Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin is now a long way since October 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto announced (https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/1/)the creation of a decentralized electronic money system to the world, posting an abstract of the whitepaper (http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf) and a description of Bitcoin to the cryptographer mailing list.

Bitcoin became known to the world since the 2010 slashdot article (https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/bitcoin-releases-version-03) which was the first publication in tech news about Bitcoin. Many of the early miners and investors found Bitcoin from this article created by bitcointalk user "teppy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=206)" and discussed in this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=234.0).
Next for Bitcoin was the integration of payments by Wikileaks (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2216.msg29280#msg29280)and the swarm that was heading towards Bitcoin. Since 2010 when Bitcoin gained recognition there has been an increased adoption initially as a payment method for online goods, Bitcoin enthusiasts even created physical Bitcoins (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5201940.0) with "casascius (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2676)" ordered by authorities to stop minting collectibles (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=217.0).

Bitcoin has been adopted as a payment method by major corporations including Microsoft, Wikipedia, AT&T, Overstock, Subway, Twitch, Virgin Galactic, and lately many more through Bitpay, PayPal, crypto debit cards, and more payment processors, although not directly in these cases as first the transaction has to settle in fiat cash.
The legality of Bitcoin was in question all this time, especially after the adoption of Bitcoin in darknet markets and high demand during the Silk Road (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4437773.0) days made Bitcoin gain infamy.

During the years, some countries put a blanket ban on Bitcoin, and others introduced restrictions in the use of Bitcoin as a currency and demands for declaration of all cryptocurrency possessions to the tax authorities.
Coin.dance has the world map of current Bitcoin Legality along with more information about each country about the Bitcoin legality and classification with links to valid news about each government decision to legalize, ban or restrict the use of Bitcoin in their country.



We see that most of the world is green for Bitcoin although some countries have strict regulations and demand declaration of Bitcoin ownership, taxation, and KYC. Other countries have a loose legal framework that is still undecided.
Regulating Bitcoin was always a big question as the decentralized aspect and financial freedom is something that escapes the mind of governments that are used in a Central Bank controlled financial system with limitations and restrictions, that excludes billions of people from the world economy.
With the full adoption of the internet, decentralized in nature, although most of our actions are on websites that are controlled by a few big corporations, some governments fear the financial inclusion, privilege, and freedom the decentralized money is offering to 7.6B people. Bitcoin is exactly this, a means to control your wealth without a bank, a government, a lawyer, or a central party that will authorize payments and transactions.

In my opinion no matter where we live, laws and regulations can change so it is better for us to keep protecting our privacy.
Also, I really don't care if Bitcoin is classified as money, commodity, or any type of asset. It can be called digital gold or something else, what matters most is the decentralization part which is the vehicle to financial freedom. The security of the network, the open-source nature that allows validation of the code, and the strong community that supports and develops together with bitcointalk forum are all helping Bitcoin adopted and becoming accepted worldwide.

Then why do we keep saying bitcoin isn't accepted according to that map bitcoin is gradually globalizing the world ,it just in certain regions who haven't heard of it and the restricted area ,
       Bitcoin is really making progress if they survey is accurate.

What could be the difference between restricted and illegal? they're most likely the same isn't or was illegal has a bigger consequences rather than the restricted countries. Looks like the country where Bitcoin is accepted is relatively high than country which considers it illegal.

If there's something I am glad about, it's that Bitcoin is starting not to be seen as the "criminal's paradise" currency anymore. Despite the entire attempt to artificially centralize and regulate something that is open-source and cannot really be centralized/restricted, the way people are starting to see BTC is a very positive side we shouldn't miss. The old days where everyone saw Bitcoin as a criminal currency will soon probably be long gone.

The sad thing is how people change their minds just because PayPal or other corporations adopt Bitcoin. It's almost like the vast majority of people blindly trust corporations just because they earned a spot in the global charts.. Sad.

Illegal means Bitcoin usage is prohibited while restrictions mean you can only use BTC in certain ways. During the pandemic we have social restrictions, not the illegality/prohibition of social interactions. You're restricted to meeting a certain maximum number of people only with masks on, etc.

The world is getting covered in full green in due time. This the world now a little more than a decade after Bitcoin was invented by someone who's not even known. Such a fast and fantastic growth to be considered.

It started out as nothing and then labelled as a criminal's currency and then turned into both a currency and asset accepted by the majority of the world's countries. That is a feat!


There is a thin line of difference but restricted is much better than illegal.

I wonder how the map changed from the very beginning. Do you have any videos or gifs?

