Bitcoin Forum

I have heard some stories about making bitcoin transactions illegal. It's all been a humor and I don't think any government have officially made bitcoin transactions illegal. Why is that?
Many governments are trying to regulate bitcoin, control exchanges and force people to be authorized. But I am sure government wish bitcoin was not created and there was no trouble of regulating bitcoin. They  prefer their fiat to any other currency.
Why no government have made bitcoin transactions illegal?
I think they want to avoid creating an underground market.They don't want bitcoin to be traded like Alcohol and drugs. They have to accept bitcoin as they cannot stop a decentralized network and now they can only try to regulate it. Do you agree with me? Is there any other things have caused governments to not make bitcoin illegal?

That’s to create FUD in the market and if you heard many news about banning bitcoin, I am sure that the government has no final decision about that thing. They know the pros and cons of bitcoin, and the advantages are working well that’s why they can’t fully banned bitcoin, this is what I see regarding the situation.

The government is still reviewing Bitcoin regulations. Each country already has a valid currency to use every day. Even if you make a buy and sell transaction using a valid currency, you can be hit by a criminal.

Like Bitcoin because the system can not be set up and everyone in the world can access it. Of course, the government can not regulate the use of funds from the Blockchain system. Nowadays it is still debated and hopefully in this country Bitcoin is increasingly able to thrive.

With all have that talks already and the government are looking into the most convenient place that their people would stay. Legalizing crypto isn't a big problem but concerning how it creates a drama and losses to their citizens, it actually holds the legalization process.

It will found great that even crypto isn't legalized but our country never been thinking of banning it. We can still enjoy using crypto.

In most of the countries bitcoin isn't recognized or supported by the government, but there is no legal opposing. This means bitcoin and its need has been understood and there is continued try to identify whether it is required for the growth or not. In other way as it is P2P they can't control it and so just making the transaction illegal government isn't gonna get anything big.

Very importantly very few countries like Japan have taken strong decisions on the use of cryptocurrencies making themselves to be the leader, because some day this is gonna get used by people which is the truth. Rather than competing later it is good to adopt it earlier and be the leader.

I think it's pretty much because they haven't made a final decision yet. As seen on the senate talks weeks/months ago, the opinions of the senate representatives are still all over the place; with some even recognizing bitcoin as an actual store of value(Jerome Powell).

I suggest looking up the talks on YouTube if you're interested.

Check your facts first! There are many governments in the world that have made the bitcoin transactions officially illegal. Even though they are mostly from 3rd world but some examples are Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador etc. and there are some more countries.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory

Governments definitely want to curb the illegal usage of cryptos but they also understand that it is impossible to enforce a blanket ban on bitcoin or any other crypto transactions due to its nature of operation. Some developed countries like Japan or Germany have studied the crypto properly and provided a framework to curb the illegal usage and promote legal usage of bitcoin. There are some countries as mentioned above, taken the easier route to ban instead of providing a proper framework. So it is incorrect to say that no countries have made bitcoin illegal, there are examples!

That marked in bold is my way of showing emphasis. So, you really don't think so? Then what do we call what goes on in China and the Chinese government's altitude towards the use of Bitcoin? To ban something simply means to declare it illegal, isn't it?

While other governments allowed the usage of bitcoin, there are still governments that are hesitant to it especially the bitcoin's transactions that are untraceable. I have never heard of the illegalization of bitcoin transactions, but since bitcoin is decentralized governments hardly do that. I do think they are just concerned with the privacy matter of bitcoin. But with the overall, it's been an issue for some government to ban bitcoin since it was highly use to do illegal activities and can be also used the blockchain internal usage of it in a positive way.

Like 2 posts above me, there are certain countries where its actually illegal to own and transact Bitcoin. Most first world nations however haven't made Bitcoin illegal.

The governments realise that its pretty much a P2P node network and even if its banned in an entire country the blockchain will still exist in another. Its what makes Bitcoin ... Bitcoin pretty much. That no country can stop it.

So governments instead have set rules to regulate it and that is why its possible for large exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, etc to stay in business. They bring in lots of profit, people pay taxes, everybody is happy. Governments know that most crime happens anyways with fiat anyways and Bitcoins crime is in very low numbers. Currently bitcoins main use is speculation.

Did the Prohibition on alcohol, stop people from trading and selling illegal alcohol in the USA? No, it did not... because the people started doing this illegally on the Black markets. The USA quickly realized that they were missing out on millions of dollars in tax income every year, because no tax was paid for all alcohol that was sold on the black market.

The same thing will happen when governments ban Crypto currencies. The technology is decentralized and virtually unstoppable, so people will just take this underground and the government banning bitcoin will lose out on all the tax income that they would have received, if it was legal.  ;D

I still don't get the goal of prohibiting Bitcoin transactions. Do they want to make sure that all purchases use fiat? What is the purpose?
It's also tough to monitor and 'ban' transactions on the network level. You'd need to control the network, and that means owning more than 60% hash rate, which would be very costly.

As for the cases in several countries like mentioned above, I believe the 'ban' translate into it's prohibited to exchange, run, or use crypto exchange platform, so there's no easy and centralized way to liquidate your Bitcoin to fiat. This is easier to do. They don't have to use as much money as when they control the network.

Bitcoin is still very new, so it's hard to make a decision now. It's still not clear how many people are going to use it in the future and what is the best way to regulate it. I think that most of the countries wait for a unified strategy for the top countries or at least wait to see which regulations in other countries have what impact. When something starts to stand out as the must effective policy, others can adopt it rather fast.

Maybe he is talking about the government in the western countries like america? because I'm sure that some countries are avoiding the transaction of crypocurrency.

Regarding the issue. There are benefits to using cryptocurrency in the economy and those countries that are utilizing it are reaping it. There's really not much that the government could do though. Even if they illegalized Bitcoin, people would still find a way to use. To that in mind, using it instead of preventing its use is more beneficial to them. It's not like Bitcoin is harmful to people. It just depends on how people use it. Just my thought.

