Bitcoin Forum

today I read this shocking news:

Binance is not authorized to operate in malta financial regulator says (https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-is-not-authorized-to-operate-in-malta-financial-regulator-says)

This means that the history of Malta being friendly with cryptos is far from being true, that is, we are still walking very slowly in relation to convincing governments to accept bitcoin. I wonder how this story will end?

According to the statement (https://www.mfsa.mt/news-item/public-statement-2020/), this isn't the first time the MFSA has said they don't regulate Binance. They are apparently "reiterating" it, although I can't say I remember that.

Something tells me that EU regulators are questioning the MFSA in regards to AMLD5 requirements as they relate to Binance. Malta is either washing their hands of the situation, or Binance wasn't being entirely truthful about "moving" to Malta in the first place.

Considering it as the biggest exchange in the market it is interesting how they are going to deal these situations, these resembles the Liberty reserve situation when Costa Rica denied their license and then the shit storm started and ended up getting confiscated. CZ been the loud mouth he is i am waiting to see his response.

CZ just put out a statement (https://eng.ambcrypto.com/binances-future-in-malta-in-doubt-after-mfsa-disowns-exchange/):


That's kind of shady. The entire ecosystem has been repeating that Binance is based in Malta for the last couple years. They never thought to correct that apparent misinformation?

Examples:
Malta Today: Why world leader crypto exchange Binance moved to Malta (https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/business/business_news/93170/why_world_leader_crypto_exchange_binance_moved_to_malta#.XlAla_ShfDc)
Bloomberg: World's Biggest Cryptocurrency Exchange Is Heading to Malta (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-23/the-world-s-biggest-cryptocurrency-exchange-is-moving-to-malta)
Fortune Magazine: Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance Moves to Malta, Where the Prime Minister Is Welcoming It With Open Arms (https://fortune.com/2018/03/23/binance-bitcoin-exchange-cryptocurrency-malta/)

I was wondering why Binance wasn't responding to AMLD5 requirements. There's the answer -- they aren't operating from the EU at all.

Malta in specific has a history of having corrupt officials. They are indeed very crypto friendly, hell, they even outright sell passports. They get fines from EU for being too liberal with selling EU rights to the highest bidders, but obviously their profits are higher. I bet that this time around they say so about Binance because of some schematics that would require the exchange to pay more directly to the government.

Bitcoin doesn't need to be accepted by governments for it to function. That's among its core values.

There must be some changes to their stand to crypto business after all exchanges are making money and if more exchanges are choosing Malta due to their lose-tight regulation, it could be a reason Polo and others come to set up an office as well. It really look like every time they go elsewhere the government will be after them. Looks like a political issue. So where will binance go now if they are to go where crypto isn't heavily opposed?

This is not just a political related issue but more about money IMO. There is no such related issue before and I think crypto projects are welcome in Malta and quite it looks different by now. This regulatory board may have to chase something for crypto owners and giving no option for them to follow the rules or have money under the table to play. Maybe I was wrong but in the current situation, I think they are looking it to happen since knowing that crypto is a growing market and these people would like to get some share also.

Are we really slowing down? No, the adoption process do really takes time before making it to the real world, it is not instantaneous just because the time is good. It is clear to us now that we are going to use a digital currency in the future, as fiat currency or bank notes will be a threat to our health security. What government is doing is testing its job to fully put it under the law and regulate it under their hand.

Politics, this is maybe the very reason why such thing is happening in Malta. I don't know that much with Malta but it seems like they already lost their patience or lost something huge with crypto like projects or investment. Money talks figuratively, maybe there are businessmen who already commit mistake with running crypto and does not want it to be a thing in Malta. I'm trying to conclude what is happening in Malta because this might be the regretful part in the future when we are all using crypto by any means coz major countries like Russia is already testing some platform and creatimg laws for cryptocurrency.

I don't think this is everything to do with Malta becoming unfriendly toward crypto or has been misleadingly appearing to be friendly toward crypto all this time. It may be possible that the replacement of PM Muscat will have an effect to its crypto-friendly environment if the new sets of officials are really apprehensive about being too open and friendly to crypto. But for as long as the crypto-friendly laws of the territory are there not at all repealed, Malta remains to be a haven for crypto companies.

