Bitcoin Forum

It's not so straightforward to buy bitcoin  in the Middle East. Yes, I have tried everything. If bitcoin was about the free world, why all the exchanges ask for very strict verification that even the stock exchanges don't ask for?  I have never had to take a selfie with my passport in my entire 40 yrs of life until I came in to the bitcoin world, what the heck?!! All the exchanges take ages to verify and when they do, they discriminate those from the middle east. Most of them don't allow us to use fiat currency to buy bitcoin, so how the hell new comers will buy it? The barriers of entry to the bitcoin world are too many for people in middle east, am sick of it.

I find the conventional banks much easier to deal with than  the bitcoin exchanges. Guess what? I was successfully registered in one after waiting for a month, only to be told I can't spend more than  300 Dollars a week in buying bitcoin, seriously??? I freaking have thousands of dollars to invest and they want me to spend 300 dollars a week for a coin worth $2500???

Now, the easy way is to buy from others, but I am gonna have to pay a premium of 10 to 20 pct above fair market value to buy and that's BS!

I am thinking to start my own ICO for an exchange that has commercial sense an open to the world. We need a revolution here.

Buy bitcoin in localbitcoins.com or in coinbase they are the trusted site when it comes to that one, and the issue in the Middle East I don't know about it, maybe it is not yet accepted it on where country you live in. Just go on to that site I give you they are probably make you some bitcoin if you have some hardware wallet or online wallet for it. Search in Google you'll find some answers there and some reviews that may help you to have some bitcoins.

apparently you have not understood the basics of the world in your past 40 years!
it is pretty simple, when you want to deal with fiat, banks, and anything related to those you have to follow all the rules and regulations of those too.
this means AML/KYC, this means long waits for manual verification, this means selfie with your passport. if you don't like it then take it up with your government and banks and related authorities and ask them why they ask you to jump through all these hoops to use your own money (fiat/cash/dinar or what your local currency is).
this has nothing to do with bitcoin.

Coin base doesn't work in middle east. Localbitcoin is ridiculously expensive.

Thanks bro.

I'm not from the middle east and I had to show my ID to convert BTC to fiat and vice-versa. Nothing wrong with that, as was said above, when we use these middle-man service between the Crypto and the real world it's necessary to follow their rules.

If you aren't happy with that, don't buy Bitcoins, try to make profit online only by working on the internet and using, of course, decentralized online services that don't have any restriction over your country.

I see there aren't many Bitcoin ATMs in the Middle East. If you live in Saudi Arabia there is one that allows you to buy $500-$600 worth a day and charges a 10-15% fee. Apart from that the only other country with any ATMs is Israel.

https://coinatmradar.com/bitcoin_atm/303/bitcoin-atm-lamassu-jubail-ticket-computer-center/

You could open your own ATM and have a first mover advantage.

There are two reasons for your troubles:

1 Exchanges are just following the rules imposed on them by governments. They are required by law to spy on their customers.

2. It is very easy to commit fraud using the current payment processing and banking systems. Exchanges must protect themselves.

i've never come anywhere the id bullshit that's related to crypto either.

people who seem to think this is normal are wrong. you can open a bank account with a scan of a couple of documents.

i think it's because the people who operate this stuff are ultra twitchy. by the sounds of it most localbitcoins sellers want your sperm sample these days. um, nope.

that's right they just following what the government ask them to do and there's always restrictions even we all have freedom in terms of crypto investment but the local government will still try to control over it so better to just follow the rules and enjoy what you can have by this moment.

Bitcoin is all about free world. Exchanger's is obviously not about free world they are making business and if they won't let anyone from middle east its their perception and not bitcoins purpose. If you want to use the free will of bitcoin then you have to use bitcoin - bitcoin freely :)

This forum has its own currency exchange section,  and you can usually find good deals there.   Post your offer and see if anyone bites.  I would stay away from payment methods like paypal though,  since you're a noob.  It's really not that hard to buy crypto but I understand the frustration about the exchanges.

