Bitcoin Forum

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/investing/north-korea-banks-swift-ban/

North Korea has been banned from the swift banking system. Wouldn't it make sense for Kim Jong-un to open up a bitcoin exchange and issue a North Korean digital currency? It would be like btc-e only a hundred times bigger and with tons of margin options and currencies.

p.s. mtjong.com is available  ;)

That they definitely can do but if they do it, then bitcoin will be under fire from all the other countries. It is one such country where people are struggling to live a minimal life only because of their dictator ruler. I don't think N. Korea is the right place for bitcoin. Specially bitcoin is for financial freedom.

If N. Korea starts accepting bitcoin, then only the ruler will have access to it and no one else. It will make him more richer which we don't want because he possess a significant threat to the world peace. 

Other countries would probably put regulations out in order to stop this exchange from gaining any traction due to the only reason it would be there is to make money for the North Koreans who are cash-strapped at the moment. I think their GDP is less than most major US business, which is sad but it's not much thinking about a country which is communist and has completely closed itself to the outside world.

So, sadly it wouldn't work as no one would want NK to be able to profit from this exchange in the least.

I’m pretty sure that Kim Jong-un was advised and already has bitcoins and maybe other cryptos in some exchanges in America and China. There is no reason,imo, to establish an exchange in N.Korea when people all over the world cannot transact with their banks due to swift ban. Moreover as avikz said this would be not good about the bitcoin's reputation.

North Korea is a miserable country because Kim Jong-Un and his ancestry, people there don't have internet connection or even computers... They don't have permission to access free internet content. That is a slaves nation and it's not a digital currency what will change the reality of that people, what will change things there is the end of the nefarious dinasty that control that country.

The issue is that they need to bring in "real" money for trade somehow, and having their own digital currency means diddly squat if they can't sell KimCoin for anything to anyone but their own people, who also don't have any "real" money.

I can see a system where the workers in foreign countries (such as Poland) buy KimCoin for their relatives within the country/for the government and they bring in revenue that way, but it's all such a hit-and-miss system that I doubt they would be able to pull something like that off. They don't really have any good systems in place and they keep pissing people off making it harder for them to be close to viable for the international trade zones.

Not a good idea because it would mean that North Koreans get financial freedom.

Kim obviously doesn't want that, he wants something that he can control.

However if banking isn't viable, they can create their own cryptocurrency, maybe call it Kimcoin?

I mean, North Koreans probably don't use banks anyways, it is much better for them to use cash because i would guess nobody in the farmer's markets would accept card payments and nobody has a good enough credit history(if there is one) to get a credit card.

If you have read the recent news about the north korean intelligent service is using bitcoin to received his funds from the north korea.

And in my opinion bitcoin exchange site already exists on north korea itself. But I don't think if they must issue north korea digital currency if the bitcoin already enough to fill his needs. Although they're want to make something different in his own crypto for the future purpose.

I refuse the believe that there are people that are willing to exchange Bitcoin for NK wons from outside of the country. You can't even really get anything from North Korea that is of value. Maybe if there's someone on the inside with an internet to someone with Bitcoin I could see something like that, but I just can't figure out for the life of me who would honestly want to buy NK wons. The concept just seems impossible to understand.

If he's using USD or something then it all makes sense. But if it's using the native currency then reality is likely much stranger than fiction.

Easy the population has no access to the internet.
The population is fed by the state.
The population gets clothes, housing, medical care and electric from the state.
Everyone works for the state.
Farmers give 70% of all food grown to the state.

N Korea is in the dark ages and have no clue as to what is happening in the world.

They don't drive cars, they walk, ride bikes and use the metro which is the deepest tunnels in the world and double as the best bomb shelters there are.

So the country has no public interaction to the internet and have no real money, they get a currency that has no value outside NK.

The few won they make is nothing and the population as a whole is malnourished and ignorant of what is going on in the rest of the world.

There's one TV channel in NK that plays non stop state propaganda all day.

