Bitcoin Forum

According to The Verge & Business Insider, South Korea has followed China and banned all ICO's. The verge reports that "ICOs need to be banned because the trading of Bitcoin and other cryptocoins needs to be tightly controlled"

To me this doesn't seem like a terribly bad thing. What is your opinion of this? Is this the right thing to do? or do you believe this is interference?

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/29/16384718/south-korea-ban-initial-coin-offerings-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-icos

I've got conflicted feelings. I hate ICOs, because all the people doing them now don't need all the money they're raising, don't have an actual product or plan to build one, or a little bit of both. People jump in on them exclusively to make money without doing a lick of research. I don't think people should participate in them.

I also begrudgingly accept that we probably will need government regulation to get more people to join the crypto ecosystem.

So I think it's a good thing, in the short and the long term, but any time governments start to mess with crypto I get a little concerned.

Korea,China next Singapore and India,regulations needs to be developed.Now with flood of that ico's there is possible to launder money,itis to much scams ico;s,look market what for to invest almost any ico is failing below io price,where to trade all that tokens.So i think wise regulations can be good for ico market in long term.

Well but it has not affected the market price, it has been rising in the last two days and i noticed that some countries were going to ban ICO's, but the price is quiet and rising. So i hope that this is not going to have a bad effect on the price, since i dont want to see it going down again, now we only have to wait until tomorrow to know if china is going to ban bitcoin forever or not.

everybody makıng ıco these days. thıs has to stop. ı support these bans. we need a legal ıcos. so they can do what they offer. otherwıse there wıll be shıt coıns everywhere lıke now. %90 of all coıns are shıt projects.

Yes, there are many scams around, but ICOs give a great opportunity to realize projects or to support them without authority. We know, how shares are mqnipulated and what traditional financial institutes made, although they stand under law. As long as it is possible, I will support promising ICO projects. Hope, the bans will not spread out to a majority of countries.And if we want centralized regulations, we even should not hold Bitcoin.

Russia is going to be third. I have heard how their heads of governments and banks disposed to bitcoin and crypto-currencies, in general. They much more interested in Blockchain technology than in digital currencies. I think other countries will also join this fleshmobe about ICO's banning.

I'm totally ok with banning ICO's, 'till there's a regulation on the matter. I mean, everybody is messing with people's money by promising unicorns, the truth about universe, to make North Korea great again, and even because F*ck you... It really has to stop, because at the end of the day, when some real honest company or person come and need some funding to develop a real useful project, nobody will believe them thanks to the negative fame current ICOs are gaining, IMHO.

It's not exactly a ban. I think it's just a way to discourage scrupulous scammers from collecting easy money. What I see is after they study crypto ICOs, they will insist on a lot of documentation and stuff.

Since there is a lot of unworthy projects it is normal for a rich country to ban ICOs, it is not becuase they hate it, its just that ICOs are now being out of control, having hundreds of project a week is not a good thing, yes it somehow brings job to others who support it but it doesn't make the coin worthy. South korea just wanted to protect their people from joining a economy that has nothing but unfinish promises and missions.

IMO, if a "crypto-currency" or a "crypto-asset" is able to be banned or directly
regulated by some means, whether by the issuer, miners, devs, or protocol, by
a government or any enforcement arms, it should be done so immediately. Not
because governments are good and are helping people, but it must be done so
because the illusion must be revealed. Bitcoin was created to reveal how the
world economic system was parasitic against the average person who has
become a commoditized device. Your debt is your worth in their system now.

What Satoshi created was a very specific system type designed to circumvent
controls, either from outside or inside the system. All "crypto-devices" that
follow Bitcoin can imitate his specific design to be able to survive and
circumvent, just as Bitcoin does, and that was Satoshi's gift to the world. The
ability to survive in your own system type, without the outside world to be able
to easily stop you. Satoshi gave us true choice, when any other possible choice
was outlawed and enforced against.

If ICOs or other "crypto-devices" wish to take parts and aspects here and there,
which mix a match different ideas of Satoshi's system in order to create a new
device for a new purpose (ex: ICOs) they better understated they are walking
a dangerous line, where they will be easily capturable and made responsible.
Because things like Bitcoin now exist, doesn't mean all like devices are immune.
ICOs are very base and simplistic when compared to what Bitcoin does.