What do you mean by Alegal? Sorry, I haven't heard that word and don't know the meaning of it! I assume, it shows the favorability of bitcoin legalization through this word.

In this case, the map may be correct! However, if that's not the case, then this map is bound to be incorrect! We can think about the legality of bitcoin only when the lawbook of that country has a definition of bitcoin to it! I am sure, a lot of countries doesn't have that kind of legal definition around bitcoin/cryptocurrency. If that can be considered, the map would look pretty much red or yellow!

I think based on the category of my country which is yellow.
restricted means that each user or owner of bitcoin is not allowed to exceed the example above 4 to 5 bitcoins,. because it is included in the money laundering law. This aims to avoid suspicion of the state rules that have been established. and for illegal it is clear that bitcoin is still not allowed to operate in the country, because in some cases the country is not ready to accept any other medium of exchange other than fiat currency. In other words, the power of fiat currencies is still above everything compared to digital currency exchanges.v

Yeah, it would be really interesting to see. Personally I am glad that the green zone is more wider than others. As for my country it is in green zone, it is good. May be I can not very surely say that it is completely accepted, as it is can be imagined - it is accepted like some kind of asset and even should be declared in declarations by residents of my country, but I can not say that crypto direction is being developed, or that the government actively helps to develop blockchain projects or crypto startups. Hope the situation will change one day for the really best scenario. And it would be great in a couple of years to see the world map mostly green coloured. .

You should have mentioned this in your post "Last updated 208 days ago."

The status of bitcoin in India is not restricted anymore. Bitcoin was banned in India for the past few years but quite recently the ban on bitcoin was uplifted in India.
Currently the status of bitcoin in India lies somewhere bitcoin legal and restricted since there is no law for bitcoin yet (though few websites state that bitcoin is legal in India).
People are free to use it at their own risk. Anyway OP should update the post with the above bolded part.

Good thing that you have posted the source. I have responded to change the status of bitcoin in India on that site as well.

yeah, that word caught me off cuard too, had to make a quick google search and found some infoabout it  on Wiktionary ^[1] (:

But judging by how Coin Dance uses this word on their list, i take it alegal means that Bitcoin is legal in those countries but regulations are not as harsh as those enforced in other countries but also not that light as the green-colored countries

for instance, the website lists bitcoin legality in Argentina is Neutral / Alegal, and given how this country was breaking volume trading this earlier year ^[2], and how politicians over there seem to be ready to embrace cryptos ^[3], makes me think that the govt does have a positive position towards btc despite it being alegal

---

1. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alegal
2. https://decrypt.co/34881/argentina-new-bitcoin-trading-record-economy-worsens
3. https://cointelegraph.com/news/argentina-s-parliament-will-see-a-new-bill-presenting-a-framework-for-crypto

I have yet to see a accurate map with regards to Bitcoin's Legality in each country and it has continue until now. Just by looking at how they counted China as "restricted" made their map inaccurate already since I think by now we can say that they are already freely using cryptocurrencies and even mining it since they have the largest mining farms in the world. You can even say that they are match with the US when it comes to regulations regarding the use of cryptocurrencies so I don't know why articles such as this one label China as some kind of heavily regulated region.

based on the map, credible or not. However, most importantly this has clearly proven that bitcoin has become an inseparable part over time. and I firmly believe that gradually all countries will appear green. :)
at least green because of bitcoin, not red because of the drought.

Please make a more offensive post next time. Use higher fonts, use red colour too and try to be a little more imposing as you weren't enough in this. I'm not going to read anything else from you though.

A proverb says "Slow and steady win a race" based on the map above even though it might not be an updated one nevertheless the map have made a disclosure the growing numbers of adoption of bitcoin various countries slowly and steadily , I read from this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5297498.0   how Taihuttu family traveled to 40 countries spending only Bitcoin, this really shows the growing acceptability and adoption of bitcoin globally, I believed in few years to come bitcoin will grow in leap and bound going by  it soaring popularity.

I am feeling very happy now we are globalizing and many more good things coming but from this map I have one objection that its showing our country in illegal its not we have some good policies and announcements from different official authorities and now we can do many things openly few weeks more and its going to be good as government is working to announceing about this some big as few days back Binance announces our local currency is acceptable which helping thousands to trade on this site easily.

Dude, why are you getting tensed up. I was just saying you to mention the last updated status.
I did not make it an offensive post at all. It's just that we should provide a detailed information as much as we can so that the readers get the right information.