It's too bad to know that about middle east countries. As i understand, they have hard rules to follow their and it's not easy to buy bitcoin their, anyways you can deals with trusted people whether in localbitcoin.com or in this forums you can find many trusted members here can help you in currency exchange section.
Good luck

What about buying bitcoin in Dubai? lots of expats are living there, im sure there must be people capable of selling cryptos for less than 15-20% premium. you dont need to buy bitcoin directly, it can be bought through some altcoins

There is a difference when we talk about Bitcoin and when we talk about Exchanges.
No doubt Bitcoin means freedom to use your money but Exchanges are rather attached to regulations by government because after all they are dealing in national currency of your country. Don't think Exchanges have some prejudice regarding Middle East, conditions are same for everyone. I am Indian and when I buy cryptocurrencies, Tax Authority does peek in my transactions via PAN Card.

You do know that there is a negative stigma attached to that region of the world, don't you? And that stigma is a direct result of the radical element in that region.

May I suggest to you and everyone else in that region that you take care of the "blemishes" is your area so your image to the rest of us is better? Maybe then it can become easier for everyone in your region to partake in business activities such as this as easily as anyone else.

Your revolution has to start at home, bro.

After all readings about thoughts on why exchanges asking verification, all I can say is you really don't understand why exchanges are like that. If you to changed it then go. Goodluck to your project then.

Form a team that composed of developers from different country and see what your brainstormings can do. If you really want a changed on cryptoworld then pursue it. Just hoping that no more crying about related concern of yours, we can see again in the future after your project launched.

Well the big thing when it comes to these companies is that they're going to be regulated by the governments in which they work inside, so you can't be mad at the companies from trying to mitigate the amount of risk they're going to be opening themselves up to. They simply want to make a buck but they're going to have to follow the governments KYC stuff in order to do it, it sucks but that's how all of this works these days and there's nothing anyone can do about it unless you want to buy a higher fee on LBC or Paxful, which is going to help you avoid some of the KYC stuff though you're going to get hit with a higher profit margin from the seller of these coins.

Take one tradeoff for another here and think about it.

This isn't about the convenience of purchasing bitcoin, admit it please this is about launching yet another ICO to collect bitcoins that way :D
Of course western countries won't let us easily buy bitcoins, because we're all terrorists in their eyes I don't blame them.
I don't really care if it's very hard to mine bitcoin but we were supposed to mine it as Satoshi himself intended, if you want to have some bitcoins you'd have to mine it for yourself that's the way where no one could have anything to do with you, no one can deny you from mining, and that is what's very important, as long as you can mine.

Bitcoin makes money laundering very easy thats why governments are so strict on the KYC regulations the exchanges have to follow. Localbitcoins is obviously a more expensive solution but to bypass exchanges you will always have to pay a premium, thats how the world works.

i have never used coinbase or localbitcoins or any of the other places to buy bitcoin and i have never paid any ridiculous amount for it either.
the trick is finding the best option around you and contact them. i have found a guy who offered pretty good rates and after sometime since i made a lot of purchases now i get a better deal even. and now i buy bitcoin from him and only trade on exhanges to increase my bitcoin and dump fiat.

Well because of the verification identity on bitcoins exchangers be needed, doesn't mean bitcoins is not for all the people around the world, the people can use bitcoins if they have access to the internet and many choice to buy bitcoins not just one market only, we can buy bitcoins on paxpul, localbitcoin and other markets, we just needs the payment method for buy bitcoins.

I fully agree. These are the two major reasons why buying/selling Bitcoin in Middle East countries can be so restrictive...even more restrictive compared to the usual bank transactions. Must be because these countries are not actually acknowledging Bitcoin as legal tender and so exchanges have to be very careful otherwise they can get into trouble and their business can be gone in an instant. And we all know that when a situation can be difficult, it can mean you have to pay more and do more to prove your legal existence.