The way I see things, it is on the part of Binance that everything falls short. I guess Binance is not really interested to comply with everything that the government is asking. Not to mention that they seem to be maintaining a mysterious existence, and they very much prefer it. They seem to be content with the status quo until they are called out for noncompliance or that they are operating illegally. It is only when things like this happen that they come out either defending themselves, brushing aside the news as FUD or misleading, or making another way out.

Looks it was actually like that. They probably don't thought of it that crypto business is going to be big or as it is right now and they were open before with such business like Binance until they've noticed that they should tighten or at least revise some of their regulations regarding establishing business on their jurisdiction.

Binance's statement must be clear as well, I don't know who's telling the truth and we will see where this is going.

Wow, i am surprised as well, all along i thought Binance had acquired some form of regulatory documents from Malta hence making it a bit safer to trade on its exchange platform other than the others. I think CZ has to really clear this out with his entire Binance Community because this is not good and could bring up a whole lot of speculations against the entire Binance Ecosystem.

The problem is :-
*In many countries like China , people can barely speak up
*Even if you hire people to file a case against Government , the lawyer won't know on what basis are you supposed to handle the case ! Because there are barely any laws governing them.
*The government always makes hype about the negative things regarding the cryptocurrencies but no one cares to even speak about the positive one's.
*The hackers and scammers might not realize it now but they , are indirectly decreasing the price of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies , these scams and negative news makes people more wary and Government more negative.

I must admit that I am also quite surprised that the truth they have presented to us over the years is actually a very well packed lie. Binance never actually had headquarters on Malta, but it was "spiritual headquarters." by Ted Lin, Binance’s Chief Growth Officer, whatever that means.

I’m not sure it’s a positive business practice, but why would anyone hide his headquarters for years, and why they refuses to say it today? I wouldn't be surprised if their headquarters are actually in China, considering that they announced their return there and cooperation with the Chinese government in launching that new China cryptocurrency.

It seems that after Malta is got a new government, things started to change to the detriment of the liberalization proclaimed by Malta as a crypto paradise. This is no surprise to anyone, Malta is an EU member state and has received more warnings that it cannot put things contrary to EU law/s.

What I think here is the government is trying to buy careful about making haste to accept in totality with bitcoin. They feel the right to protect the citizen and this is why it looks like it is difficult to convince the government. Before we have a genuine legal backing from government, it will take more time.

Cryptocurrency is one of the fastest-growing transaction for over the world, and we want to make some adaptation into the environment in the world. Today some people would like to make some investment with the use of crypto, and that was a piece of good news because there are now many people who appreciate the use of crypto. We all know that this kind of process makes a more straightforward transaction and also secured it is lessen having too much queue management still we want this and made a payment to our country. However, there is a problem; yet there are few countries that do not wish to accept the use of crypto, and their officials restrict some of those. Still, there is a lot of processes before a system will allow into a particular country because they need to check the security, ability, reliability and stability to make sure there are no future errors. Hoping they will now accept the use of it and see the potential to make more money and also make a smoother transac

What makes the news shocking?Are you a Binance user?
The authorities in Malta can deny authorization to Binance and yet Malta can still be considered a crypto friendly country.If Binance isn't meeting certain requirements,it's perfectly normal for the authorities to refuse to give them a license.I'm not familiar with the crypto regulations in Malta,but they don't just allow any company to operate there.
We will NEVER convince any government in the world to accept cryptocurrencies.All governments will stick with fiat money until the end of the current financial system.

A country being crypto friendly does not mean that anyone can do anything with crypto currencies. I don't know whats going on with Binance and Malta or the insides stories, but knowing about the stance of Malta on crypto currencies, I am pretty much sure that Binance is probably not meeting some sort of criteria for which the financial regulator of Malta isn't allowing them to operate on their country (though I thought Binance already operates from Malta. So are they operating illegally now?). And didn't they sign off a memorandum with Malta or something?

I'm certainly not shocked about an exchange being evasive about the region in which they are based.  That seems to be par for the course.  Try to keep your involvement with them to an absolute minimum if possible.

Nor am I at all surprised that certain parts of a regulatory framework in any given country can give conflicting statements to other parts of the regulatory framework in that same country.