The Government cant out-rightly control the bitcoin transaction but can control the bitcoin-fiat transaction, which is where most of the countries and bank stand.

a couple small governments like algeria and morocco actually have. you can see legal breakdown by country here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory

for the most part though you're right, and i think it's primarily for two reasons:

1. governments are competing to attract taxable businesses. the cryptocurrency services/trading sector is already a multi-billion dollar industry. governments want a piece of that, and taking the prohibition approach would just hand lots of potential economic growth to other countries.

2. they don't want to look impotent. most governments are smart enough to know by now that they can't effectively enforce prohibition of bitcoin usage. passing laws they can't enforce will only make them look weak in the eyes of their citizens.

We can't know that. If they want, they can and we can't know it.


I don't think so. I think almost all countries are following the developments closely. As far as we know, no one has yet to prepare a full legal regulation.

Fiat is the reason that bitcoin is still in the level of regulation that it is. Every government likes monopoly in the control of its people and currency therefore, it will take a lot of time for pronouncements to be made on bitcoin in my opinion

They can easily categorize any bitcoin transactions illegal, the thing is there is a lot of potential for them to use it/benefit from it by leaving it as is. One thing is for taxes, the other one is, well, catching big fishes and keeping the money to themselves. They are constantly seeking for regulations to engulf bitcoin that can give them the edge all the while pretending to be as caring and open with any advancements that will help the community and the development of the crypto itself. Also, even if they were successful in making tx illegal, underground economies would still persist and they cannot do something about it, so yeah, they'll just let it slip and look for things to exploit its existence.

It due to every country already have valid currency 💵 used to do any transaction and the Bitcoin is not really too or much stable because of it rise and fall 🍁

For most countries Bitcoin is currently represents almost no significant threat for their financial system, and all you have to do is look at the numbers. Bitcoin market capitalization is only $181 billion, and this includes all mined Bitcoin from day 1 to this day.

For comparisson USA federal budget for 2020 should be $4.746 trillion which is 26+ more then value of all Bitcoins. When we look at it on a global scale and consider the amounts of money that flow through global financial networks, Bitcoin is as congressman Sherman say "just a small baby" (his comparison with Libra).

Governments cannot kill Bitcoin completely, but they can do a lot more then just declare transactions illegal. How about declaring crypto exchanges illegal as the ultimate measure to send Bitcoin in the underground?

This is because they cannot control, cannot collect taxes from these activities, the government is still looking for ways to solve this problem.

Making bitcoin transactions illegal is absurd and will be hotly contested among legal scholars since in a legal point of view, such transactions could have technicalities like jurisdiction limits, etc and its features will make it more difficult to accuse anyone and also, its very hard to prove it has caused unlawful violations or wrongdoings that  is why no wants to take it into court because it will only be a losing battle if they do so.

Why would they illegalized it?? If they will or just did, how can they track the transaction and the information of the people who would do the transaction??
But I think the reason why some government are regulating crypto are because of some factors that may affect them; criminal activities using crypto, decentralized where they can't control it.

Something something decentralized and that can't control. Worst case scenario, some countries follows the footsteps of China and apply mass surveillance, to the extent of disallowing the usage of physical cash, and instead let everything go through digitally for them to trace transactions for them to gain data on almost everything we pay for in our daily lives.

^ Simple analogy, governments will illegalize the transactions of bitcoin if it is banned in your place. They can't track transactions but they can disable all website that related to crypto so that people can't use on it. As of now in our place, cryptos are recognized by our government as an alternative payment method on the internet or online business. No need to illegalize because they know that it will help also to the community not by seeing the negative side.

Venezuela almost did this, take a look at my reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/cwg5nf/paid_our_employees_with_bitcoin_now_were/

Also; which topic can i choose to make a whole post about it?

At the moment most countries are actually on the fence on whether to legalize bitcoins and other cryptos or make it illegal, others have legalized which consist of a majority whiles a few decided to criminalize it's use in their respective countries.

First you need to know that there is a very small number and if I am not wrong that number should not pass 10 countries in the world that have created bitcoin laws. Many countries only allow their citizens to use bitcoin while they decide what to do with bitcoin. But there are some countries that consider bitcoin illegal, which makes me curious about those countries that consider bitcoin illegal is that they have never created laws about bitcoin, how can they consider bitcoin illegal if they did not create laws about bitcoin? But fortunately, it is a very insignificant number of countries that consider bitcoin illegal. so relax and wait that in the future many countries will legalize bitcoin

Do You know the  number of politicians that hold BTC in disguise. They will never support that though they might not be able to come out any support BTC at the moment but things will change over time

ITs unconstitutional to make something like bitcoin illegal. They won't be able to prove who owns and who does not own bitcoin and the legal system doesn't need even more work load then it already has.
Who would vote in such a law? I am sure there are many more much more important things to attend to.

One reason maybe that here in our country bitcoin is legal is that they have portion of profits earned by the bitcoin traders ou here. Another is maybe they don't see bitcoin as treat and thus leave it alone as it is, but they are monitoring it and investigate about illegal transactions such as using it to buy illegal things.

And I'm wondering how did you know that they are hiding their BTCs in their computers at home? Another thing is that, when Mark Zauckerburg was asked by some people at the government, obviously, they do not know what they are talking about and that also proves that they might not know or even agree with the idea of decentralization.

It's not unconstitutional, bitcoin has no constitution, and the constitution in effect in every country is made my the country itself and they can decide what's constitutional or not

Anyways you're correct, people can easily bypass this laws due to the way the network is set up, in a decentralized and anonymous way, just that people wouldn't be able to openly use bitcoin and it would hamper it's adoption in those areas.

I think they can make such laws if they notice bitcoin competing strongly with their fiat currency.

Yes, anything that gives financial power to the people is perceived as a great threat to the government. But as for bitcoin, they know they are just helpless in trying to stop what they can't actually do.

I agree with what you say, a little extra from me, in my country Indonesia. Because it has no formal and official agreements, bitcoin tends to be misused for illegal transactions, money laundering, and financing terrorism. It was emphasized there, all transactions carried out in the territory of Indonesia must use the rupiah (IDR) currency. Bitcoin circulation also becomes illegal because it cannot be reached by the Central Bank.
This is considered to cause bubble values. Reasons, transactions, speculative virtual currency values. Not only does it harm the public, this transaction can also divert the country's financial system.