However, we all do understand the frustrations and disappointments of people who want to join the Bitcoin bandwagon because they see the opportunity infront of them but could not move to exploit it. We are all hoping that a time would come when Bitcoin can be freely circulated in many Middle East countries...and that Bitcoin can soon get away from the terrorist tool tag.

I too heard that its very expensive in middle east to buy bitcoins.So the best option for you is to search for persons who deal in bitcoins and buy from them manually.If you are in dubai,then i could give you telegram id of my friend who is in dubai.When i was in dubai,i too used to buy bitcoins from my friend instead of buying from localbitcoins.

Your major misunderstanding is that you're assuming bitcoin exchanges is bitcoin itnself.

Sure, it is a big part of bitcoin, but it is regulated by governments because it deals with fiat. The real problem here is fiat, not bitcoin. You'd have absolutely no issues once you buy your bitcoin, and want to cash it out, but you'll have lots of verification to go through because of AML and KYC laws in your country that dictates the bitcoin exchange industry.

A simpler way to understand it is that, bitcoin is fungible, fiat is not. Therefore, they have to check whether your fiat is trustworthy or not(risk reduction of it being stolen funds), whilst bitcoin is trustless.

And no, ICO for an exchange? That's a BAD idea. In fact, i'm pretty sure that some exchanges have done this before and failed miserably, both themselves and the investors.

Middle East opinions are interesting since it is an area I do not know much of the KYC AML for, concerns about it conforming to Islamic Banking rules perhaps would be a bigger issue in Arab countries than elsewhere, but it may make sense to just make your own operations if it is this hard for people to utilize in the current state, entrepreneurship is needed all around the world.
I guess the barrier is to remove the barrier and trade globally with those who take wires or something but that raises its own flags ..., I guess the most logical thing is to take a vacation and buy Bitcoins there if your travelling.

As one of the user mentioned the Islamic banking rules were the one that make its hard. In reality the Islamic banks have some funny schemes where the person who holds an account will never get an interest because it's wrong based on the religious faith, but the same time they'll get Interest on loans. So even in East Asia the usage is depending upon us.

That happens everywhere, whenever I convert Bitcoins to Fiat currency I need to have I'd and whenever I buy Bitcoin of Coinbase, I need to have to a verified account which need ID to be verified. Everyone need ID to buy Bitcoin it's not just your country.

You can try finding people who sell Bitcoin for not that much of a fee, or use localbitcoins, Coinbase, coinjar to buy off. It's also not Bitcoins fault, it the government. It isn't Bitcoin itself which is making it hard for you to purchase but your goverment instead. Why is it so simple for me in Australia to buy bitcoin? It's because our government is more lenient towards buying Bitcoin. Truly sorry you are unable to buy Bitcoin from your area, but I hope you figure out a way.

I agree with the above posts. I believe it's everywhere and not only in the Middle East.
Because the governments are now implementing such laws for this crypto exchanges, they are forced to follow this AML & KYC laws. So having verified thru your ID is not new. And just one of those rules that they have to follow.
Before, my local exchange for btc didn't require this KYC thing, but once this law in my country was approved, they started to collect info from their customers and I had to send scanned copy of one of my govt IDs & took a selfie also.
So that's normal protocol if you are dealing with fiat & crypto. But if you're dealing with cryptocurrency only, then of course that's a different scenario already.

I don't think that it is permanent for the middle east people to not be able to get bitcoin because if the governments in the middle east will see bitcoin as a good opportunity for their country to also get economic growth because it can attract more tourist like bitcoin users to spend their bitcoin to that country because of the beautiful sight seeing that they can see in the middle east countries.

I don't think that it does any good to blame this occurance on bitcoin at all.

Firstly, would you tell us the exchanges that you have been working with? Because it seems odd that you can only purchase $300 a week if you are already verified, because that's usually the sort of limit that you have in place for unverified accounts.

Secondly, make sure that you understand how bitcoin works. bitcoin is NOT regulated by any governments or institutions like the SEC, only bitcoin DERIVATIVES and EXCHANGES are. Once your funds are in bitcoin, they can be freely transacted all across the world.

Your argument about traditional banks being better than bitcoin is also untrue. Search up in your local bank how much it costs to send a transaction to a foreign country, and how crap the conversion rates are. Now compare this to the flat $1.5 or so fee that you pay when using bitcoin. Thought so.

1. As far as KYC/AML is concerned, exchanges are simply following government's guidelines because bitcoin is somewhat regarded as a currency used for money laundering and funding of terrorist activities. It would be impossible to run a licensed bitcoin exchange without being compliant with verification processes and tax rules.

2. If your country does have a local bitcoin exchange then it is better to use them than opting for international exchanges, quick verification, and legally compliant with your local governance.

3. Yeah, sometimes the disadvantage of using a local exchange is a substantial difference in price, based on demand at times it can go up to 15% higher than the international market.

I don't know if you have already tried, https://bitoasis.net/en/

Your concern I think is a domestic issue. Such concerns vary from country to country.

It may not be an isolated case because from where I am posting, somewhere in Southeast Asia, I was also asked to have a selfie while holding the government-issued valid ID I submitted to them. The confirmation took at least a week I guess. That was only to open a local wallet.
 

When we speak of verification it is not only limited to the Middle East, Asian countries have also that kind of system. This is due to the AML/KYC policies and regulations being place by your Central Banks. The exchanges have but to comply with those laws in your country so they can operate. It is the same also with stock exchanges, countries outside the middle east have also a strict verification in terms of trading. There is no discrimination and that is not the problem here. The biggest problem is the limit of the exchanges to convert your bitcoins into your local currency since that is their safety net so that their business will go on. But hope all exchange will increase the withdrawal limit.

What you are saying is true that the verification process is regulated by the each country law so that their should be some regulation in using crypto currency and illegal activities should be curbed. About the limit that limit is for the start of the account once the account is started and after some months of transaction your limit goes high as the times goes.

Which country are we talking about? The Middle East has many countries. Some people consider Turkey as a ME country too, yet you can buy bitcoins very easily there.

If you don't want to deal with the banks your only chance is finding a seller who sells his bitcoins locally.

How about you tell us first two things

a) in which country in ME you live
b) what exchange you have tried to use.

Because there are lots of countries in the ME where you can easily buy bitcoins and I think that in some you might have problems syria/yemen/iran ).


And , it is not bitcoin fault.
It's the fault of the people around you that didn't try harder to get those coins.
If you're alone in a country of 10 million and nobody else give a damn about crypto, yeah it's going to be a problem.
You can't force somebody to sell you coins without verification, without knowing who you are thing that might get them in jail in their own countries and furthermore at the price you want.

So calm down and take it sips by sip :).

I think that it is just the exchange that you are using is pretty crappy.

If you want 100% anonymity then go ahead and use localbitcoins, p2p trading is going to be the future.

How is it BS? It just shows how useful bitcoin is because unlik efiat currencies, it is interchangeable. Each unit is just as the same as the other, you don't need to worry about chargebacks or anything like that. Conventional banks being easier to deal with? Oh please. First of all they only open like 8 hours a day and you have to wait 1 hour just to get to talk to someone. Secondly, as you're experiencing now, it is hard to convert fiat into "real" money, aka bitcoin, gold etc., isn't it?

no it doesn't!
because simply put, everything is recorded publicly and you can't fake the records which are the transactions on the public ledger known as blockchain.

you can mix your coins but that is not helping the money laundering thing. you still put some money in and put some out it doesn't become clean. you should read what money laundering means.

I definitely feel the pain for OP. It's a huge reflection of how Bitcoin and crypto, after all, is still limited to the first world Western sphere of influence - the cheapest and easiest to access Bitcoins are outside of the Global South.

@OP if you're still reading, Localbitcoins is still the best cost-effective way to get Bitcoins with the least hassle. Unless it's changed recently, basic verification is still automated and quick (phone and ID). Yes, you pay a 10-15% premium for BTC, but that's the option available to us (I'm from Southeast Asia).

At least you have the finances to buy. Most like me earned all our coins over time, and only now have something resembling significant amounts to trade/exchange.

Exchanges will always be regulated. To start in BTC you have several solutions, one of them will indeed be to eat a fee to buy them. You should find better than 20% though, but I'm no expert in this, I started by mining, and I don't mind giving info to buy a couple of BTC, I will mind my privacy when I'll be rich.

Keep in mind that the fee you eat today will probably be nothing in comparison to the gain you might make.

The other solution is to bypass governments completely, finding a field of work where you're paid in BTC, and finding shops where to buy in BTC. Obviously easier said than done, but it will happen eventually, and countries with a lot of black market activity won't be the last ones on the bandwagon.

I think that you're country is not yet accepted and legalized the bitcoin. It is very hard to you to enter the world of ceyptocurrency it is because the government of yours is prohibited the bitcoin.

I totally agree with you, localbitcoins is the single most cost effective way of securing yourself some bitcoins globally, it is safe and if you have any doubts you can decide to meet in person to transact the sale, it's as simple as that and I will recommend that to OP because that's the best chance he has in acquiring bitcoins without verification.

You can launder your money with help of merchants who accept bitcoin.

I don't say it is easy but it is doable and may consume some time.

Lets say you have 100btc that you can't prove its source; If you always spend bitcoins for your daily expenses, your bank account will stay untouched. You decided to buy a laptop? Do it with your bitcoins. Buy a coffee, buy groceries etc. It will all go under the radar.

Just don't try to buy a car or house.

well, it is bitcoin is a digital currency that is most free and better provide advantages to its users. Indeed bitcoin is not tied into something the rules, because it now has a lot of problems of the bitcoin where there are several groups who want a legal umbrella in order to obtain a bitcoin every transaction could have a pretty good security. But it's all I think will never happen, because the server is bitcoin is very awake to that. Bitcoin is profitable if you use it wisely
 

That is also the problem of other people because they get alot of benefits from that certain groups they dont care anymore if they will tied up by those rules or shall we say a tool of taking away of our freedom on notion

Government specification can be a vital part on bitcoin globalization. And middle east as country with a different form o hierarchy or form of leadership maybe there is a wide differences between the partial alignment of technology to people. And the laws can void the system of bitcoin on bringing its development system through out the nation. The standards may be differ also on buy and sell when it comes to local bitcoin, it might need more support of both the people and the government system with a high power to handle it.

What your really trying to do here if your really want  to invest on bitcoin find genuine way dont expose your wealth infront of people there is lots of scammers exists they will trap you one or other way if they knows that your having money. So please don't expose your wealth. I may suggest do some research how to buy bitcoin from different exchanges and also keep some escrow service in BCT and buy bitcoin again you have to research lot before you spend your hard earned money.

  i am agree with your point that may be your country bitcoin is not yet accepted by government or maybe you people are lack of knowledge about bitcoin so I guess it can be the reason for it, bitcoin is useful for all people not for a specific country or a specific society.

This normally happens when you try to purchase bitcoins online with either PayPal or a credit card,  they want to be sure there is no charge back in case it is a fraudulent order, they are just protecting themselves from losing money that's all.

I think that best way to fix your problem is to try to change skrill to btc or payeer to btc ,neteller to btc or try to find some online trusted person which can change paypal money for btc or something else.

The KYC policies are universal and every country of the world that is part of the United Nations has implemented these laws in the country. The AML laws vary from country to country so every country has made its own laws for the prevention of the AML.

All the financial institutions in country such as banks, the stock exchange and any other companies that are related to the financial services and productions are liable to follow these laws and policies. These are the steps taken by government to avoid the illegal flow of money inside the country.

You are obviously dealing with a pretty crappy exchange then. Because if you have a good exchange then you should be able to just submit your documents once and you'd have pretty much no limit as to how much you are allowed to exchange and withdraw.