Free markets and all the economic talk of self regulation and other such things
are illusions and irrelevant when compared to the Bitcoin Network. ICOs and
the belief that they will be an important part of the economic system in the
future is an insult to what Satoshi created. Bitcoin ignores and negates all
current economic and legal systems. ICOs by their current design rely on
legal entities and thus will need to conform, and thus why they are being
"banned" or "restricted" in certain countries.

Very basically, ICOs are scams not only because most of their current uses
is blatantly a scam facilitation device, but because the backbone infrastructure
behind the ICO device system is itself a scam or an illusion. They are the
emperor who has no clothes right in front of your eyes, yet people think
the free market or self regulation is acceptable here as a outside subsystem
for the ICO. That is very wrong. The truth is that is a very flawed system.
ICOs are a falsehood and is leading people astray from true choice and
freedom. ICOs are a manifestation of complete ignorance of what Bitcoin
has archived and how it achieved it.

ICOs must be squashed, because they are able to be squashed.
If they are squashable, they are a lie in our ecosystem and must be
orphaned off like all invalidity.

Yep. The same with China, the government just ban ICO not Bitcoin, there are a lot of people missunderstood about this case, Korea and China just ban ICO cause there are so many ICO projects and not all of them are good, some projects are scam so the government made a decision that they will ban ICO project in their country to protect investors and their capital. This thing can affect to coin market a little bit but I think everything will be fine, although China has big effect to cryptocurrency market but they only can affect to it in only few days so I think Korea will not be a big problem ;)

I don't have anything against regulation. I don't like scams, so if that helps reducing the possibility of the common people to lose money because they were tricked, I all favor to it. I hope that to much regulation doesn't create inequity though. The good thing about ICOs is that is easier for anyone to create a project and ask for investments. If the community believes it, then they have a real chance of succeeding in it.

Although I think ICO's should definitely end for obvious reasons, I don't see measures like these as necessary... The market would eventually evolve and realize that most, if not all, ICO's are bad and would eventually stop supporting them.

The only ICOs they've banned are Korean domestic ones. Can anyone name a single Korean ICO? I can't. All the usual junk will continue unabated so this is a non issue though no doubt traders will attempt to capitalise on it while it lasts.

There was a < $200 dip when the rumor broke.... and once the official news dropped, price immediately rebounded and nearly retested the highs. It seems like the market definitely doesn't perceive the Korean domestic ICO ban on the same level as the Chinese bans/rumors.

Price is remarkably resilient considering the Russian ban rumors and Grayscale Investments pulling their NYSE application. Altcoin market still look like crap, but I'm impressed overall with the bulls here.

Fantastic! It's a scam fest that has been going on for far too long now. ICO's essentially are a great way to attract capital if done properly, but in a market that till this day is still massively under-regulated, it has been abused by con artists in such a way, that I can only be glad that something is being done to stop this. Setting up an ICO and investing a few thousand bucks to make it all look nice and crisp is insanely easy, where after that you can walk into a Ferrari dealer to order yourself one of world's most desired sport cars. It's beyond insane how empty projects in some cases manage to collect millions of funds in just a matter of 24 hours. But then again, why do these scam ICO's manage to successfully obtain millions of funds? Yes, it's the greed and stupidity of those delusional people blindly investing into everything they can find.

Is it true ? south korea is one of the supporters of ICO and is a country with large bitcoin user presentation. so if they do banning bitcoin activity. I guess it will have an impact on bitcoin.

it is such a silly approach to potentially the most disruptive way to raise capital in the history of the world.

LET'S BAN IT - gimme a break, dinosaur.

Figure out a way to streamline it and protect investors, sure. Ban it? No.

The distrust situation is obvious and these prohibitions are natural as long as some people are trying to be rich on the short side. and %99 of all coıns are bad / freak projects.

but Korea is always pursuing more serious and precise solutions in this regard.

