Bitcoin Forum

One thing about authoritarian/totalitarian governments is that they want to control all aspects of the county that they currently reside in with an iron fist. As a result, the people there are most likely restricted to following the current dictator or group of people in charge and are unwilling to step out of line due to the fear of consequences. Cryptocurrency can probably bypass that control Considering that a majority of places with dictators can still access the Internet via a VPN or other means they can use cryptocurrencies.
   
An example would be in China, considering that their government controls its economy and has a lot of restrictions on what people can and cannot do with the currency (RMB) that they use. Cryptocurrencies can bypass that control as they are not controlled by any government and can keep the identity of its users a secret when they do transactions this can result in people using cryptocurrency being able to freely trade without any restrictions on how much they use. As a result, cryptocurrencies allow people in oppressed regions to become freer as they are not restricted in terms of money and trade.

It is one of the major benefits of cryptos, which runs on the free market. Probably that's the reason why we are seeing a great spike in bitcoin volume from Hong Kong where people are protesting against the Chinese dictatorship! See the below link for reference,

https://beincrypto.com/localbitcoin-trading-volume-in-hong-kong-spikes-to-highest-levels-ever-recorded/amp/

It seems like Hong Kong people are trying to safeguard their wealth from the Chinese government against their greed for land! One live example!

A good benefit of crypto over state-owned and regulated currencies. One does not simply halt the use of a decentralized currency no matter how strong or powerful he/she is in a country/state. Even if the dictator is to impose exclusivity in what currency to use, no one can really know if a citizen disobeys the rules and goes in to use other currencies other than the one that is advertised by the government, which is pretty good in order to preserve one's wealth. There's beauty in disobedience, in a way that it helps the little folks, and luckily, cryptocurrency aids us in this case.

I guess that's the reason why government are not in approval and legalizing crypto because they still want to maintain control, power is toxic and absolute power is even worse, if the Chinese government has such control over it's citizens they wouldn't want to let go so easily, the government know what they are up against.

This is true censorship over internet is sort of a myth. India banned porn sites around but they are still accessible for people as far as i know. Chine has banned Facebook but I can see a whole lot of chinese people advertising Alibaba over facebook. So censorship completely is not possible but thing is people would only be willing to bypass censorship if it's for their self motive. Btc as of now doesn't provides these people any self motive for which they would be willing to bypass this security so this is why in such instances you would normally see dictators being successful in implementing controls.

You have made a valid point up until mentioning that China is running a dictatorship government. Its ok to disagree with the policies of government but these accusation is really unfounded. For a fact, its not only China that is against crypto currency and its not the only country with citizens looking to get away from the grasp of government, its happening around the world even with countries that it can be claimed to be a free country. But really, not to post as an advocate of government but when they make regulations, its not for those that are doing the right thing but against those that would do the wrong thing. Putting that into perspective, government grouse against bitcoin or crypto is not to target individuals with just few amount of money or assets in cryptos but for those mega millionaires who would prefer to hide their resources there or corrupt politicians who would see crypto as a safe have or to the extreme people who want to cause trouble. And mainly because crypto does not discriminate, everyone is welcome.

Yes, accepting the legality of crypto as a decentralized type of money and trading would be for a corrupt/dictatorship to say "here, now we don't have full power over you and your family".
The worst kind of government is the one that centralizes everything. China is such a government. And even a major country that is not a dictatorship like the USA is afraid of crypto because they're afraid of losing power over the people. 

If government restricted the usage of cryptos then bypassing their laws is criminal offence so you need to decide first are you sure to do this?

Better let the governments to realize why government is important for the people than by passing it with some tools.Even if we use VPN we may not get full crypto useage if all the countries restricted it.

It is a good point the op is making. However, I'd be talking about Bitcoin and a couple of other cryptocurrencies rather than all of them. Well, it actually depends on the definition of cryptos. The thing is, many are calling Ripple, Tether and Libra cryptocurrencies, and they would not really help to bypass dictatorships, because they lack decentralization. If we talk about decentralized cryptos or even those with anonymous transactions like Dash, they can help people to fund people or projects without the government knowing that, as well as keep their own money safe and out of sight. However, dictatorships also tend to have strict legislation regarding cryptocurrencies, and in some cases, it's just not worth the risks to use them.

Yeah, now we know that government will have a hard time letting go of the control they have over others, btc gives back power to the people and this what the government is against, they are not done dictating your life and keeping tabs of you and your activities.

So that is why Bitcoin is moving forward it's hard for the government to stop embracing this technology, let's admit it Chinese are good in venturing to new things so they will not let anything to stop them from embracing this, because of the promised profit, I don't want to speculate but majority of people are driven to this technology because ot it's profit feature.

This is a great post and reflects some of the issues that cryptocurrencies will probably be able to fix due to their nature, well done op.

China has been more lax with their regulations in the recent times, and we saw this with Binance being able to operate in China again, which is kinda digging themselves into a deeper whole because of the features that crypto's are able to offer.

It's true that the average person might not bother, but the option is still there should anyone truly need it. If a dictatorship is breathing down your neck, legality would hardly matter to you, and they can't do shit about it.


Not everyone has the privilege of living in a country with a non-authoritarian government, unfortunately. For people like that, they have no choice but to take care of themselves, and that could entail breaking the rules a bit. Should they need Bitcoin, it's there, and not even the law can stop it.

That could happen, just take the recent movie about bitcoin, they portrait it as illegal that used in shady activities. And that could be a valid reason for the government to restrict the use of cryptos while honestly, not far to happen thus abuse.


I bet not all the countries will perceive like this as there are some government that is open and innovative when it comes in new technology.

You cannot bypass once the government will control all aspects of the country or there is an dictatorship that is happening. Everything can be seen by the government if they are going to do so,like for example they totally banned crypto currencies then they will surely create a group that will check everything about crypto currencies.

That is how powerful the government is, once all the government will totally banned crypto currencies then we don't have other option but to follow it or else we will be jailed or executed.

Doing what is prohibited is adventurous and cool until the state will take the law implementation to the most serious level with corresponding harsh penalty or punishment, and the whining and crying start. Lucky for many, authoritarian/totalitarian governments are strict but definitely not in all aspects. China was somehow like that when it banned ICOs, exchange platforms, and mining and whatever was crypto-related.

There was a post made here quite a long time ago during the height of all these ban implementations and he/she said that the ban was only harsh in the news. He/she was in China himself/herself and there was no feeling of clamping down on Bitcoin. People continue buying and selling Bitcoin, albeit limited on a peer-to-peer basis.

But there seems to be an advantage with digital technologies. They seem to be a lot wider universe than ours.

It's not possible to totally ban crypto-currencies, or restrict certain parts of the internet now though. Unless you implement extreme punishments for using crypto-currencies, and have people going around houses trying to find people who break these rules, it's very hard to close of sections of the internet with just rules.

VPNs and a wide variety of other applications exist and they are easily able to used to circumvent these laws and provide an escape for people under the rule of those governments.

Cryoto can indeed help mask users from the government but its existence could still hinder its development. Trading within banned countries are fine but people would rather trade freely without any possible risk in their assets and lives right? Countries that banned china impose penalties upon cryptousers and even if you know they can't find you, it'd still be on your mind and could potentially haunt you for life.

This is also why China really want to ban Bitcoin into a higher level.
Some can still use it out there and they cannot easily trace them.

Now, they are offering a new cryptocurrency which is centralized. Yes, they still want control over everything that you will do specially the transactions and your account to see how much you are keeping from them.

People needs to be enlighten about this. Oppression is not the key to one country's success. Not everything should be controlled. Just discipline.

Yeah as long as it is something they are in control of then why not! Not legalizing crypto works more in favor of the government,
how else can they monitor your economic status if they don't have control over it, even if they introduced a centralized crypto, will it be made mandatory on the people, if not, people can make a choice to use it or not,
If the government of China imposes such strictness on the people, being enlightened will do little to help the situation

Not just dictatorships, but really any country with long term economic issues, especially hyperinflation.

BTC can really be used to circumvent a lot of things, including acting as a store of value, preventing centralised debasement of currency, as well as moving funds overseas. For immigrants from countries with high levels of capital controls due to concern with capital flight, this could be particularly helpful.

This is something that BTC can do that no other FOREX, or even the centralised cryptos can do. There is no central point of attack that a government can look at and censor.

If we are living in a country and our government is governed by dictator then we should really stock up some cryptocurrency.  When you have cryptocurrency even if the government freezes your bank account you still have your cryptocurrency in your wallet then you can still freely move. You can also go out of the country without bringing a lot of money that can be monitored by the government since what you carry secretly are your private keys.  We have more freedom if we have cryptocurrency and even if the government bans cryptocurrency in your country you can just go out of your country and transfer to cryptocurrency friendly countries.

What if the country bans and makes it illegal to make any kind of transactions using crypto currencies? You see, the dictator over here didn't ban the currency itself, but was able to put a ban on the usage thus anyone using the currency is committing a crime. Even if they some how manages to stay away from the sight of the government, whats the use of buying it if they can't actually use it. Like none of the stores in their country will be willing to accept crypto currency. We need some better solution.

There still are ways to do it even with this restriction, although it'd be illegal and a big risk for anybody doing so.

We can't really help much countries like North Korea. They're going to have the same way of thinking no matter what, and it's the people that must rise against their own leaders if they want a change. It wouldn't be the first time it ever happened in the history.

Money means lots of things for the human beings. On the other hand, money means many things for the dictators because they need money to control people through force. The dictators can take our money through printing money and increasing inflation or taxes. We, the majority, even won't be noticing this for a long time. Through cryptocurrencies, goverments and dictators can't print anyting and they can take our money. So, most of their power will be lost.

Having money that's able to be controlled by you, and only you opened a lot of doors for people living in these oppressed places.

Want to get out? Spend some of your extra crypto-currencies and get on a plane and simply leave.