I mean the majority of the country is legal so most of the country is probably not against bitcoin technology which is a good thing since they are not banning it.

Also, they could still access bitcoin if they want to since it was just the internet, if you have the resources countries cant really banned it from you. 129 Countries is already a good number and surely gonna increase in the coming years.

Most of the countries would not agree with bitcoin technology because it's a decentralized system so we could expect some countries to ban it and there nothing really we could do about it.

^ At the start, I thought that the topic is about the history of bitcoin but in the latter part, OP was able to amalgamate it to the map. which gives me an idea regarding the global adoption of bitcoin currently and it looks good than of the previous years.
^ Definitely right we always need to prepare for countries might change their regulations towards bitcoin and like those who are in green now may still turn into red anytime or vice versa and for those countries and regions that are in green currently which means bitcoin is legal, I know that the anonymity could possibly be at stake for the regulations in KYC is being implemented scrupulously.

Very interesting to see BTC acceptance visually on this map - very cool.

It looks that apart from the middle East most other continents have no restriction on cryptocurrency and only a handful of countries within these continents are still lagging behind.

After just over 10 years with such a slow adoption, I'm pleased to say that this isn't too bad  :D

This is good point because I also read status of bitcoin changed in many countries but this map showing nothing new which is most important recently I was searching on google its shows too many countries allowing bitcoin trading because now they are realising they cannot stop this so they are trying to have some better way of this with placing taxs or some other duties with all kyc.

I think thats its just a matter of time and we will see the green in all the world because when you compare this map with the previous years maps this one have many changes...let me also tell you that in the unknow regions and even in some red regions governements dont care about people if they use bitcoin or no this mean that the people of those countries are free to use crypto without fear from governement punichment

As OP says with Bitcoin we have the freedom to manage our wealth without the need of the bank is a great achievement that we have achieved and we must continue to spread the word so that more people use Bitcoin in their economies and their finances.

According to this article published at the end of November, China still bans Bitcoin.
Although it sounds contradictory because most of the crypto mining is located in China due to the inexpensive electricity needed for mining operations.

From what I have seen on the map most of is green and that means that most of the countries in the world have declared Bitcoin as legal. The ones that are having the ‘unknown’ tag I guess those are places where the governments have not really recognized Bitcoin and where there are no laws to govern bitcoin which means that anyone to free to make use of it guess?

So, for now we can add those ones that are unknown under the green lol. We are only certain of the countries with red to have declared Bitcoin as illegal and we can see that they are few.

It feels good to see BTC's position in the world on the World map. BTC getting more popular and legal day by day. Without some of the countries, the majority already accepts BTC the no. one digital currency. Maybe in some years, BTC will progress more than its expectations. We want to see the whole green in the map about BTC in the prospect.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital asset, and the only way to ban Bitcoin is to ban internet as a whole. There is no centralized authority for Bitcoin. Therefore the governments can't shutdown this central authority and thereby destroy Bitcoin. Many of the third world nations have restrictive laws against Bitcoin, but they will have only limited impact on the trade and holding of coins.

Having a world map of bitcoin's legality is really important so that we can visualize how massive the bitcoin community is.

By that, we can somehow push bitcoin more in the mainstream and with that, maybe we can see the map with all green soon.

Bitcoin community is growing right now, especially that this pandemic brought us to stay at home and engage more in a digital aspects in our life then probably we can really see some progress in bitcoin's popularity.

Bitcoin legality laws are changing all the time and depending on where you live there will be some problems. Some countries didn't make any decision for it yet. In my idea, bitcoin is a new progressing technology and progressing everyday. The countries banned bitcoin will regret soon by not using the technology. But in the other hand, there is always a backdoor for bitcoin users in any country to bypass the limitations and keep using it dosn't matter if bitcoin is banned or not.

The word unrestricted sounds kinda misleading over here. People might think its the same as unregulated and people have free access to it. But the legend keys says legal, which is the correct term. Being legal doesn't mean it is completely unrestricted. I would only use the term unrestricted if there who no restriction what so ever at all when using bitcoin like no regulation and full freedom.
I wonder if any of those countries that have made usage of bitcoin illegal has any explanation as to why it is illegal.

Wow! Are you sure about this stats? Cause everything is just green there. If really Bitcoin is legalized in that much countries, that means it's just a matter of time before every country on the map becomes green.