North Korea and btc, or any digital currency will never, ever happen.

 

OK this might seem nice and shiny in our eyes "now" but ... This won't happen and would better not happen.

If bitcoins are implemented in N.Korea this would just mean the whole world starting to ban it.
That's the first point in short.

The thing is bitcoins means freedom in currency right ? That's not the way how that country works.
The government has control over each and every thing (although it might seem to us that they're enslaved or whatever but this system is working out great for them what so ever if compared to the "free" 3rd world countries.

PS: Most of what we know is from the media which is ... meh ..

Bitcoin means access to the net and that is forbidden in NK except in rare instances, like state employees using social media to pump out propaganda, as a whole, the population in NK has no internet access and 1 TV channel.

It is 100% controlled by the state.

I guess most have no clue what is really happening in NK.

I think financial freedom wont too success in there, the government likes total control to rule the country, so the government wont likes anything that they cant be controlled, so I dont think bitcoin will be success over there and there will be a big chance bitcoin will be banned

Unfortunately, under socialism, the majority of north koreans don't enjoy modern luxuries like electricity.

http://i64.tinypic.com/1j2j44.jpg

That could make north koreans using bitcoin or their own crypto currency, difficult.

They might be able to develop their own crypto currency, using an abacus or something but somehow I don't think that would work.

Bitcoin exchange would help North Korean exchange their existing currency for Bitcoin, a currency accepted worldwide.
You don't need 24 hours electricity to store bitcoins in your wallet.

Yeah, exactly.

Hard to implement when there are so many people lacking basic access to internet.

When you have internet, you can go anywhere. But obviously Kim Jung Un doesn't want that to happen. Doubt he will ever invent something that will allow average Joes to trade across borders.

If north koreans knew how little freedom they had in comparison to the rest of the world, they probably would have rebelled and overthrew Kim Jong a long time ago.

North koreans don't own modern luxuries like cell phones or computers & if they did, they certainly aren't able to access the internet of the outside world in a way that would allow them to use bitcoin.

Its not that north koreans lack 24 hr electricity. Its more like their entire civilization exists in a pre electrical age. Only the military and elites have electricity. Everyone else is using smoke signals or whatever people used to communicate before electricity and telegraphs were invented.

That's right, instead of using bitcoin they'll make their very own cryptocurrency.

no internet, no electricity, no computers outside pyongyang. what could go wrong? i guess they could post printed private keys to each other.

Internet there is prohibited as far as i know. Only rich people there or powerful person can access internet. If theres bitcoin user there. Only few and they are powerful people. Ordinary people can't use internet. Thats how crazy north korea laws are.

how do you know they don't?!
because if they do, that would be internal exchange as in being inside their own country only and not giving anything out. so we may never know. and besides bitcoin is more like a "people money" not government and they can gain bitcoin whenever they want without anyone ever knowing.

They would never consider it because he can't control bitcoins 100% like he'd want to. Also, if bitcoins became the norm in North Korea I honestly feel like we'd never see mainstream adoption as the general public would assume it's because bitcoins are for criminals and now dictators.

I agree with your point but suppose N. Korea does start to use bitcoin on the larger level in the country, how can other countries react to it? I agree with your comment that bitcoin will be under fire, but what can others actually do?
Stop using bitcoin? That won't do any good either right?
And they can't stop them using bitcoin either.
So I guess nothing will happen and eventually it might work positively for bitcoin and result in higher value of btc.

Why would North Korea ever do that? Their social system thrives on being controlled by a central party (Or in their case, a single person.). Bitcoin is about freedom and being able to receive and send money by yourself. It would be seen as trying to stray away from the grasp of their dictatorship.

I believe they know or imagine how the rest of the world is, because even being a reestricted country sometimes one or two foreigners appear there, with the government permission, so they can show some pictures of external world, maybe a modern cell phone, tablet...