Don't blame this on bitcoin, because this isn't bitcoin's fault. This is the government's fault for having such strict KYC and AML laws, and these laws aren't even universal. They are only targeted at bitcoin which makes me think they're very scared that bitcoin is going to take over the financial system and they want to restrict the amount of people having access to bitcoin.

Once you get your funds into bitcoin i guarantee you 100% that the experience will be smooth. And the reason is exactly because there is no government, every transaction is irreversible, therefore you can transact with ease. And the good thing is anyone can use it, even in North Korea. So in the middle east you'll definitely be able to use it. The hard part is how to get yourc fiat into bitcoin, thats the main issue.

The world is still free bro.  ;)

All you are experiencing for now are some unnecessary glitches that are for me very local. Apparently, bitcoin has nothing to do with it. Laws on that side are rather strict.

I hope you will be able to come across that process and enjoy bitcoin.

I find it illogical to blame all this on bitcoin.

Bitcoin is for everyone. You can generate new bitcoin addresses and send and receive from them in your country or am i mistaken here? The real issue here is that your country's restriction on bitcoin exchanges are too strict, and that is something that unfortunately only law makers in your country can change. The bitcoin community can do nothing to help, really.

I would definitely start try to establish local some contacts in bitcoin, if i were you, so that you are able to easily get bitcoins and sell them whenever you have the need to without having to go through an exchange. I find that p2p trading is much easier to execute, more convenient, and sometimes if you add up all the fees you pay on exchanges it actually ends up being cheaper.

Takeaway lesson: bitcoin is decentralized and can't be regulated, exchanges are centralized and can be regulated.

Who knows when is the government going to look at the BTC and also government has bigger issues to work on. The Middle East government is busy looking the oil prices and revenue generation for the state.

Bitcoin is only for the benefit of a person for a state the bitcoin is no good to have with because it is tax exempted and it is not easy for the government to regulate it so they don’t concentrate on it not do declare it legal.

Thanks all for the replies and advice. I am overwhelmed with all your feedback. Some of them are harsh, but that's ok, others are very good.

I bought my first bitcoin using bitoasis.net. More of that experience below. Some of you asked where I am from? Am from a nice quite country called Oman. Bitcoin is not really famous here. If you ask someone in the street about it, he wouldn't know what the hell you are talking about. Some of you asked me which exchanges I have tried? to list few: bittrex (verified but no fiat), Poloniex (verified stage 1 with no fiat), raken (verification pending over a month), bitstamp (verification pending over a month), CoinsBank (verification pending), Coinbase (doesn't support my country), etc. So you see, all of them didn't finalize my verification until now (over a month) and still waiting.

So eventually someone here in the post referred me to BitOasis. I tried them, they operate from Dubai and they finished my verification in less than a week (exactly same docs I submitted to the other exchanges). I bought my first coin (as a trial), using a credit card and it worked. I got charged 5% fee for that, but at least I paid market price. I think BitOasis is the only one in the middle east that works, so hooray. However, the exchange is limited to what other cryptocurrencies I can trade bitcoin with, so far only Ether. So soon enough I will still need the other exchanges. However, at least I can use fiat with BitOasis to buy bitcoin, transfer the bitcoin to the other exchanges who would allow me to trade against other currencies. Then transfer again my profit to bitcoin, put it back into BitOasis to exchange for fiat.... looool. no easy shortcut here!

Don't get me wrong about bitcoin, I was referring to the exchanges, not the coin itself. Anyhow, reading your feedback and the KYC saga, it is what it is.

I was joking on the ICO, I just got into the bitcoin world, so I don't have an intention to start one  :).

Thanks all!

The question is why do you (op) find following rules and regulations so difficult? I suppose you're a legitimate citizen of the country you are from and you legitimately hold the national id so why can't you show them to the exchanges while buying bitcoins, you should. Bitcoin is for everyone living any where in the world but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be any rules and regulations in regard to it's buying, selling or converting to your local fiat currency. Exchanges are required by the government to follow some rules and regulations to stop the misuse of bitcoin and one should follow them.