Banning ICOs for good would be bad, but if the ban is only temporary and they come back with appropriate regulation to help stablize the crypos space, then the ban is a good thing.  I think that is what each of the countries which already banned or will be banning ICOs is planning to do.

Nah it depends on a lot of things, from one side banning ICOs is great, because a lot of scams come up, where people just share their money to others and no one can find a thief ;D On the other hand ICOs like a kickstarter in crypto world, where projects are able to get some funds. I think ICOs should have some regulation.
The price of bitcoin wont be affected by such news, because there are not so many ICOs from South Korea though :D

I tend to agree, I think that there are far too many scams happening in the ICO space and if that continues it will be bad new for crypto in the long run. A little sense and oversight might add a degree of legitimacy to the whole affair, any amount of regulation will still not really take away from the inhereent anonymity of BTC or its junior peers.

I do not care about them, BTC is not affected and I believe BTC still will not be unstoppable.
this is only temporary and everyone please sit and calm down, everything will be fine.

You support ICOs ban but refuses to ban yourselves from promoting ICO projects on your signatures... that is hypocrisy my friends —  hypocrisy is annoying sometimes.


Other Examples of Hypocrisy:
Asking your government to ban the Internet b/c it encourages lots of fake news but refuses to stop promoting your numerous businesses on the Internet.
OR
Asking your government to ban alcohol but continue to consume Champagne.

Well the truth is that the bans are totally unnecessary. Any government with foresight should've realized that ICO is the future. These things cannot be stopped. If you cannot stop rains from falling there is no way you can stop Crypto & it's ongoing revolution.

For sake of conversation, I agree that banning certain cryptos is unnecessary
and a waste of the time for governments, but (1) why isn't it easy for a government
to enforce against an ICO? (2) Why do you equate the two different systems
(Crypto-currencies & ICOs) as being the same? (3) What is your overall logic
and reasoning, and is it associated with economic theory or legal theory?

Please explain.

the market is still conducive and tend to be stable. most likely will not have a major effect on the growth in bitcoin and other crypto. this is how people learn from the mistakes that happened yesterday.

For me regulation is ok this is to weed bad and useless ico, some of these icos cannot come out a useable products or services and these countries are now becoming aware of this issue, we need good ico that can give me real products services and innovation just like waves and ethereum.

Now we know that it will only depends on how the fud will  get spread and on the numbers of users from a country banned . And it seems that Korea were not have much vrypto whales to be affected.

I believe not ALL ICO's are bad, but yes of course they are a lot that are scammy, you just have to be a good judge of character and do your research. I hope bitcoin and altcoins still here several years from now, i am buying all sort of coins out there and holding with my life.

South Korea?  Honestly, it's not that big a deal.  It was a big deal that the United States
banned ICOs, and even then it's not stopping them from being diarrhea-ed out.  Not all
of them are bad, mind you, but you know as well as I do that there are too many.  And
too little demand.  Now if they banned bitcoin itself, that'd be the start of something
catastrophic.  I'm not looking forward to the day when countries start banning crypto
altogether.  Then we'll all have to watch our asses or stop using it altogether.

At least that did not have the same impact as China said they would ban ICO's. Otherwise we would have another buying opportunity. I just don't think it is impossible to control everyone, bitcoin is semi anonymous and can be very hard to trace (depending on how you buy/sell them).

ICO banning = good buying opportunity

I think this is sad news  :(  ICOs allow small investor an opportunity to be apart of a potentially huge company at the very beginning.  Just think if there was an ICO for IOTA.  We would all be rich today.

South Korea is very important to Bitcoin.  I hope they know this and choose laws and regulate Bitcoin very wisely.

Let them ban it. I don't live in South-Korea nor do I actively invest in ico's (I actually haven't invested in a single ico ever) so in all honesty I can safely say I couldn't care less.

Governments today have no desire to protect their citizens from fraud, so consumer protection has nothing to do with ico bans. Protecting the market leaders, that is the big cryptos, is what these ico bans are all about. Invest in the big coins because they are now being nurtured by governments and protected from competition.

Why not terriblewhy not terrible thing? It means more and more countries do this and will continue...