Personally, I see it as more of a "them" problem than an "us" problem.  I suspect crypto will generally continue to operate in a legal grey area (and often moral grey area as well) in most countries for many years to come.  It doesn't particularly matter if the steps are slow, as long as we continue to make steps without sacrificing any of our fundamental values.  I'd be far more concerned if we were making rapid developments in government acceptance by undermining the foundations that make all this stuff work.  It's going to take time for governments to accept the way in which we do things.  That's only natural.

This mixture of truth, FUD and misconception kept Binance in the top of the list IMO. The misconception about their headquarters and the false impression most of us (including me) got about them being based in Malta gave many of their customers some belief that Changpeng Zhao moved his entire exchange to a crypto-friendly country, hence the false impression of safety has been created at the same time.

You guys need to wake up and understand the chances of convincing a state to accept Bitcoin are slight, especially if we consider top powers in the world (China, USA etc). It's just not gonna work - it's against their principle.

Probably it's because it's not their focus? Don't expect much on fast acceptance because, I mean why would the government give much attention on cryptocurrency acceptance in their country if they should be promoting their own currency? It's normal for a government to take it slow and in fact we should just be thankful that even if it's a slow progress, they still think of accepting cryptocurrency.

Although it's quite questionable since it's Binance that they didn't authorize but it doesn't mean that Malta isn't really a crypto friendly country just because they didn't authorize them to operate. They still have to consider things and they can't just accept and accept everything related to crypto to say that they are crypto friendly.

1) Is "convincing governments to accept bitcoin" a goal?
2) Malta didn't welcome crypto, it welcomed crypto's spinoff economic benefits for Malta.
3) When Binance implodes, the fallout will be immense.

I don't know, it seems really weird that pretty much the most solid exchange is based in a mysterious place. It was common knowledge that the headquarters were in Malta. It should be noted that the statement by the regulator does not deny it, it simply states that Binance is not regulated by it... I think we should wait for clarification from Binance before jumping to conclusions. As for Malta being crypto-friendly, this opinion has been undermined a couple of times before. Not everything is good there, see, for instance, this article. (https://news.bitcoin.com/malta-might-be-blockchain-island-but-dont-try-opening-a-crypto-bank-account/)
As for the question that names the thread, I believe that only through small steps any progress can be achieved when it comes to governments because they are naturally cautious.

Actually, sooner or later it is relative, especially for a new innovation that is very contrary to the existing system, many pros and cons, so that it requires adoption and adjustments long enough to actually prove effective in solving current problems. It's a kind of evolution, it can't be instant, it takes a long process, and a decade is still relatively short. So we just wait.

Why do wee need to convince the government to accept Bitcoin when in fact it is centralized and the concept of Bitcoin is decentralization. In a country where there is freedom and the legalities to utilize BTC, well I guess that is enough for us. It is for the people, the mass, and not the one at the top so instead of the government we convince the people below, in a democratic government the people holds the power. As long as I can freely use bitcoin in every transaction that I wanted to, then I am sticking with that.

We are not rushing everything especially if crypto currencies are not that suitable yet for adaption like the disadvantages of crypto currencies where every government is being aware of.

Crypto currencies needs an electricity to operate, how about those who have no electricity? This is only one of the hurdles that crypto currencies should solve first in order to be fully accepted by every governments. But don't worry, our generation is keep on evolving so time will surely come that digital currencies will fully replace fiat and we don't need to hurry about it. We need to be patience and wait for the right time because once the time will come that we can solve this hurdles then not only bitcoin will become fully accepted but also the other potential currencies.

Generally, I do not think that the government would be convinced to take some progress into the acceptance of Bitcoin. Primarily, the lack of democratic authority is the major reason why governments distrust the cryptocurrency. The government would prefer to stick with flat money as it is the conventional currency globally and they have major authority in controlling its flow and circulation. Now, friends, do not be impatient because this is a long process just like the acceptance of any other invention presented in the world. We have come a long way and we should continuously pursue it in our own ways to pique the interest of the majority.

I think that the governments of most developed countries will soon accept bitcoin too. There simply will be no other choice, and that’s logical. If we want to use bitcoin (more and more people use it, or at least know about it), then the government will have to take some measures.