Unfortunatelly they look a weak people, without unity, unable to organize a revolution inside their country, maybe they were brain washed since they were childs like terrorists do with their children.

Yeah, they should have their own exchange. If they used Bitcoin they could buy ballistic missile parts on Amazon with a Bitcoin card. I hear their last missile test didn't go so well. LOL  

http://russia-insider.com/sites/insider/files/1084189.jpg

Because it would give North Korea's government at a disadvantage. As we all know it is ran by a dictator in Kim Jong-Un in which he really wants a total control of his country. By having a Bitcoin Exchange or even allowing Bitcoin in a country they are giving North Korean Citizens power in which they will be able to hide on what they are transacting with. Also they cannot risk on something like that happening to their country.

In my own understanding about north korea, their government doesn't wanted to use any other currency exchanged aside from what they are using which is their own currency money. Communist country has their own principle with regards to economic system and the government take control of everything in the country, power is their only means of controlling their people and the finances of everybody. The money generated by their people only circulates with their entire country community and no other currencies will be exchanged with them.

The node has to be located in China and considering the number of miners in China it is plausible the DPRK does mine Bitcoin.
The average citizen would not have access to a non-government monitored IP Address or Server so this information would be useless to them.
How to move the cash into the country and convert it to cash for the average citizen would be a classified intel document ^^.

Not sure about the situation that exists in the N. Korea . I think is there anyone from that country who would like to share their experience about their daily life routine and what are their thoughts. Can bitcoin play any role in that country as its being controlled by one man.

what a question!!! you basically know that they have imposed an infinite number of restrictions on the north korean citizens,bitcoin is a way modernized idea for them and kim would never accept it even if it would benefit him,because he wants things different,its not like it is impossible but for now lets hope that his dictatorship comes to an end. ;D ;D

There are only 1024 IP addresses in North Korea, or may be a little higher than that. Let us assume that it is 2000, how can it modernize whole North Korea when there is only 2000 people who may use it.
I don't think there is any other country which imposes harsher rules on their own people.  :'(

Who knows? Perhaps they're also using it as an investment or something given that they can't trade with most other countries...
It's all speculation unless we'd hear a mention of it by some high level government official who has defected.

Maybe a bit offtopic, but few days ago I saw news that North Korea hackers tried to hack ''bitcoin' accounts''. I'm not sure is it ''bitcoin accounts means bitcoin wallets, or they tried to hack users accounts on exchanges. But anyway, it means that North Korea need bitcoins, because they have lack of international currency.
Back to the topic. If they would open bitcoin exchange, I think that USA would try to block it. And personally, I wouldn't use their bitcoin exchange, because I don't want to support North Korea regime.

In addition to the above mentioned fact that NK does not have very good internet access (only a very few number of sites are available within NK), if NK did open a bitcoin exchange, the exchange itself would have no access to the banking system because their signors are on the OFAC (SDN) list, and the exchange itself would likely be placed on the OFAC (SDN) list shortly after it is created.

Also, NK uses the low standard of living within it's country to it's advantage in order to control it's people. Using bitcoin would result in the NK government having less control over their people, which is not what they want.

Part of the answer is already on the article you link...


I don't think they'd like to use money for illicit purposes on a public ledger...


Good luck hacking Bitcoin ;) Thus why they don't want it, beyond the obvious reasons stated above: no control.

An own currency would be unfeasible, because no internet, no phones, no nothing...

Bitcoin exchange to do what exactly? fake trading volumes fake pump and dump? they need fiat and any bank providing them with their financial services will get banned plus paying fine as penalty, as much as bitcoin is a decentralized currency it still has some ties to the central banks unless you do money transfers using shill companies and anyone going all the trouble wouldn't have need bitcoin anymore.
One way would be for them to mine, accumulate over time and then exchange for fiat out side their country.

It is said that North Korea was spending their time hacking south Korean exchanges and users scamming their bitcoins and it is said they have hacked over millions and they have a team of hackers specifically to do these sort of heist and even the recent Bangladeshi bank heist is linked to them by Kaspersky Labs .It is really difficult to know more about North Korea as everything is controlled and little is known to the outside world.