Upon looking on the legality map of the world when it comes to Bitcoin, I can see that a big part of it shows legality of Bitcoin is widely being spread since the day it was launched and created. This have just showcases how people's perspectives are being changed over time with regards to their first stand when Bitcoin was first launched and being promoted to people. It just shows how people are now slowly recognizing its worth and the essence of its existence making more and more countries legalizing Bitcoin usage and adaptation on those. Reliable or not, still upon looking at the map provided, we can see that we are still moving forward for the total or semi total legality to happen on the next years to come with Bitcoin.

I wanted to highlight what was mentioned much earlier in this thread.  In my country BTC is now being seen as something held by large corporate TRUSTS and being accepted and sold by very large companies.  Compared to years ago it is no longer perceived as a criminal's currency!  This is a HUGE change and postures crypto to take a large piece of the pie in financial circles.  I am glad I got in years ago and can sit here and totally enjoy the ride.

Restricted and illegal are much different.
Restricted means you can use Bitcoin but for certain purposes, still has limitation to use it. For example in my country (Indonesia), it is legal to use Bitcoin as a digital asset but it is forbidden to use Bitcoin as a payment tool. 
While illegal means you cannot use Bitcoin for any purposes. Bitcoin is totally prohibited to use in that country. You have no choice in that country unless not bring the Bitcoin there.

There are other factors that could be the reason why there is no activity of bitcoin in that region, remember that some countries have little to no infrastructure to facilitate Internet. 129 countries is not a good number for me, it has been a decade and I think that the numbers should have been pumped up a long time ago. Total ban of blockchain will be difficult because VPNs, Geomasks, and Virtual Machine can be used to access it because total Internet ban is impossible.

Bitcoin is not officially determined as illegal or legal in my country. Since government has no control over Bitcoin, they just regulate it. People are free to transact using bitcoin and free from trading it. I think Bitcoin cannot be determined as legal or illegal, its just that people can have it as long as there is internet ao government has no option but to keep it going and just regulate it so they will also benefit.

Yes I agree about the most important thing you said and also, the attached image of the map already shows an increase that more governments are legalizing and accepting bitcoin. Adoption like anything is done as long as cryptocurrency can be accepted by the wider community then of course that is a way in which cryptocurrency will last and can be used for a long time. Indeed, this has become a shift or changed from its original purpose, but if its use provides a lot of efficiency and benefits then the shift about cryptocurrency itself I don't think is a problem either.

This is quite useful. I myself see this as a threat to our privacies as governments are regulating everything related to crypto which is not good. But we don't have many options to stop that from happening. There is one thing that crypto shows some similarities to torrent and no matter how much restrictions are imposed on it, nobody has really stopped the whole ecosystem. I think it would be in a similar situation.

I know that all of us are rooting for the whole map to turn green 5 to 10 years from now.

Those provinces or rural areas in the world will probably take more time to adopt bitcoin because they are not that technologically inclined and development is probably slower compared to those who are in urban areas.

Just like most of the countries in Africa, they are having a hard time to fully adopt bitcoin in their country because they are still suffering from poverty and slow development in their daily lives.

It’s not going to be a rocket science. Bitcoin is barely two decades and with struggles through the centralized Authority as a decentralized currency with lots of unfavorable factors still have recorded success globally and with incredible value rate.

Definitely bitcoin will continue to spread and it’s awareness will be known in both Rulers and Urban areas but like I said earlier it’s not going to be a rocket science, it’s a gradual process as we bitcoin enthusiasts keep bringing up positive contributions to these bitcoin community.

You have very solid points we have some good propaganda against this even many predicted its going to dead soon few have still thinking about this its ponzi but its going to help millions and we still feel its going to be more green in future without any serious trouble many countries will be give soft policies as its not stoppable.

I believe with the move such as with PayPal's inclusion of crypto in their payment system or with Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's buying of btc, will change the perspective of these nations that are treating bitcoin as illegal. If they will not loosen their regulations, they will be left behind. So I am more than positive that sooner or later, they will change their stance in crypto. Just a matter of time before they change their stand. And hopefully, in the near future, we can see those countries with unknown status to change to green colour.

It's great to see so much green on the map.

I thought Russia is going to be shown as restricted with all the talks by Putin how only Rubble is acceptable for payments.

Even if you ask google you'll get this:


Despite that Russia has the same color as Germany or Estonia where you can pay using Bitcoin and register exchanges. 

Maybe entering a country name with a description would be better. I've read about the legality of bitcoin (crypto) in several countries. This legality is divided into several types. Permissive (legal to use bitcoin), contentious (some legal restrictions on usage of bitcoin), contentious (interpretation of old laws, but bitcoin is not prohibited directly), hostile (full or partial prohibition). You can see on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory