Bitcoin Forum

To me,I will say None.

No country is going to back it in the least but some may allow for the technology behind it (the blockchain) to be able to thrive as this can be used in many government things, banking, etc and so on. Biotcoin is going to be in a direct fight to the norms when it comes to government and is going to cause problems as the National Government (of any gov) is going to want control over all of the usage of money in their country.

Bitcoin isn't going to be able to be controlled so the government(s) are going to put regulations on it to be able to limit the usage of it or just deter the usage in general.

I think it's sad that the government would be doing this but I do understand that they would rather control all so this is just a waste for them.

In EU bitcoin is to be treated as currency, at least for tax purposes.

In Japan bitcoin is now a legal method of payment, don't know if also considered a currency.

For me, its only Japan I would agree that has given bitcoin a standing for others, to be treated as currency is not the same as currency after all gold is treated as same in other climes of the society but that does not make it a legal tender that can be accepted as a means of payment. hopefully other countries can follow the footstep of Japan and can save us from having this kind of discussion.

This link can help you to understand legality of bitcoin in each country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country

Recently Japan legalized bitcoin and you can use it just like any another currency
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-hits-1130-japan-legalizes-bitcoin-scaling-progress
http://www.pymnts.com/news/bitcoin-tracker/2017/japan-makes-bitcoin-legal-payment-method-bitcoin-price/
http://www.coindesk.com/japan-bitcoin-law-effect-tomorrow/

We should not concentrate too much on the definition of Bitcoin, but rather what it is been used for. People can trade chickens without the

permission of the government, so why not Bitcoin? Will the governments stop people trading in say Chickens? This is already happening in some

countries where their fiat currency fails. { Zimbabwe - People trade with cigarettes and wild stock }  ;)

The fact that japan accepts bitcoin payments means it is backed by the country? I dont understand. It sounds to me as if the country will actively defend bitcoin just like they defend the yen, i dont see that, i think they will remain neutral even if they do accept payments.

Is it not recognized in Japan at the official level?

But the government is working to create the rules for that currency which is also considered as a step of the country to accept it officially for the use of the state. I know that it is not announced to use this currency for the state affairs but it will be adopted sooner by them after people make it an established currency in the country.

Not necessary in the first place.

As long it was accessible in a certain country and people are freely enjoying using bitcoin without any worries that they are facing some terms against the law using it then it can consider as backed currency.

But on a technical term, if country's government will truly recognized bitcoin as legal and can be used as normal payment method like fiat then it's totally backed by the said country. To be passed it as legal currency, it will goes down a long process which will take long period of time so it's obvious that once it passed, it's already backed.

No country backed Bitcoin as currency, yes you are right.  But there are several country recognized Bitcoin as currency or mode of payment.  Some of which are Japan and Philippines.  And just you wait we can see more and more country to recognize Bitcoin as money.

There are countries that are using bitcoin as currency already but it's more of alternative currency. And those countries are given already by some of the people here. If I'm not mistaken Bank of Switzerland is trying to back up bitcoin as a method for their service and also a currency. We can say that bitcoin is backed by a country, if the government recognizes it.

You are correct with Japan and Philippines and recently I think there is a state in US that approve too. Also, In India they are also having this kind of Bill regarding with Bitcoins.

There a lot of countries that accept bitcoin as a currency, it is accepted in many stores as a payment making it considerable as a currency right? In japan they are now considering bitcoin as a payment, and in America too they can now buy coffee using their bitcoins. In the Philippines their Banko Sentral accepted bitcoin so pinoy bitcoin users are very happy with it.

What you have to ask is, what does a nation gain by accepting bitcoin officially and accepting it as official currency? what doe a country gain by "backing" bitcoin?

A country must gain something, what does it win then?

I think not only in japan that bitcoin is actually accepting legal as payment method, there are other country like in brazil and like i heard before that paris also accepting bitcoin locally in some stores..
They are treated bitcoin as currency because bitcoin has a value.. it is just like the old way of payment processor like gold before they are use it as currency before to exchange something good.. just like now that we are using bitcoin as currency in internet or local..

You're right, it's none really.

Sure, Japan sort of recognise its existence but that doesn't mean you can casually use it like you do fiat currency or that most stores accept it (which they don't).

But that's irrelevant, it's legal pretty much everywhere and is "accepted" in the sense that if people accept it, you can spend it.  Bitcoin will only grow from its user base, not from acceptance from governments.  Actually, I would argue that Bitcoin will never be fully accepted by governments because it's not closely monitored like digital fiat currency is.

I too think the same that there is no country that has made bitcoin their backing currency officially. In the coming years things might change when users around the world increases.

Japan officially now not enter the currency bitcoin to list their country. but Japan has committed to legalize bitcoin.
so now there is no one country that recognize bitcoin as its official currency.

Yeah most close answer you can get is japan by this time.Japan already adopted bitcoins in their country,you are now able to spend it freely in any shop in japan.This maybe the cause of more countries backing bitcoins as a currency in their state or country.

As I read from people answered above they stated most of them Japan, Philippines and someone USA. But there are some others too. As I know these are Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada, United Kingdom, Estonia, Australia, Switzerland (they accept payment for public services with bitcoin) and somewhere I had read about South Korea.

As far as I know there isn't any Country that notices Bitcoin as a Currency. There is only a village or two that uses Bitcoin and label it as a Currency though i think that they didn't ditch every other Countries Currency just so that they could replace it with Bitcoin. If a Country ditches another Countries Currency I think there would be plenty of upset people because Bitcoin isn't totally mainstream yet.

No country backs bitcoins, that is the whole purpose of bitcoin, but there are some countries that recognize bitcoin as a currency like Japan.

i also think so that still there is not a single country who are using bitcoin as their own currency. but still we can expect that in future when the users of bitcoin will increase more and more then the government will start thinking about that.

Japan backs bitcoin as it has started accepting bitcoins as a payment officially.

A small micro nation Liberland has announced bitcoin as their national currency.

In nigeria,due to economic crisis,most people have started using bitcoins.Soon its government may adopt bitcoin as currency.

Iran is seriously discussing to recognize bitcoin as a currency to bye pass the US sanctions.

After Japan taking major steps to back bitcoin all other country have started to think about bitcoin but in europe some country long back have started to back bitcoins , just i am not able to remember which country, but their is one country for sure and that is from Europe

Japan and Philippines are two major countries that have supported bitcoins and apart from that I think Singapore is a country where bitcoin is very much popular as there are many restaurants and cafes that accepts bitcoins as a mode of payment.

Do you mean country = government of the country? No government will back bitcoin as it will take financial control from them. Especially when they want to make money out of thin air, you can't do that with bitcoin.

There are rumors that Russia is considered doing the same as Japan did - to make bitcoin fully legal currency.
Interesting turn, considered they used to hate BTC, then banned it briefly and not they want to embrace it.
We don't need government support, all we need it authorities to let it grow and don't hinder the adoption.

Liberland has already announced bitcoin as their national currency.
In Nigeria, due to economic crisis,lots of people have started using bitcoin.
In future,Iran may accept bitcoin as secondary option to bypass the US sanctions.
Though Japan has not announced Bitcoin as legal currency,it has announced it as a legal payment method. 

Rather, residents of many countries support bitcoin, not government. Even if they want to support bitcoin, they will introduce user identification and track all payments as in banks.