Like China, the reason for banning bitcoins is that it lacks legal basis.. you see no law or laws regulating the use of bitcoins... One problem is that the collection of tax seems to decrease because of no law controlling it. Another is the news nowadays that their are fake ICO already... So this contries just try to control the use of it. They wanted it to have legal basis and somehow be regulated.  They also wanted it to be with supporting gold bullions as the paper money has something of value backing it... so... this constraints may be cause by the abused of using bitcoins that imperil our government to collect tax and other purposes maybe...

I agree with you, Tightening up the ICO rule is great, In order to avoid fraud or illegal money used by ICO,
The governments of China and Korea may have enforced the rule.

Banning ICO is not a terrible things, ICO had been know as a tool to scammed people so it is not surprising that a lot of countries want to banned ICO, if there is a way to control the ICO then it will be a great solution, banning is not good for crypto currencies growth

South Korea is a very small country and also represents a very small percentage of the crypto currency community. I was worried when China banned ICO but I am not worried now. China was a bigger country and it was representing a much bigger percentage of crypto community. Probably the biggest compared to other countries. So that news couldn't bog down the price below $3000, so I believe South Korea banning ICO will have any effect on bitcoin's price. Instead if South Korea starts regulating the crypto currency exchanges and trade in their soil, it will be beneficial for the crypto community.

Indeed, I think this is a much more measured response than the Chinese one, I personally believe it is somewhat responsible to have some modicum of control on ICO's - there are a great many people getting ripped off right now and giving crypto a bad name for the future.

That is true and thee are so many ICO's are coming every week and not sure how many of them can able to implement the project successfully. They just need some expert advice on a product, a website and some initial money to promote their ICO's. Very difficult to check which one is good or bad and there should be some system to check these ICO's before they start raising funds.

I dont think "more countries will do this" as more developed countries such as japan, china and.many more see the advantages and the future of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, as china regulates exchanges, south korea may also do the same thing if they only just see the advantages of bitcoin and not only its disadvantages.

Well honestly good or bad it's not going to affect bitcoin at all. What it is going to affect however are altcoins, especially ones that are focused on providing a platform for ICOs or are ICOs that are still ongoing.

Also pretty sure that they've not actually done anything yet.

So for now, they can change their decision any time.

There is a report here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2216022.0 that is suggesting that the reason for South Koreas actions relates to a North Korean attempt to steal massive amounts of BTC.....

The plot thickens.

this is BS to me if they want ban ALL ICO they should start banning ETH how different is ICO ETH from NEO from tokens ?
ETH sold 60m ETH for 30 000 BTC. So or you pick winers and looses or let all play.
At end korens will buy BTC/ETH and buy ICOs from it simple

ICOs were out of control. They decided to stop them. I really don't see how this affect anything other then dumb people from throwing eth at shitcoins.

We are not sure about that i think that is only a little bit problem not all countries are banned. So we need to do now is to be alert of what is happening so that we can ready to face if some country do that too.

but they have no power to ban all countries. THere are tax heavens where can land for some fee all ICOs and no problems for them.
Problem will be commercials and event promoting them in US/EH/China

As long as they dont ban bitcoin then im not concerned in fact ICO's is not good for both traders and newbie investors who wants to join up the crypto platform then gets turned off by these kinds of projects that scams people by offering discounted tokens that's not been release and promises its investor to gain 400% profit. This was going to happen sooner or later anyways crypto shpuld be just traded by a reputable not crowdfunded by an unknown dev and CEO.

if I remain convinced that the impact of china and korea on ico circulation will not change anything.  this is evidenced by the development of bitcoin after issues from china that until now remain stable in terms of price.
I think this is a temporary issue so I hope we are not affected

This is a general sentiment of many regarding ICOs as it has indeed became also the platform of many scammers to get into cryptocurrency and probably maker some money and then left their investors holding empty bags as the coins or tokens they bought can be worthless if the project is a farce right from the very beginning. However, there are also good ICOs which can really add more benefits to the whole market. I agree that we need regulations and strict implementation so we can weed out the bad eggs. I am also proposing a self-regulation type in tandem with what the government can be implementing. I am hoping that soon South Korea will come up with a strictly implemented platform for ICOs.

they will get them legalized again as they got a new policy to kill the scamming ICOs, IMO so that kind of FUD is shitty. no worries with that unless they literally ban bitcoin. ::)

I do not worry if they bans ICO's to be in his country, we still have a country that think ICO's is a good thing. cryptocurrency develops well and eventually corrupt countries are increasingly afraid.

they claim that cryptocurrency is difficult to monitor, Is this the reason? do you think they are too afraid of not being corrupt?

This is considered as a healthy thing by investors and traders because the price will go down and they will invest that very moment . South Korea, bans ICOs and Japan licenses exchanges on the other hand, I read in a article . ICOs are not the right way to raise funds from the government's point of view.  So this might be the reason for why we see countries banning ICOs.

they just ban KOREA ICO. not all ICO. people still can invest to other ICO base on other country. and korea doesn't have much ICO.

i think ico is the new way get money and develop something, but it's getting more country banned ICO because there are many ico is not trusted some of them is just scam or for something that nonsense. so i very hate about ico.

i don't like government if they banning ICO, still don't know what purpose them to do it.
but it's not give big affects for bitcoin price and ethereum because both of them only decrease 3 percent and 7 percent based on website news i just read on Internet.

My personal 2-cents;

I don't believe they put a ban on ICOs. I simply think that they are just looking for ways to regulate and control the process.
Ban is just a big word they used because of their lack of english vocabulary.

The South Korea Financial Services Commission (FSC), the financial regulator, has announced a ban on all initial crypto-currency offers (ICOs) registered in the country. In addition to ICOs, margin trading is also prohibited in South Korean brokerage firms. FSC also plans to conduct on-site inspections in the operations of Korean brokerage firms. Initial currency offerings became popular in 2017 as a quick and bureaucratic and regulatory barrier to raising capital for startups worldwide. According to CoinDesk's ICO Tracker, this year alone, about $ 2 billion was made possible.

I have mixed feelings about ICO.
I agree with you when a lot of people are rising ICO without a working MVP, they just want to make money with an idea, but nothing correctly planned.
On the other hand for people who have an outstanding idea, a feasible plan and a working product, I think we have to look closer, and give those people a chance to develop their plan.

Well since bitcoin price not really affected by it, so I'm still fine with it.
If it's done for the good reasons then government could do anything they want to.
But now I think it's getting more complicated. I hope it will end well. And who knows which country will do the same.

It's not worrisome development. It rather positive to future ICO. I think it would be better to have few places in the world but reputable ones and with clear rules. Zug valley for instance. Switzerland offers  mild environment for startups and ICO. I have no intention to shill a swiss hallmark, just an example.
So I don't feel that news about one more country ban ICO would cause market crash.

I'm sure it's another fake. Now is not the time when you can abandon income. I think the Koreans know the rumors come from China and just decided to take the opportunity and earn the same way. After Switzerland buried his independent banking system I don't trust her. I think the oasis of cryptocurrency will be in a different place.

It's about time to have a strict regulation about ICOs. It's just another way of saying "I have the greatest idea about a certain thing but I don't have the funds to make it happen and I'll give you a portion of my profits in return", or in short, Ponzi. Other cryptocurrencies are being hurt by the negative impression a flop ICO creates causing other people to generalize that cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin is up to no good. Startups which really deliver amazing results are different from ICOs that are full of lies and visions made from thin air. Just my two cents.

Totalitarian regimes always try to limit the freedom of people. So I'm not very surprised that this happened. South Korea is a country with very strict laws. I think this is a temporary measure.

Hmm, looks like theres a person behind this Bitcoin price manipulation. First its China, now Korea? They really want BTC to dump? Ok I'll tell what will happened next.

Korea will banned their local exchange sites too. Next another prominent guy will curse Bitcoin in a live TV show.

This will surely dump BTC. Whats next? Whale will buy all the dumped BTC.

South Korea's ban on ICOs is a great thing. Authorities are starting to discern between the fakes and Bitcoin. If the authorities start backing Bitcoin then the near future looks bright for Bitcoin.