They cannot do that because Bitcoins can be used for illegal things but that doesn't make Bitcoins illegal as the same is with cash. They cannot illegalize the transactions as whether they are anonymous or pseudonymous but they have an existence online and that's blockchain. One big reason is that it has the Globe involved in it and when your citizens are supporting something, you need to have a leader sort of personality to drive them away off Bitcoins but I don't think many countries have that influential person who has the accent to stop others from using it and the fear of losing your citizens and your superiority over them will not let you stop them.

Bitcoin is accessible worldwide, so this coin does not have a clear standard. With a selling value that is easy to change. So the government difficulties to regulate Bitcoin, even at an unstable price, can make people lose. And its impact on local currency is of course very negative.

Until now the government is still reviewing Bitcoin. And perhaps this year there will be more information from the Government about the development of Bitcoin, especially the clarity about the status of Bitcoin.

Because they can't really.

Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency and even if a country bans it, they will never know who is using it since they will never be able to pinpoint a certain user since it is anonymous. Pseudo anonymous it is but still, they will never be able to determine the users so, despite their ban, people can still use it unless the user is a known user.

When you outlaw something, you make people curious about it. Just like alcohol, pot, etc. The strategy is to manipulate BTC, make it look entirely unstable, and let it die a natural death. It's also possible that they just don't see it as a threat. You have to understand, even now BTC is tiny in the grand scheme of money.

I know that there were politicians that has announced that they've bought bitcoin few years ago but what number are we talking in here? A perfect example would be Tulsi Gabbard.

US Congresswoman Reveals She Bought Ether and Litecoin Last Year (https://www.coindesk.com/congresswoman-gabbard-bought-ether-and-litecoin-last-december)

But who could be the others?

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We have heard a lot of news about bitcoin ban, making bitcoin transactions illegal but as long as they don't impose certain rule about it, they just can't.

I don't think that government will do that as of now, maybe there will be a person or organization will prove to government that bitcoin are not that use for illegal way.. bitcoin's era will be a  life changer. what we can't do in present we can do if we legalize btc. like, break poverty. make people use bitcoin as tool to make easy payment for their small business. everyone will loved to use it. government will better to see the bright side of bitcoins uses.

Governments actually like bitcoin for a lot of reasons, the main one is that it is easy to track.  The nature of a public blockchain means everything is out in the open.  Now privacy coins are a completely different story and many governments are trying to get those banned.

When you mention government, I hope you realize it is a big entity. There are many countries in the world and individual has its way of making policy and regulations regarding leger tender and also some other currencies. I think people carries rumours a lot, Apart from china that we all hear that they ban crypto, I don't think or heard about making the transaction illegal. Even in some countries that crypto has been regulated, there are still many ways people make the transaction using bitcoin. I am very sure even in china, people still transact crypto

Do you know that when there is an increase in the financial status of a country, they will feel it too whether illegal means or legal, and in one way, some countries would have felt a better financial status on their economy linking it to bitcoin.

For something that is helping the economy of the country financially, why would government really place those unnecessary bans or make it illegal. Bitcoin technology itself was not developed for and illegal purpose, but people only took advantage of the little weakness of it to do illegal things which can really be controlled if government is to regulate the industry. People just carry about news through assumption and then blow it beyond proportion, if the way they say government sees it as illegal, by now, they would have succeeded in banning it.

Because it is impossible to make it illegal it is decentralized, many shops are accepting crypto as payment options and the number is growing, it just doe snot make sense!
Their are regulating exchanges instead, as many news articles are reporting .

I know there are many governments that are trying to regulate bitcoin. But how will be the regulations?  
The purpose of regulation is finding those people that are trying to misuse the system. For this purpose, governments need to have access to identity of the users. If this happens bitcoin won't remain anonymous.
Governments should also be able to block some wallets and also reverse transactions. How can it be possible without harming the decentralization?  
So, bitcoin shouldn't be anonymous and decentralized. In this case, will bitcoin the currency that it was supposed to be? If want to have a currency which is centralized and controlled by the governments, No difference whether we use fiat or bitcoin.

In my opinion there are 2 things that make the government come to bitcoin :

1. Bitcoin is vulnerable to hacking

With such a large exchange rate, do not be surprised if many are trying to hack or break into it.
The financial system at a local bank can be hacked by nosy hands. Though the local bank has been supervised directly by the FSA and approved by the Indonesian government. What about Bitcoin that has been officially banned? Of course every risk is no longer the responsibility of the government.
Money in digital form is not always safe. As smart as you hide the Bitcoin wallet access code, it still has the possibility to be hacked. If the bitcoin fragments you have are lost, then no one can guarantee the alias can not come back again.

2. Often Stuck Money Laundering to Terrorist Funding

Quite worrying indeed. Once the Indonesian government bans Bitcoin, it is naturally easy to affiliate with illicit practices. For example, money laundering from corruptors or mafias and terrorist groups to launch terrorist acts here and there. Do you want to be equaled with them?
In addition, Bitcoin is also vulnerable to being used for various other crime. For example prostitution. Because, Bitcoin users are allowed to trade using a cover.

Well, the scenario are two. Some have really provides guidelines and framework on how Bitcoin and other digital currencies should operate while other outright banned bitcoin dealing. It is pretty certain that, there is a little the Government can do to ban Bitcoin in entirety due to its nature of immutability, decentralized and govern by nobody. Chinese and Iran Governments are just only trying but cannot achieve any positive outcome to illegalised Bitcoin transaction because there are other means to remain anonymous while carrying out the transaction.

For the government makes legalization of Bitcoin transactions not easy. Basically, if it gets legalized, it will definitely be regulated and have a legal entity. But this cryptosystem seems unregulated, as Bitcoin has no price stability. Especially with many studies that Bitcoin is able to be utilized for negative things, such as terrorism financing, and the procurement of illegal drugs.

Things like this are of course unwanted government and until now they are also still reviewing. But as long as it is crypto we can still access and I think it is legal or not, it does not matter.

Now many states are preparing for the adoption of rules for regulating cryptocurrencies. G-7 countries and European Union countries are already ready for this. Therefore, soon we should see its massive legalization.
We also know that there are about a dozen states in which it is forbidden to use cryptocurrency. In these states, its use is either impossible or very difficult. Basically, these are states with an authoritarian form of government, where the rights of citizens are not respected.