Scared of paying taxes? Since it's crypto, you can avoid doing that as long as you aren't cashing out and linking your fiat identity.

Want to move money overseas, but can't due to your country? Use crypto-currencies again!

You are telling us to go underground and participate in black market.    The only way to transact without exposing your identity is to have a p2p trade and that is kinda dangerous Imho especially if you are transacting in a huge amount of BTC.  Legal exchanges requires KYC which I guess majority of us have done already. And if  you are not allowed from moving out of the country then you are using back door strategy which is kinda dangerous.

Even peer to peer trading can be tracked if I am not mistaken, if you are going to transact using a known wallet address, you can still be known. What I know that is effective is use a mixer, it will totally hide your identity even if you transact huge amount of crypto.


It might be a rough decision, basically not all store or services are using cryptocurrency, and you can't even cash out because - as you said - you will be traced.

I don't think what he's saying is necessary a black market thing, going on sites and then doing P2P trades, even if they are in real life, isn't anything illegal, but it is on a grey line to be fair.

Using KYC on exchanges is broadcasting your every movement to the government and a lot of people want to stay hidden, and that's the only way possible with p2p trades.

But what if the authoritarian government restricted the usage of internet, only made it available to companies and not to the public? I just wonder if it's possible to happen. But without that scenario in mind, it's really easy to bypass government restrictions and censorship through these Virtual Private Network service providers. It's a step more to make than without restrictions but it's not really that of a hindrance to people that wants to transact crypto.

Even they want a change, people of NoKor can't do anything about it or it's the end of their lives. NoKor government is too brutal when it comes to people that go against them and they can hunt and kill you.

Basically, as long as we didn't connect our fiat account to any crypto transaction, we are still anonymous however we can't guarantee it for long as surely government will find a way to track any mysterious transactions and file a legal charge.

Don't belittle what they can do.

Nope. No matter what you do, you have to go through an ISP to get to the internet and that's where they can shut people down if they really want to.

It's possible to trasnact and deal with Bitcoin in those countries, just the stakes are much higher due to North Korea's reputation for being very harsh to anyone who breaks the law.

However, as long as you are able to use VPN's to hide your internet access and use none of your real information, and don't deal with traceable fiat payments, it's still possible to buy and collect BTC in those countries.

Seriously, the only way people can have their freedom is to have freedom from government taxation system.
That's why exchange serves an important role in this fight. Props to Binance (http://binance.com) OKEX (http://okex.com) and Huobi (http://huobi.com) for making this happens.

Lol advertising your favorite exchanges?
But you are right on that because exchangers are the only friend we have in that said situations ,so maybe others are saying that we can have freedom but the truth we are not because the government has power against our will
But they won’t right?because they are profiting from crypto so shutting this is the last resort they will do

Cryptocurrencies are a powerful weapon in hand of freedom advocates indeed. I hope that Bitcoin and crypto will be the final wave that will eradicate dictatorship from the Earth's surface. Just think about how wonderful would be our world if we would all be in a democracy. No more communists and dictatorship, just freedom and demos & cratos( from greek). However a harsh dictators might set high penalties for those ones who are caught using cryptocurrencies, thus making many people don't use them out of fear.

In that case you use Tails (https://tails.boum.org/) from a DVD (or usb stick). Update Electrum (https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-docs/blob/master/tails.rst) and use it from there. While you may not do purchases directly in bitcoin at shops, you can exchange for fiat only the minimum needed, do everything from Tails and they can never tell.

If they are prosecuting Tor users, use Tails in a public computer, for very brief amounts of time, and always change place. Or use random wifi access points (make sure your mac address is spoofed randomly, as most OSs seem to do by default nowdays).

If you want to know why buy bitcoin, the reason is simple: To preserve your savings. You might not see it now, but by the time you see it, it will be too late. Its best to have a portion of your savings in bitcoin, in case your fiat crashes, as most often happens when fools govern, fools that defy the economy and think printing will cure any budget deficit just fine, like it happened here, and in Zimbabwe a decade ago by the same kind of stupidity from the same kind of people.

Bitcoin, so you can understand it better, is money that is separate from the State. They cannot "control" it, so they fear it, but they cannot stop it. Just spread the knowledge, and you will see later how everything fits.

Oh and if you happen to leave the country, you won't have problems taking the money out. Or when they order the banks to give you miserable amounts of cash per day, like its done here. Eventually, you won't be able to survive if you just "obey their rules". Consider this your chance. If your "brilliant" ruler decides overnight to make everyone poor by messing the fiat and blame some other "enemy" country, you will have some cushion if you saved in bitcoin.

Now when you think you don't need it, is the time. Later, it is too late. Remember this, and act.

we shouldn't just think about the status or effect on how cryptocurrency can set the people free, some countries didn't consider legalizing it not because they want to keep track of their people, but to maintain the stability of their economy. We should be aware that people and government should still be united. Look on both sides, if it is for the good of many, then let them have their plan for crypto, but if we think they are oppressing and exceeding to their limitations, crypto is a very powerful tool to set us free.