countries-bitcoin-banned/

The information that "bitcoin is banned in Russia" is certainly wrong.
It was relevant about three years ago, and only at the level of rumors. At that time, proposals were put forward by individual statesmen to prohibit the turnover of crypto-currencies in Russia. But they did not find support.
For citizens in Russia there are no prohibitions on possession of crypto-currencies. There is no ban on ICO and mining. Also for this there is no criminal or other liability. No one was convicted of involvement in crypto-currencies.
The Constitution establishes that the only legitimate means of payment in the Russian Federation is the RUR. That is, private money as an official means of settlement is illegal.
But we must understand that, of course, there is no prohibition for citizens to own USD, EUR and other foreign currencies. You can safely have dollar accounts, just keep the houses of the USD. Also with crypto-currencies.
Anything that is not prohibited by law is permitted.
It is worth noting that the turnover of the crypto-currency, ICO and mining in Russia has not been regulated. Now actively promoted the draft law, in which the crypto currency is regarded as a "digital financial asset." To protect citizens from fraud, there are restrictions on the amount of investments in ISO, as well as the specific requirements for companies conducting ISO. Mining is considered as a type of business and therefore subject to state registration.
He has the greatest chance of success. Perhaps such a law will come into effect by September 2018. So far, he has not even entered the government for further development. All in the initial stage. Again, this is the draft law.
In general, in Russia everything is the same as in the rest of the world.  :)

Bitcoin's legality in different countries is still unclear as we are being fed with false or limited information everyday and the information is still being brought to us holders are made to us like a real one. There are countries where they claimed that Bitcoin is illegal as a mode of payment but it is legal to be traded and mined and yet we don't have proper information if that thing is true or not. We don't have a reliable source like cnn or cnbc providing us legit news.

I'm sure that there was a list of such countries right here sometime earlier.

I think in taiwan bitcoin is illegal. Taiwan thinks it could be manipulated by a person, it will create imbalance as bitcoin decentralized and unphysical currency.