Agreed, the government appreciate the transparency of the Bitcoin transactions on the Blockchain and wouldn't just wake up to ban Bitcoin. Some senators have said in the house that, Bitcoin is a store of value, so, Bitcoin is already been recognised by the few in government. Government not legalize Bitcoin mean that, they want to protect their citizens from the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

Government don't own Bitcoin so why the hell to they illegalize Bitcoin transaction. Fuck them all.

Bitcoin is decentralized and even the stupid governments cannot stop it. They don't have the right to make it illegal. Although there are some countries who banned Bitcoin to use in their country already, there are some countries who accepted Bitcoin already and I believe that it will rise in the future.

Governments do not need to illegalize any Bitcoin transactions. They make some regulations when accepting Bitcoin as legal or they simply choose not to legalize it on the country.

thats right they dont own bitcoin so they only want bitcoin to become illegal but of course there are few governments that act oppositely  .

 there are the ones that legalize bitcoin transactions but i think these governments are not assuming to own bitcoin but they just want to help thier selves or thier country to improve more becaus they already see the potential of bitcoin if what it can do  .

I hardly agree with you because the reasons you specify for bitcoin to be declared illegal by the government are just absurd.
I think that the governments know the potential of bitcoin and they know that even if they declare bitcoin as illegal, people will still be using it and there will be no way they can track people using it.
So they just find it easy to regulate bitcoin instead of taking the burden of declaring it illegal.

The problem for the government is that Bitcoin has a volatile selling value, so it cannot be regulated. In the digital era as it is today, that Bitcoin is great for development. Everyone wants to meet their needs instantly, like buying and selling.

In addition, the Government if the rules of success about Bitcoin are occurring in this country. Will earn revenue for the government through income tax from crypto.

However, Bitcoin will certainly be used by people who are not responsible for fraud. So these negative things are also a consideration for the government. Therefore, the Government has not legalized Bitcoin.

Some government use distracting method to talk more on blockchain and never mentioned bitcoin. However, everyone is getting to know the importance of blockchain and gradually seeing the benefit of bitcoin. It could be very difficult to control bitcoin if illegal; though they can make measures to control fiat to cryptocurrency exchange,prevent media advert on crypto, control of crypto related project within their community and publicly punish any individual that is caught breaking any of these laws, but cryptocurrency can be an asset kept for years.

Knowing that as long as internet is open bitcoin will continue being use so instead of declaring it as illegal that will only leads their citizens to hide it from them, it's better to work with regulations to ensure that they've still have to control in case that many people inside their jurisdictions will adopt this system, chances to see it more legalized in the future can be dictated if there's more adoptions and end users to demand it's existence.

I don't see any reason for governments to illegalize Bitcoin.
It doesn't break any laws.
"Bitcoin is just an alternative economy and ideally people should be able to exchange goods in alternative economy if they so choose."
 So governments should leave Bitcoin alone.

It's pretty easy to make bitcoin illegal and for example India plans to do that but why? Is there benefit behind this idea? I think no. Also there are a lot of mining datacenters, exchanges which bring a good money in budget. Also governments at some point need bad guys, money is made during these processes. Also if you make bitcoin illegal can you imagine what it will cause? Even harder ways for governments to solve another upcoming problem. By banning something you can't stop it, you just make it difficult to detect again and I think that must be clear for everyone.
Also why to say that governments would never wish bitcoin to be created? After all they happily try to get something from it, implementing of blockchain technologies.

The local currency is the only legitimate tool to make payments. If Bitcoin is authorized, it will affect the local currency. In addition, Bitcoin is volatile, so it cannot be controlled by the government.

The government is currently researching Bitcoin. However, I am quite pleased that in my country Bitcoin is not banned. Maybe this will be a positive signal that in the digital age now, Bitcoin will be a good solution to cope with unemployment.

Obviously to determine that bitcoin can be legalized by the government, of course it has several provisions that must be prepared in order to become legal bitcoin. many developing countries are not familiar with and already know about bitcoin because internet network problems do not cover all regions. it will also be a consideration that cannot be ignored yet also its own regulatory issues.

Only countries with a partial or incomplete democracy would ever consider banning Bitcoin transactions.

If you live in a country where this has been considered, get out quick. You are clearly living in a nation that is on the brink of dictatorship.

Bitcoin and blockchain tech stands to revolutionize so many industries, to ban that would be banning progress.

F*** THAT.

Because it is not something that should get decided on. It is something complex that there might be some regulations that is going to be unfair on both sides. In my country, I was just lucky that the government really don't mind the people using cryptocurrency but they always tell us to be careful of using it.

Yes, you are right that it is a consideration for the Government, so they do not legalize Bitcoin. The government wants to set up Bitcoin, but the Bitcoin price cannot be controlled. Perhaps a comparison with gold is always a steady price.

Money laundering and financing for terrorists can occur with the use of Bitcoin. Something like this is a big problem. However, each country must have high security. Maybe we should be patient to see the illegal Bitcoin because so far it can still be developed.

There is no way the government can illegalize the transactions of Bitcoin. It will just a waste of their time to try and make bitcoin transactions illegal. In as much that bitcoin transactions are on a decentralized network and you can easily be traced, its not gonna be easy to illegalize the transactions of Bitcoin.

There are so many benefits of bitcoin to the government which they know also, but some of them just chose to reject the truth because they know it would eliminate the level of corruption in their financial system, and also give power more to the citizens than them, and they try everything possible just to fight the implementation of the bitcoin scheme.

Most of the government that likes to be transparent with their citizens has surely seen it as benefits to their government and they have started to regulate the system to the cryptocurrency to align with their own rule of operation, and what I expected some of these big countries to do is to follow example since they cannot lay down example for some of these smaller ones that have accepted bitcoin.

A government can decide to make crypto illegal if they want to and feel the need to. But declaring something so does not become fixed, they may allow some transactions to be made, in other words make it a quasi-legal approach, regulated so to say. Because the number of people using crypto is also big putting them all in jails for suspected money laundering is not a proper approach. So I think regulation is what can happen but legality may change with time.

