Bitcoin Forum

As far as I have been able to discover, Bitcoin is not actually banned in any country. What has been happening is that governments have been issuing dire warnings about the risks attached to bitcoin, crypto and especially ICO's. Some have introduced legislation banning exchanges, trading in or doing transactions with bitcoin etc. This is all fine as it is largely irrelevant to most people who have no interest in crypto-as for the rest of us who are interested in crypto etc it is little more than an inconvenience.

Governments do have another big concern with bitcoin etc-that concern is the use for illegal transactions and terrorist funding. But once again there is very little they can do-and I accept that bitcoin transactions are not totally anonymous.

Since I became a member in this forum, I have seen many threads about countries that have banned bitcoin. Researches about that countries show that all their citizens are still able to use cryptocurrencies without doing something illegal.
It's true that some countries have made some rules. For example some countries have banned banks and organization from dealing with cryptocurrencies. But ordinary people can use cryptocurrencies. I mean buying and selling cryptocurrencies is not completely illegal in those countries.
Generally, no country have completely banned bitcoin.

how about the latest news in india, maybe this is not a good week for cryptocurrencies in India. With the latest arrest from the co-founder of Unocoin for Bitcoin ATM operations, government intolerance of digital currency has been re-established.
Amid this turmoil, the president of India's leading IT industry body, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), has clearly stated that the organization's views on cryptocurrencies are illegal. President Debjani Ghosh has been very honest with this opinion that all associations hold.

When you look in Wikipedia to see which countries ban bitcoin, you’ll see that on paper, there are ‘absolute bans’ of bitcoin transactions in certain countries.  However, the real test is to see the activity on localbitcoins.com.  A few countries claim to have an ‘absolute ban’, but there are plenty of traders who will accept bank deposits to release the bitcoin, like in Egypt.  But then in Algeria, there’s only one person offering very limited transactions due to its ‘absolute ban’ (or really scary enforcement penalties in this country).  Overall, people are active in bitcoin everywhere whether or not the government is in approval. 

All these fears of governments are normal
Will disappear over time when they understand crypto
It takes some time and men to communicate the idea professionally.

Hmm. Maybe this one is a good start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory. As you have mentioned, there's a lot of things going on from behind. Governments are doing everything in their power to stop this revolution but I don't think they will succeed.


Well that's one argument they have against bitcoin. But they should realized by bitcoin is not really anonymous and besides, fiat is still the king as far as illegal activity is concern. Billions worth of USD has been moving in and out on a global scale which includes drug trades and funding for terrorist so I guess they got their hands full already trying to curb out those illegal transactions.

Bitcoin has really been banned in some countries,with the government cracking down on cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency related activities within their area,take China and India for example,activities related to this system is viewed as illegal in those parts of the world

While it's true some other governments such as the USA simply regulated it's activities.
While other issues disclaimers to warn citizens to be careful of scam. 

But the truth remains that activities are still ungoing even in the banned areas, but it's now a risky business.

In some countries like China or India, ripening is banned for bitcoin, but in some other countries it promotes them as Japanese or American. Whether it is banned or not it is still growing at this moment, no one even the government can control it.

Some bad reputation about bitcoin made it a bit tabooed in many countries and people automatically thought of it as illegal. Also, the economical system isn't yet ready for the crypto, so they don't run it publicly.

All these fears of governments are normal, will disappear over time when they understand crypto it takes some time and men to communicate the idea professionally. Billions worth of USD has been moving in and out on a global scale which includes drug trades and funding for terrorist so I guess they got their hands full already trying to curb out those illegal transactions.

While it's true that most only issue warnings to their citizens, there actually are countries that have branded Bitcoin illegal. A quick look at Wikipedia should give you an overview, and you can do more research from there.

If you have doubts about your country's stand, I encourage you to do research to make sure you know what you're getting into. It's easy to say that you didn't know, but ignorance is never an excuse.

You are brave to make such a statement and you could unintentionally get someone in trouble. There is a whole board called Legal here. I have written a post with basic legal principles that everyone should research whether they are valid in their countries and where to start searching to get an answer to this question. You act as if you know every country's legal system in depth. Sorry, I don't buy it and noone should rely on this post for legal advice!! Wikipedia is NOT a legal source and like with everything, everyone has to do their own research regarding this and if still in doubt, hire a local lawyer for explanation.

Though there are some countries where the government has banned the cryptocurrency, the crypto related activity is not really not banned in any country. Majority of the governments in the world are against accepting decentralised currency like the cryptocurrency. Some even spreaded awareness against it to the point where it seems like they have banned it.

Unfortunately, there are countries which do not ban cryptocurrencies directly but instead make their purchase way more difficult, or too problematic to make it worth.
E.g. many exchanges (unlike us, Linkkoin crypto exchange) do not have available credit/debit card as a payment method. This is because financial authorities had been mentioning to the payment processors, that crypto trading operates in yet unspecified legal situation and payment providers do not want to take the risk.

A similar situation can be with people who trade cryptocurrencies for a living and their access to the banking system. We have read about cases in Poland, where banks were literally freezing bank accounts or terminating services to people trading cryptocurrencies.
As well another form of the practical ban would be taxation itself. Once again, Poland could be as an example. Their government claimed for some time, that each buy/sell transaction on cryptocurrencies should be taxed. As a result, taxation in practice would be expropriatory in nature. Eventually their government changed its mind, but several big exchanges moved their HQ abroad.

In some countries bitcoin is still banned because it is used for bad purposes such as money laundering, tax evasion .. causing great harm to the economy so they decided to ban it.

Without bitcoin, fiat would be used for bad things, with bitcoin, fiat and bitcoin is used for bad things.
the government is afraid of losing control and that's why they're trying to scare people!