You're requesting something that's basically impossible for them. They barely have any right to freedom and you want them to use Bitcoin? Kim Jong-Un maybe could use it, but the others are just manipulated slaves and have no chance to do so.

Just look up "North Korean internet censorship" on Google and you'll find out the answer.

maybe if he "kim" will notice the advantage of bitcoin he will use it for its own purpose as bitcoin can give him a lots money while he still
in control and with all the censorship no one will notice what is happening from btc.

There's no way he will use bitcoin even if bitcoin have so many advantages, the usage of bitcoin will change the opinion of his citizens towards him and will definitely affect the governance.
As I recall, north Korea trying to compete and always make their own technology even though theirs just seem outdated. They will develop a new system or a new cryptocurrency instead of using bitcoin.

Seriously..? Why do they have to create one..?
Dont you guys know how Kim is holding North Korea for so many years.? If the people understood how the world is then Kim may not stay in power anymore. 

Kim is just a rude dictator and i don't think he want his citizens to know anything about bitcoin. They can simply move their local fiat in bitcoin out of their country and flew out to live a luxurious life aboard.

Yes I agree with you, the governments of North Korea they control all of activity in the internet
 it makes difficult to the peoples on there to access bitcoin,
the governments will not gives chance to people become part of bitcoin (comunity of bitcoin)
 because as we know bitcoin is decentralized and not centralization.

Kim loves Bitcoin

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/2014/11/interview_a.jpg

because they feel not safe to have one, i remember an article say that they had an hackers stealign a large amount of bitcoin in korea, don't remember now if south or north but the point stand

their exchange would be utterly unsecure and none will trust it, also in korea the adoption is not that high like japan people don't care too much about bitcoin there

As far as I know, Japan is on the verge of a real boom in the sphere of
crypto-currencies. It bitcoin provoked among the Japanese a real stir. I
believe that Japan is very skeptical about the legalization of bitcoins,
which I can not say about North Korea. Here already there is a policy.
Especially since I do not believe in the development of North Korea in the
world bitcoin.

The bitcoin concept is capitalistic at it`s core and North Corea is a communist country.
I can`t see how this can happen.
I don`t think that the north coreans give a s*it about the swift banking system.

Because in North Korea the economy is poorly developed, and they still have a lot to work on.

Considering North Korea is still looking for good investment opportunity, such as their drug growing or fake bills bussinesses, it would not surprise me that they do it some day or another. I would love it, and I would frequent it much to do not give my money to the Americans, the Russians or the Chinese.

The information you want to mention can not appear on google, because it is confidential information of a country, it can not be public on google.

I would prefer that North Korea stay far away from Bitcoin..... if they start using Bitcoin to circumvent methods to nail them to the dark ages, we

might get strong opposition from the governments that are doing this. They are trying to cut them off financially to prevent them from using the

western financials systems to fund WWIII.  :o ..... Stay far ....FAR ...away from Bitcoin.

Maybe because it is there leader wanted we know that there are so many rules and regulation in north korea that take there freedom in many aspect and what there leader decide is what he wanted but maybe he have reason why not allowing bitcoin because of risk and illegal transaction that can happen in there country.

Which I know north korea is very tight in the selection of cooperation .... north korea has indeed made a program that is almost the same as bitcoin function .... maybe it is a bitcoin factor not received in south korea ... Thanks

Others are afraid of the North as it is a Communist country with its speicical manners of the introduction of affairs and the policy of governing the state. North Korea does not recognize other countries and their manners for managing affairs and poses a threat to others as it is unpredictable in decision-making in the sphere of domestic and international politics. Thus, the surrounding countries take a number of measures to avoid the possibility of carrying out suspicious actions by North Korea

giving their people freedom to move capital out of country is not a very smart idea for such a poor country