Decentralization issues, market price instability and the likes. Bitcoin, as a digital currency, still has issues in the eyes of governments despite of the fact that it is being used already to some countries. But we cannot blame them because as time goes by, more people would see the benefit of blockchain technology. Its popularity is slowly spreading right now which is a good sign of progress.
there will always be achoice. Keep in mind that it is not only Bitcoin that is a digital currency. There are already digital currencies aside from cryptos that are being widely used by many people.
Those countries who are not yet adapting blockchain technology are still having measures. One main thing I think is market price stability because using bitcoin perhaps, would engage an individual to investment, risk will then arise since its market price changes from time to time.

I agree with you, Bitcoin does not need recognition from the government because it is decentralized.  so don't expect too much that Bitcoin will be accepted and recognized by all the governments of countries around the world.. according to what I see, changes in the price of Bitcoin, 90% are influenced by "Pump" & "Dump" that happening in the market. cmiiw

do you foresee that happening soon or something? warning signs?

the interesting thing to ponder is that binance.com is crypto-only. there are 2 situations that come to mind re a government takedown:

-the BTC-E case. the fiat money was supposedly frozen and seized, but their cryptocurrency wallets were untouched. they were able to partially refund users that way, and spin up a new exchange---WEX.nz.
-the 1broker case. 1broker was also crypto-only. they reached an agreement with the USA government and were able to process full refunds to users.

so maybe the fallout from something like that wouldn't be so bad. you might be referring to insolvency or exit scamming though, which is obviously different.

I see what I perceive as red flags forming around Binance's ecosystem but, fear not, no Scam Accusation on the way just yet.
It has something of Enron about it.

Actually, the governments are afraid for recognising or accepting  bitcoin as a legal currency due to Blockchain's technology is so secure so they can't even control the transactions, that is main reason in my opinion, remember that every government prefers using their power on all the people, and it ca. be through a high value of taxes and other multiple ways of expoilation. In addition to that, we feel uncomfortable for using FIAT.

I'm just surprised that the Maltese government is only saying it now when Binance is actually operating for years now. It just makes me wonder if this is some kind of washing of hands by the government since now the European governing bodies are implementing strict sanctions with their AML procedures. Aside from that why they haven't apprehend them in the past? They are literally visibly operating under their noses and they haven't done anything about it? With their billion dollar operation and a known CEO at least they somehow did some investigation in the past.

I've always had this believe that hardly any national will fully back and encourage the activities of any cryptocurrency based project. With the corruption level rising across every nation especially the Africa, the full adoption of cryptocurrency will only trigger more fund looting that will leave no traces.

I just hope very soon,  governments and large scale organizations will see the better side of blockchain as a disruptive giant tech and implement it's potentials in providing real-life solutions. maybe that way, more Usecases will be rolled up for cryptocurrency rather than the speculative digital assets for taking off profits being perceived about it

In my opinion I think that because cryptocurrency typically comes hand in hand with autonomy is very difficult to convince the government how they're going to make a profit out of it.

Plus, having the authorities involved means that some money must get lost along the way to at leat pay for the salary, in part for those who will be overlooking things, and the infrastructure needed for surveillance in general.

Also, it is difficult to make these people think that this is the new way, when the new way is not being inclusive of their usual high-invested involvement.

Generational gap. Most politicians are old, and think they know all there is to know, new fanged things won't matter to them. Until they get slowly replaced, by people from the generation that DO know Bitcoin, will then slowly gain acceptance.

In fact this is the same problem with many bankers and old fashioned billionaires. Regardless of government acceptance, Bitcoin will work just fine, and people will still use it. For some people it has to be come evident that it is unstoppable, but until they finally realize that, they will still try to oppose it.

You are telling governments to accept a type of money they can no longer manipulate. This is like telling taxi drivers to accept autonomous cars. The young people will happily embrace it while the old drivers start dwindling down until the profession is no more.

Do you remember when photography had to be developed in special shops, dark rooms, etc? Whatever happened to that business? Kodak, Polaroid, etc? (skip the brand being resold and reused by modern companies).

As with many things in technology, something came that made the previous thing obsolete, and a transitional period occurs until the legacy thing is no more.

It could also be that they just didn't give a single shit about the crypto space until now. People always seem to come up with the most ridiculous conspiracy theories, but in most cases, things aren't like that at all.

In the end, people should be doing research before using an exchange. Binance's core business model is to operate outside the regulatory field, because that's where most of their profits come from. This is how they became the world's largest exchange by volume and userbase. I don't recall them having done anything else from their .com platform.

Time will tell how their US platform will perform, but I doubt it will challenge Coinbase or Bitstamp in any way.