Its also true that many people use bitcoin for the reasons they can evade taxes. There are wrongdoers among us too. They need to be corrected, its the other side of the coin. :D

although the government does not want to increase illegal transactions such as alcohol and illegal drugs from the use of crypto, it also happens to use fiat. the most important thing, in this case, is, most likely because the government cannot control it so that it causes losses to a country's finances. Well, that's just speculation. many reasons such as an increase in crime and illegal transactions are also one of the reasons.

Yes, exactly!
Bitcoin is truly open source and hence nobody has the right to declare it legal or illegal. Even if somebody does, it won't simply matter for the fact that they are not the ones who control it. A person can only control a thing if he has the ownership over it and bitcoin doesn't have any owner.
Besides that, people should start admiring for the fact that how truly open it is. I wonder why people don't recognize this mere fact and are relying on controlled, centralized fiat currencies.

It seems that you don't understand how bitcoin works. The Government can't make the bitcoin transactions illegal, why, because it is a decentralized platform, meaning that no one has the ability to manipulate it except I guess if it is the creator, which is Satoshi Nakamoto. The Government could only banned it, meaning they are going to banned every sites or every way on how to access bitcoin or how you are going to earn it, that is the only thing they could do even though they want to control it.

and bitcoin would be the main virtual money that we are going to use someday, as the predictions says, which is a very good thing to happen to be honest.

if the government becomes bitcoin as a currency or makes a bitcoin transaction in my opinion it's not very good because with the price of bitcoin that can not be sure it will be very confusing for them because they think it is very detrimental if bitcoin is down so I think it's not good

I don't see people evading taxation as wrongdoers. I pay taxes over my profits and fiat on my bank account, but I will not pay a single penny in tax over my cold wallet holdings.

Does that make me a criminal in your book? People are just trying to protect as much of their net worth as possible, which isn't something you can blame them for. It's a shame that we have to do this.

That being said, gold is being used for tax evasion too. This indicates that people are looking for decentralized assets that nobody can take away from them. More power to the people!

Stopping something is different from make it illegal. Government can make the rules however they want. Thanks to decentralization, no government can stop bitcoin. But they can make it illegal. They can convict some one who use bitcoin. (If they can find the person. Finding the bitcoin is user is not always impossible)

Satoshi Nakamato is not the owner of bitcoin. To stop bitcoin all nodes should be destoyed. Satoshi doesn't control the nodes. Decentralization means no one can control bitcoin. It includes Satoshi Nakamato too.

I don't know why governments would do that. Many bitcoiners have not just right and clear picture about Bitcoin and governments. They are aware of changes, a new technological society and it's not in their best interest to avoid the progress that cryptocurrencies represent. Majority of governments don't want to declare Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies illegal, they are trying to find the best solution for regulation.

Those are 15 countries (count them), out from nearly 200. You could also count the ones where its regulated...

While it looks "easy" to stamp a banning law, in practice your chances from actually preventing people from using it are nearly zero. Sure, it is an annoyance, and sure, many innocent people would get imprisoned, if they don't know how to cover their tracks. But whatever it is they don't want to occur, cannot be stopped by some words on paper. They cannot shutdown Bitcoin, and they cannot block Bitcoin transactions. If two people from any of those countries privately decide to transfer coins one to another, they will never even know it ever happened. Done properly, that is, not revealing it to others, and using Tor, etc.

At least some countries are properly studying it. One of the things that come to light once you read a little, is that you cannot (really) stop it, so issuing a law against it is pointless and can only do more harm than good. And for the same reason, too much regulation is also pointless.

Bitcoin separates money from State and private institutions, this is precisely what makes it so valuable, even more than gold.

Government do not have the capacity to illegalized bitcoin as it is an online token and can only be traded through the internet, the beauty  of technology, thou with it own disadvantage, as some individual takes advantage of the privacy platform and source arm and amunition, drug and other illicit activities, BTC is the currency of this age, government does not have capacity  to illegalize it.

Because it doesn't seem illegal to them, why will they legalize something that is not illegal in the real sense? If the argument is about using btc for shady activities then what can be said about fiat? Will  they ilegalize fiat for the shady activities use with fiat? No right? Then I don't see why the government should even consider that.

They cannot ban it as still, no one can "qualify" Bitcoin, calling it assets, money, shares, and whatnot. What is curious about the USA is that the US authorities will not be able to ban Bitcoin since it is protected by the constitution. This cryptocurrency consists of a code that is essentially part of a Word, which means its restriction will be a violation of freedom of speech in States.

A government can't just jump in and make bitcoin transactions illegal. This would just show how incompetent the government is. But yeah, there are countries that have made bitcoin transaction or other crypto currency transaction illegal though if you look deep, you will notice most of those governments are the most corrupted ones in the world.
The Government knows the potential of bitcoin but they also know the dangers behind it. Banning bitcoin transaction because of those dangers is not a solution for them. It is like suggesting to chop off the head if someone is suffering from bad headaches.

Exactly. They only have X amount of work hours behind them and they have to distribute it in ways that serve the country. Running around chasing transactions is a waste of time and tax payers money and brings no benefit to anyone. Even if crypto was only used for crime the amount it would cost to "police" it would far outweigh any loss due to crime.

Expecting Bitcoin to be illegal across the country, this may be very difficult. Because there are already some countries that prohibit the use of Bitcoin. I will give an opinion that happens in my country.

In 2018 with the popular Bitcoin, many people pressed the government to legalize Bitcoin. However, the government is also unable to do so because the country already has a legitimate local currency.

However, we are still lucky because Bitcoin is not banned as long as it is not used for money laundering, financing terrorism and used for payment.

Let me clarify on a few things here. Till now, none of the countries have banned the possession of Bitcoin and till date no user have been arrested for possessing Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. On top of that, transacting Bitcoin is also not a crime in any of the UN member states. Anyone can transfer his coins to anyone else's wallet. The issue arises when the user want to convert his cryptocurrency to some other asset, such as fiat currency or bullion. This step is not yet fully legalized in many of the countries, and in a few third world countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh, Bitcoiners have been arrested for doing Bitcoin to cash or cash to Bitcoin conversions. But in today's world, it is not practical to ban a digital asset.