Who said I don't or didn't? As I said, I submitted all the docs they asked for (passport, a selfie with passport, bank statement, utility bill, ID both sides, etc). But no word yet from all of them about accepting me to buy bitcoin using fiat. All still say verification pending. Only one that worked so far is BitOasis.

Cheers

What you really need to understand that for all the exchange sites to have been towards one particular cause of action means its something beyond their power and by the time you launch your own site, that's when you will realize what they are going through. The fundamental fault is not the exchange but rather the laws that regulate the actiivites of the country you found yourself which is something the exchange sites cannot do anything about. Start the revolution from your end to promote liberalism then buying bitcoin won't even be an issue.

My contribution to this is that, what you are facing is and why the restriction to people in the Middle East is probably the same reason why some ICOs will willing not accept citizens from a particular country and the same reason why some gambling sites will refuse making their services available to some countries and its not unconnected with the laws of those country. All exchange sites wants to make money and would be happy to see new sign ups everyday but they prefer to disallow that than to have a running legal battle with the agents of government which might eventually bring an end to the project they are running.

Is there any legislative for bitcoin accepting businesses in Oman? Maybe try running bitcoin accepting hotel or rental flat in Salalah  :)  2 years ago I was thinking about going there for a week, but i didnt have time and now the prices of vacation there are too high :/

Is this true? I don’t know but my sixth sense is indicating to me to not to believe in what you said. How and why will someone purchase the bitcoins from a so called dealer type of a person? There could be a possibility that maybe the person is selling stolen bitcoins or there might be a hacker who hacks the wallets and then sale it to someone but how could you find someone like this? This is not fair I guess. I will never do it in my life.

you should always do what you feel is right. and that is what i am doing, i am not suggesting you to do the same.
and besides this is what peer to peer exchange looks like. you find someone, you see their record if there is any, then do some business with them. you can start with a small amount first and then go bigger.
and i assure you number of people with "stolen bitcoin" on public places trying to trade bitcoin is nearly zero. if someone wants to sell stolen coins or whatever they go to dark market, they don't risk publicly.

I am very sorry for your woes. I think it is a brilliant idea for you maybe to make your own exchange in the Middle East, but make sure you can operate it with or without a license and not have problems with local authorities, or it will be a big headache for you. I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

Yes the exchanges we have are regulated by the government so it is the gulf government creating the major hindrance for the people there to buy the bitcoin.

By the way there could be many more options of buying the bitcoin. It is not only the exchange from where you can buy the bitcoin, thought the exchange is the most trusted one but it will take you months or maybe a year to buy just one bitcoin.

I guess  that this is Middle East's way of regulating Bitcoin within its jurisdiction. Since they cannot totally monitor and control Bitcoin, they formulate some rules and regulation regarding its usage. The identity verification is their way of being "secured" in a way that they can pin point the individual who stole some Bitcoin or whatever crime wherein Bitcoin was used.

These grievance of yours is nothing related to Bitcoin. Blame your government for this.

Proceed with your aim so that you can able to help those people who do have kind of problem but i do see that this thing isnt really a problem at all since its not necessary to upload some documents if you didnt want to and its just the same when you are applying on bank accounts which they do require document just like the same on exchanges too and you shouldnt be surprised.

I think time will change everything when demand will get high then the authority will be forced to rethink in order to accept Bitcoin as a legal currency, so don't get worried about the middle east situation, hopefully, bitcoin will be spread ou at everywhere within 2 years. japan and South Korea already have accepted it as a legal currency, in the meantime, many countries are thinking about bitcoin seriously to allow it...

But the point is that he's not going to have any more freedom than the exchanges that already exist.  He's just blowing hot air up our collective ass anyway.   No one's going to use some fly by night exchange started by some disgruntled middle easterner.  And if you do, you get what you deserve.

As far as I know Oman is known as a peaceful country with no link to terrorism etc. (although a few citizens are radicalized, like everywhere). I liked their pavilion at Expo 2015.

Now it's a small country, and if not many people know about Bitcoin there, then the OP might be the first Omani citizen trying to get verified on some of these exchanges.

It's also possible the exchanges are simply avoiding the Middle East altogether as a way to avoid the US government targeting them.

Its not just middle east. I was using my polish exchange and to my utter surprise I was asked to give them my photos and id scan just to get my money back. I was completly outraged. I was using that exchange few years. Im fairly certain its not the fault of the exchange, as they know they will lose customers. They are most of the time forced to do so by the banking cartel. Either that or paying a lot of fines which they can not pay staying solvent. So its not much of a choice.

Maybe there are some countries that want to limit the bitcoin users, so that only few that are a chosen are able to use it.

I do not have to mention I will never use the exchange that did that awefull blackmail to me if I will have a choice.

Purse.io, purchase stuff for people on amazon and get paid in bitcoin. No verification needed and it's secure. The bitcoin are held in escrow so you cannot be scammed. Just set up an account for a specific amazon site and complete an order. It takes a couple of days, depending on shipping, but atleast you will be able to obtain bitcoin that way.

Is Localbitcoins actually that expensive? Haven't used it in a long time, but when I did, I was always able to find some pretty decent deals depending on which payment method I used.
I would think that there was enough competition there to push the markup down, or not?

Decentralized exchanges might also be an option, I recently used Bitsquare to buy Bitcoin and that went pretty smooth.

Depends on the area I guess. Where I live Localbitcoins is not the best place to use, so maybe where OP lives it is not the best place either.

Maybe try to google +btc +[your town] -localbitcoins

Anti laundering laws are not made by bankers. Bankers would love to launder money without scrutiny. If you don't want your politicians to be even more bought than they already are, be glad that such rules exist.

If you could close down the gap and make things easier for the users then if you have a good business proposal then you could start an exchange but make sure you learn the legal difficulties you might be facing in the future,check with a legal expert and then plan on doing something and that is the best bet.

That right, Localbitcoins are definitely a more expensive solution that is why the government is so strict in KYC

I disagree with you. And I assume you don't know middle east governments. They all aganist bitcoin beucase they afraid of losing tax.

I am mostly repeating whatever my brother posts or when he talks in our house during day and night like a parrot, however I am my own person

And have my own opinions, I do try to be somewhat constructive when post, but never quote someone just to repeat them with slight changes of

Wording, this is just so fucked up mate.
While you are wrong deep into the bones, the only country afraid of losing on taxes is US right now but the whole world should be afraid.

Bitcoin is providing a way for people to have freedom of money and take the responsibility and also the risks of managing their money.

Many are not yet ready to be their own banks, but with enough time we'll learn. middle east countries could not be more happy with Bitcoin around.

I guess there’s nothing wrong to set up a bitcoin exchange in the Middle East with as much freedom as other exchanges are enjoying. Bitcoin is not owned by any particular country or in not just bound to serve western countries. It is for the whole world and soon Middle East will also have innumerable bitcoin exchanges.

OP, two points;

1) Your complaint isn't related to Bitcoin - its related to financial institutions & how they operate. It is the same like this in almost every country with financial institutions especially any bitcoin-related exchange
2) Yes! Please open up an exchange to bring down the premiums, this would be good thing. If you want to be successful at it - make it a DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE with no central head and no point of failure and a decentralized escrow (or some escrow-like solution) process. This could be global.
Note: the closest thing notable to a decentralized exchange is LocalBitcoins which works pretty well. But I'm sure you can do better if you have enough resolve and resources.

Buy bitcoin in localbitcoins.com or in coinbase they are the trusted site when it comes to that one, and the issue in the Middle East I don't know about it, maybe it is not yet accepted it on where country you live in. If you aren't happy with that, don't buy Bitcoins, try to make profit online only by working on the internet and using, of course, decentralized online services that don't have any restriction over your country.

How many people have so many opinions that someone does not believe in investing and is afraid to burn out and someone very much even with both hands for.