I think cryptocurrency will eventually have its time because in the following generations, those people who are in charge in the regulation and higher ups in the government will be the new generation when time comes. If only problems like stability of value and a lot of fraudulent actions could be taken care of, Im sure it will be a good start for bitcoin and other coins.

We, the bitcoin users should take the prominent steps about making the government aware of this bitcoin system. This is the era of social media, which, perhaps is the most dominant media of this time. So, social medias should be used to make the government aware of the advantages of bitcoin.

I think, the governments are already aware about crypto and blockchain. for all we know, they have their own staffs digging this kind of work. crypto industry is already amassing billions of dollars and the numbers are showing in major crypto websites, so i don't think the governments need a lecture on that. they are also aware that there are giant companies integrating blockchain technology within their operations so it is very hard not to notice what is happening in crypto space. i guess, the hard part is from the government's end, how they can have the full control of having crypto in regulation?

Big things take time.
It has been a decade already since the launch of bitcoin yet many countries have still not accepted bitcoin.
But did that stop bitcoin from growing more ?
Whether or not Binance is operating from Malta or not is a different thing but the governments will have to deal with the crypto situation some day.
Crypto is here to say and the governments will just have to adjust with it by regulating it.
It will take time but it will happen.

In 1985, AT&T hired a consulting company to figure out how these new "cell phone thingys" would grow by 2000.

The think tank came back with a figure of 950,000 users.   The real total was 109,000,000.

Bitcoin is not growing as fast as other advancements because the technical hurdle is large.

I don't think that's even a possibility here. Maybe Binance is one of their highest tax paying companies in their country and they seem to don't care about it? These kinds of things really don't fly under the radar not unless they are pretending to do so. There is still really a big chance that as of right now they just want to steer clear away from Binance when it comes some regulatory problems happen in the near future for them that is why they don't want their country's name in association to this company which is crazy to think because instead of protecting their own money making company they want to cleanse their hands away from it.  If things will get worst then this will be a big lost for Malta if they somehow forced Binance to move out from their country to conduct their operations.

Yes, it's very impossible to happen since the government is very traditional, they can't easily adapt to the changes in our technology.

I really hate the fact that the government has departments that focuses on science and technology but less attention given to it, and more likely they don't want technology advances in the country.

But when it comes to advance in the military, they adapt it really fast. So weird... 

However as good citizens we must follow government regulations. Transparency, which is one of the advantages of cryptocurrency, seems to go backwards with the government, so that makes it quite slow to accept, in my opinion. As long as the government still provides concessions for the use of cryptocurrency as long as it does not interfere with government-controlled economic activities, that alone makes me grateful, at least not completely banned. So we have to really understand the law, which is prohibited and allowed. The government is also open to cryptocurrency because this is an extraordinary technological progress, it's just that most governments are still rethinking the bad side so that some have given certain regulations.

There is nothing surprising. Governments may allow cryptocurrency circulation in their country, but they will never actively support it. Now they are massively working on the issue of their national stable coin. They will maintain their stable coins; they simply do not need a decentralized cryptocurrency. Only under the pressure of people can the government make any concessions with respect to decentralized cryptocurrency.

while it is true that there are many countries whos letting people use Bitcoin and other crypto currencies but not giving a open support instead giving advice people how risky investing in here and be always aware of that.
but countries are only afraid of decentralization but i believe that more of them are looking secretly on how crypto may help economy,and sooner might consider adoption.and also we are just 10 years and going so let us not expect that faster outcome ,we need to exceed efforts to help the community and not just looking for profit because in future we are all the one that will benefits from our deeds.

Well, a small correction about this. Not all government hate cryptos, other countries they allow people to use crypto or Bitcoin which is very common as of now. The only reason why governments slowly step to convince in adapting crypto because they think that it is perhaps harming the banking financial system and people can make fraud on it and or even money laundering. Indeed, those countries that did not prohibit people to use Bitcoin but it's unclear acceptance. Regulations will make Bitcoin become acceptable to the government.

Why do we have a slow pace of convincing the government in bitcoin .. the answer may be because, they are not crypto friendly yet, it's not their priority after all, that's why they slowed down bitcoin acceptance, we just need to be patient and wait, because I'm sure they are considering the problem. .and I am very sure in the future they will definitely accept it ..