The Government may not fully know the crypto work system. And they try to set up Bitcoin, but Bitcoin cannot be controlled. This bitcoin is controlled by all existing Bitcoin users around the world. Large demand can make Bitcoin rise very high. But Bitcoin can also experience a very sharp decline. Until now, the government does not legalize Bitcoin because the selling value cannot be stable.

Although Bitcoin hasn't been authorized yet, we can still access it and can make great profits.

they just shouldn't

For a simple reason, they can't go against the people who put them in the position.

The government has to be concern for the majority of people, bitcoin is not harmful to people, it's just a payment system but it's valuable, in fact the government can also benefit this while it helps is people, so banning it proves that the government that are governing our country are incompetent.

As per my knowledge in Canada one can pay tax in crypto and in new zealand also allowed to give salaries in crypto

https://www.coindesk.com/new-zealand-tax-office-makes-it-legal-to-pay-salaries-in-crypto

Thats true no govt has made Bitcoin transactions illegal. Even China where BTC mining has been banned I believe people are doing BTC transactions. This may be a big manipulation. BTC value is stable for last many days after touching year's low, there is no new money flowing into BTC, any statement in favor of BTC can increase its value drastically and there may be situation which may get out of control. Bitcoin will not be declared an illegal asset I believe.Lets see what is written there for its future.

I suspect the "unregulated" internet is one of the major obstacles. I guess the way the internet functions today would make controlling  Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies very difficult.

They probably calculated that people would resist any "early" attempt to take full control of the internet for better regulation of cryptocurrency. Just my opinion.

It is the ideal picture or world where government think about or take care of its citizens. ))))) In my opinion all governments of different countries first of all think first about the interest of governmemt and people who have such an authority in order to have an affect on different processes in country - political, financial and so on. Bitcoin and Blockchain is a high risk for lots of government institutions and is a bit risky for lots of citizens as well, the first are afraid to lose control of different processes, the second are afraid to lose their assets. Too many factors do not work or organized for real legalization of BTC and crypto in whole. But lots of countries do not forbid the crypto and people can buy it or sell in some way.

Maybe even the government see the benefit of it that is why they cannot illegalized it, also it is hard to do so because it works all over the internet. People are transferring and making transactions more faster. Though some used it on illegal terms, there are more who used it legally that could be affected when the government illegalized it.

they cant illegalize a thing that they cant be owned  . bitcoin transactions are not owneable by someone else but its pubic and only being recorded on the blockchain . no cant modify its datas or values  not even the governments ,

when it comes to benefits  , bitcoin is indeed beneficial   . this is also the reason of why governments agree and help bitcoin to be adopted on most government related businesses like banks and other finance sectors  .

remember prohibition and moon shiners? Same logic apply - if you ban BTC it would significantly help adoption.  It would be the dream for those who cash out coins and buy coins illegally on main street.  Only this time, enforcement would be alot more difficult, dangerous and cost prohibitive.

Do not. Listem fud news mate, the proof I always make transaxtion bitcoin converting into from my online wallet through bank, regulation is under studying how bitcoin regulate to control the givernment their value and how to collection taxes if the regulation implemented.

More like they couldn't. Despite them banning bitcoin and crypto currencies in a country, they can't stop tgese users in their country since they can' track or pinpoint who's who. They should just let it be since it is an unstoppable force they can't deny. They can ban the way it want it, it will keep on going.

Yes, just look at Japan... Nope, not affected. And their people know their coin is devalued 2% every year...

Meanwhile in Venezuela... ok lets not talk about this place (the coin lost 5 zeroes in 9 months, and its getting faster).

Bitcoin and the Blockchain technology were designed to be decentralized, thus no single authoritative body owns full control over the technology hence makes them almost utterly impossible to be stopped especially with their transactions. Bitcoin transactions are not controlled by governments and in fact no governments will have control over them. The transactions are controlled by the senders and receivers of Bitcoin on the market.

When talking about Japan, you can't ignore the fact that the Japanese Yen has been one of the most deflationary currencies in the world. During the past five decades, the exchange rate of JPY (against the United States Dollar) has increased by approximately 200% (from 1$=300 JPY, to 1$=118 JPY). The Japanese Yen is a rare exception in the world, where most of the national currencies are inflationary in nature. This gives them enough freedom to accommodate Bitcoin.

In Venezuela, they have a highly inflationary national currency (which is worth less than the paper which is used for its printing). For this year, the inflation rate was estimated at 8,000,000%, and the government is desperate to get people use the national currency rather than alternatives such as the US Dollar, gold or Bitcoin. And this explains the hostility shown by the Maduro regime towards cryptocurrencies.

2% of devalue is not bad. Inflation is +5%


Unfortunate, because it would be a perfect opportunity for Venezuela to make crypto a reality and show what it is capable of. Giving it value since it has actual use and being the first country to use it.

I don’t think the government has reasons to tag bitcoin transactions as illegal and since it‘s discreet and can’t track down from whomever the transaction came from and it is decentralised; it still has no valid reason on to why it is illegal.

So far government has no power over bitcoins yet as it is on a decentralized platform and i feel it will gain more market power globally even though few countries banned them.. just like in the past when share market was introduced in the past it took lot of time for it be accepted by the public like wise its normal in the case of bitcoins aswell hence i don't think that the government has to make it illegal but it illegal in some countries to buy or trade on bitcoins as it is banned

Why havent governments removed capitalism, democracy, freedom of speech and rights to free association, all could be factors that oppose their particular politics but in most countries we respect the individual as equally capable and of worth to share these rights as any established elite.   The banning of Libra in France and Germany seems worrying to me not because I respected that likely standard for being actual crypto but if the public want to use something of no threat they should be able to, its another sign we do not have capitalism in many countries.
   It also highlights why centralized standards are not likely to be any different to the current status quo, we already have digital currency so whats labelled as new is not.    We could take an ironic positive for BTC that it underlines that not relying on any singular point of contact is not an optional feature but essential to its continued existence as many countries drift into strange territory of negative rates, absolute control of interest rates for the reason of perpetual debt funding fiscal budgets.


I thought that, they might even accidentally implement something of worth to the public but they had a firm reign on Petro from the start and there was never a chance for free enterprise to be aided by that blockchain.    It wasnt decentralised in any way, I wish crypto was of more use in Venezuela but I dont hear enough positive stories to think that so far.

Some countries have recognized Bitcoin and can be used as a means of payment at merchants. It is difficult for the government to ban the use of Bitcoin because Bitcoin is a tool for peer to peer transactions. The government should regulate Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency and take advantage of cryptocurrency transactions, for example by taking taxes

China only did that just to play politics like the way Facebook played politics with most of us as regards their own Libra coin, and they were all against every advert on cryptocurrency in their page while they were actually planning on their, when china came up with that idea of banning miners, I knew they were really up to something and I guess they are doing that to limit the strength of mining other coins since majority of the mining was from their country, while they give chances to their own coin.

If they ban mining, how do they intend to mine their own cryptocurrency that they are working on, because they cannot show that sign of being biased to ban other mining while there is going on within the same country.

The banks like JP Morgan are getting in on their version of crypto, and so are companies like Facebook, Telegram, and alike. They will secure faster transactions, although they will remain centralized. It could be that the governments are simply hoping that new users will just go for those centralized versions of crypto, and that Bitcoin and real cryptocurrencies will just end up forgotten.

Government could want that but they cannot force the people, some believe that the centralized format is corrupt, and bitcoin being decentralized offers transparency to people and that is why we are investing and holding on it.

Bitcoin could not be fast now, but the growing number of users of LN is a good sign that sooner people will eventually adopt.
There are a lot of things we can improve with bitcoin, and not only bitcoin because we also have great altcoins in the market, and therefore we should protect this decentralization against centralization.

In my country, bitcoin is not yet legalized not treated as an illegal one. The government is just fair enough seeing that there are more potentials that bitcoin will be adopted soon because of the growth of users every year. This is the reason why some few banks in my country have been starting to advertise bitcoin because of its unstoppable positive patronage from the people. With this, banks will come to integrate bitcoin as part of their transactions so that they can still serve those future bitcoin users even if the government itself has not yet finally legalized and adopted bitcoin.

The government realizes the economic effects that cryptocurrencies brought about. What they can only do is to implement rules and regulations to control transactions since its anonymity has serious legal implications.

I doubt that the government would ban bitcoin even in the long run as they also recognize the technology behind it- the blockchain. This type of innovation can be the future of currency and I also think that they are studying and carefully analyzing on how they can apply it to modern transactions.


Even if big companies (such as the ones you mentioned) create their respective coins, I doubt that bitcoin would be eliminated in the face of the earth anytime soon. A centralized coin will defeat the very purpose on why bitcoin was sought for- the anonymity and elimination of p2p transactions.

As said, the governments have no solid reasons to make Bitcoin illegal. Bitcoin transactions cannot be banned as well because it is decentralized which makes it under no control of any centralized or single authoritative body. Bitcoin will be rather legalized with time as its adoption grows gradually. The people will tend to understand and appreciate the principles and benefits of Bitcoin and this is where the governments will stand with no choice than to legalize it.

Simply because they have no resources and technology to track every of bitcoin transactions and link it to the people. Unlike traditional payment system, everything in bitcoin transaction happens between P2P and without any intermediaries. Though it may be possible to track ones while buying bitcoin with fiat or selling with fiat, it's hard to track what happens in between.

That would make the system pretty much regulated and people would not like government snooping on their money. Its the reason why bitcoin was created. The bad effect is the attempted tax evasion and monitoring by officials on big whales. Linking it to people again means decreased safety of those people and attempted extortion.

But legalizing bitcoin trading and transacting is not related to this. The effect would be good since people are accepting and using it as an alternative to traditional fiat currency. We might see economic stability compared to the national debt that keeps on increasing.

I think the reason why the government still did not want the cryptocurrency to be legalized because of many issues that it sometimes using in gambling, sometimes buying of illegal drugs, or anything that against the law. This reason can affect the decision of the government whether they will legalized the crypto or not.

I don't understand the topic. How is it possible for the government to ban bitcoin transactions? At the most, they can ban the conversion of cryptocurrency to fiat cash, or the use of bank accounts for cryptocurrency trading. But how are they going to refrain someone from doing a digital transaction using cryptocurrency? It is like banning the use of emails and social media.

And even if they come up with some sort of stupid ban, how they are going to implement it? The Bitcoin Blockchain is 100% decentralized and it can't be destroyed. The government can't shut down the Blockchain by seizing the servers or arresting the users. Because it is not a physical asset and is independent of users and machines.

Nice point. Government can only interfere after end-users convert crypto into their local currency. The jurisdiction is vindicated within the government laws. But in terms of actual bitcoin where decentralized system is being implemented, there's no chance for the government to stop the transactions since it's between machines. The only way to prevent the citizen of that country is if the government will stop the use of internet access. From that point, everything around crypto chain will not be able to facilitate.

There are many factors why government wasn't able to consider bitcoin transaction as illegal. One of the factor is that they are earning from it, most of the governments that legalize or accepts crypto currencies especially the bitcoin is that they are benefiting from it.

Though it can be use in shady transactions as what you have said like alcohol and drugs but not all the governmets are thinking like this one. They are also considering the benefits that they will get upon accepting it like taxes that they get from big exchanges that were launch in their country and etc.

I don't know what reason is on your country is, but on my country, I think the reason is that our government here doesn't fully acknowledged bitcoin yet. Yes obviously they know about it, but I think for them it isn't really affecting the country that much. They are doing those things when they acknowledge it and if they think that these kinds of transactions are illegal, but even though it can be one because of its decentralization, they don't still yet recognized bitcoin as a major factor in the, commerce or in the country.

Well I know a few countries banned the usage of bitcoins entirely. Not even on people in the country is eligible to make use of bitcoin and even buying it is illegal. There are few countries where bitcoin is banned and not available to the public like Saudi Arabia and a few more countries. Then the rest of the countries in the world are free and legal to use bitcoin in any way they want too.

They can use bitcoin on the internet and bypass the law that they had. Using a VPN to change IP addresses is a very easy thing to do.
But here is the fact why most governments banning cryptocurrency and once you abide, you were put in jail. Well, most of the reason why governments illegalized bitcoin transactions because of the drug lords, criminals and terrorist that are transacting through bitcoin and the government has no access on it the reason why they don't get caught.

The reason why haven't governments legalized bitcoin transactions because of illegal activities that are happening such as scams and frauds, that is why there are a lot countries who banned bitcoin like china and etc to avoid this kind of illegal acts. I think it will be better if we can remove every illegal activities in crypto, so that the governments in every country will start to legalized every bitcoin transactions.

There are two reasons behind why governments have not made Bitcoin transactions illegal until yet:

1. It isn't that easy to Completely stop transactions:We all know weed is illegal but how far has government been able to stop it's circulation in even the top tier cities of States. Bitcoin is pretty similar too. Declaring bitcoin transaction illegal would actually have no impact because it is already impossible to trace them as of now. Recently there might have been a bit uprise in such tracing due to KYC of exchanges but still core transactions of btc over a private key wallet are absolutely untraceable.

2. Political Reasons: Let's face it biggest money launders in our world are the political leaders and political parties who regularly receive millions in form of undisclosed donation and bribery. This money is definitely fed into the crypto system and comes out clean after the process. This is another reason why government is a bit lethargic at banning crypto as their own business could stop.

Due to anonymity and decentralized aspect which is the main reason why most government do really hate up or oppose bitcoins existence.
Anonymity is one of the primary reason where these feature can be used up by people neither on good or bad ways without being detected.

We have seen countries already banned up Bitcoin/Crypto due to these reasons but somehow there are other countries do the opposite side.

It is not completely illegal, they can't completely shut down bitcoin because it is decentralized, what's happening here is they are banning all of the access you could have to earn bitcoin, like mining, trading, just like what happened in China, in other words the stars are always up there but you can't see it because of clouds, I hope you are getting my point of view.

The Government are just spreading nonsessencial informations that are most misleading to discourage the public to adapt cryptocurrency, because in some countries, bitcoin is a threat. There is a rainbow always after the rain, because the countries where bitcoin is legal is more than the countries who hates it.

Its so easy to change IP address using VPN, but even if they change their IP if they get bitcoin how are they suppose to withdraw it, its illegal, no one will try to have a private company or any financial services to provide the exchange of bitcoin to their own fiat.

Blockchain is an uninterruptible system. Even God cannot intervene in the blockchain. It will continue until there is only one video card running for mining in the world. Governments do not have the luxury of judging it legally or illegally. It can only control cashouts. Shitty FOMO

Well I think the right question is “Why Would the Government Made illegality about Bitcoin”? Yeah they are turning to banned in time and some governments treat as how bad crypto can bring but they are all wrong because as we can all see ,Bitcoin is helping the world to make it easier and accessible to the people there’s nothing in this world that ever created such like this and in future this will be proven,

Well you’re perfectly correct and blockchain will be with us forever no matter what they do,no matter what they care.

Actually, some countries do prohibit using these cryptocurrencies. The problem lies on how the government will restrict its usage on a large scale. Users can use Virtual Private Networks, on top of untraceability of Bitcoin transactions, making it difficult for governments to restrict it.

The benefits of restriction is somehow good, anonimity is sacrificed for further insurance for thefts and crimes. But the whole network cannot be really stopped as of now. In order to stop it, every single node must be completely shut down, since its decentralized and each one has a copy of the ledger. It's like a mesh that even if stopped at a region, it'll find its way using different route to make transactions possible and therefore, uncontrollable by centralized institutions.

Many people use bitcoin name to make some scam investment project, we found many investment scam project using bitcoin as their name to get many investor and government want to keep the people lost money in scam project using bitcoin as their their project name, I got many scam cases using bitcoin as investment name.

So far I know about this issue is that some of the countries government is trying to recognize and regulate Bitcoin in recent time but it's not possible at all, I think Government can only declare it as a legal or illegal process but can't it stop because it's based on the decentralized system. so this issue is not in hand of any government. but this scenario has been changed in recent time, many countries are putting their head in this blockchain system and they are taking it a very close observation. Some countries also think about Blockchain's future and closely stay in touch with Bitcoin. but I can't understand why the government is not trying to make understand that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are making the process of payment easier and secured. Who knows when they will realize...?

The lack of control in circulating the digital currency is one of the reasons why other government is not in favor of cryptocurrency. And yet they also know the advantages of crypto that’s why it is hard for them to illegalize it.
In some countries like China and Russia they banned bitcoins and altcoins, however they are planning to have their own crypto which benefits their own state and yet be control, they are trying to innovate a centralized cryptocurrency. It’s like hitting two birds in one stone, they create a well-timed modern digital currency which they can flow into and manage, at the same time it has a huge advantage in their fiat currency and economic progression.

The banning of certain is understandable because it may have some conflicts on their values and tradition, but for pushing to illegalized the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by government? Maybe possible but as far I had observed just like in my country the government is willing to enter the crypto world and provide ways for those to be use in transaction that was done in the country.

In my country there is no prohibition on transacting cryptocurrency or Bitcoin because the government will include blockchain technology in the government so there is good for me too, but who knows when it's officially in detail.

How can they ban the bitcoin and its transaction if there is no identity behind it?
Who are they will be cathing? that is why they hate to have this in their country. they can't monitor the money of their citizens.
Banning Bitcoin is like putting wall to sea, whatever you do the water will come.

During this time what happened in my country is the government does not allow bitcoin to be used as a means of payment, but they legalize bitcoin as an investment instrument included in the commodity market.
The government regulates and they continue to prevent it from being used as an instrument of crime.

Because banning cryptocurrency would hurt a country more than it would actually help. In order to ban cryptocurrencies, you would need to heavily restrict the internet. I think there isn’t much governments can do to stop Bitcoin, we’re already past the point of no return.

Without any control government will not legalize or will do their best to have restrictions, your arguments regarding to why government hated this system is considerable, they need to look for alternatives to still have the full control of their economy with this additional system where citizens of any countries have freedom to do transactions without a trace would be a very tough job from the government.
Additional problem is there's no way to ban this chain entirely, probations might be applied but banning  completely  will be hard to implement.

Government haven't illegal bitcoin transaction because could have move all of money transaction become bitcoin transaction, many people will use bitcoin than money because always can increase profit with higher price of bitcoin, many country have stop and make war with bitcoin to illegal of bitcoin as transaction.