Bitcoin Forum

Finally CBN gives the main reason why they put ban on crypto in Nigeria, the fact is there are many bad eggs among the good eggs, online romance scammers are now using bitcoin as their benefactor to cashing out money easily with no traces, read news here

https://www.arise.tv/how-fbi-alerted-nigerias-central-bank-to-scammers-using-cryptocurrencies-to-defraud-the-west/

The question is are white people so stupid that they will keep sending money to people they've never meet in real life? Honestly all this defrauding through romance and other ways have been going on since past years now, I expected all this to have come to an halt, the problem isn't even the scammers but people who allowed themselves to be used

Imagine, anyways criminals will use any available ways to their own advantage, still this isn't a good reason to put ban on crypto when the country economy is very worse, crypto is changing the lives of so many people in the country, if there should be a hunt on scammers they should do it their own way, why are FBI sending the news to Nigeria government? Can't they handle things on their own?

People in crypto became even smarter, it looks like nigeria's government just know it now. That doesn't make sense to ban crypto just caused by that. The government must always give awareness and that's enough. Just let people know if they should never send their money to the people that they didn't know about.
I hope that nigeria's government will be lifting the ban asap.

All such news are made way bigger by media so people should be careful when hear news of banning and delisting and similar. Usually there is story behind it. And bans are very explicit.

We the points are valid according to government. But ban is not the right decision. Because you can ban it but you can't stop to use it for users. Here is some point by which government should be profited.
Like if government gives fully freedom to buy sell crypto then lots of company creat platform to buy/ sell. And people like to use those platform because it should be user friendly with trust. So government don't need to trace users transaction. Government can take Their charge from that company. So we can say that if government want to take benifit from this technology then they have to gives full freedom to use it. And made easy for users to use.

Shame, I can see that no one is talking about how people are using crypto as means of defrauding people but you are only backing up the fact that crypto shouldn't be blocked in nigeria, how about you guys shade some light on what can be done about scammers living in nigeria that are taking advantages of people through online romance scam? 80% of nigerians are making a living through this defrauding ways, I wonder what their future children will be like, criminals giving birth to more criminals, nigeria problem isn't on the government alone but the people themselves

Interesting! Normally, the Nigerian government should be happy when foreign currency comes into the country, which Bitcoin more or less is, because Bitcoins can be exchanged for hard currencies like the US dollar or the euro. Therefore, I can only explain that the move is being considered because there is great pressure from other countries.

Nigeria needs to fix issues about online scamming and frauds that's happening within it's people, almost all the countries in the world knows that nigeria is a scammer based, african prince, black romance etc, I know scammers are available in every countries but nigerians kinda scamming way is too much, every good reputation about that country is grounded, it's a big shame

I'm not trying to shield Nigeria but the truth has two sides of a coin, the way you guys paint Nigeria as the home of fraud is insulting and slap on Nigerian citizens. Anyway, I don't blame those who criticize the citizens but the foolish fraudsters that have made scam a job to earn a living thereby making other legitimate investments less spoken.
The thing about fraud and scam, Nigeria isn't even among the top countries but their noises are always heard over stupid reasons and their activities trying to scam the western people. Though it's not a yardstick for fraud, it's an illegal activity that should be frown upon but we shouldn't forget the legitimate hustlers.

I quite know that even at this level, there top officials in the government that are into cryptocurrency and are really benefitting from this space, since crypto doesn't totally ban, they aren't worried about their involvement since they can easily do a p2p transactions and get back their equivalent cash.

looks like the Nigerian government does not want its citizens to be smart...
Bitcoin is a trust-based currency, even if you are in doubt you can buy/sell Bitcoin on major exchanges and it has been proven safe. regarding scammers who use Bitcoin for their transactions, it looks like it happened a long time ago even before Bitcoin existed, so it's not a big problem.

Well, the cbn should have known that this scams have been going on far before bitcoin and crypto currencies came into existence, how many of this scammers have they been able to arrest way back before crypto currency came?? What makes them think that banning crypto currency in the country will make them catch the scammers??
They are just wasting their time fighting a lost battle, scammers disgust me and I despise them cus I will never go into fraud no matter what, but cbn  banning crypto in Nigeria won't stop or even reduce scam, instead, it will increase crime rate in the county.

Here's another article which I thought you guys should read, I think this is the more reason cbn banned crypto currency, to buy time so as to enable them find a way to regulate it https://m.guardian.ng/business-services/cryptocurrency-blockage-fighting-a-lost-battle/amp/ (https://m.guardian.ng/business-services/cryptocurrency-blockage-fighting-a-lost-battle/amp/)

I totally agree with your last conclusion about the problem not being the scammers but the people that still chose to let themself be scammed through this means. However, I would say that the Fed Government still did this just to get back to the masses even though scamming wasn't the only issue mentioned by them. Money laundering was also part of their concern and the argument then remains; if they can actually prove these points that got them to worry, that means they most have proof and if they do that means they should know who these people are that are perpetrating this thing so, why don't they just go after them instead of cutting the whole system off?

We know the Govt. concerns are real all over the world but they need to be forward-thinking about how to maximize crypto benefits rather than shorting it down.  
  

It true that there will always some black sheep in every country, setting which will abuse the system for their own selfish and greedy purpose but I don't agree with the statement of the Nigerian Central Bank saying some scammer using crypto to scam people with no traces when most crypto to fiat payment are handle by the centralized exchange. However, their ban won't stop the bad action from operation since they can easily use a P2P exchange to execute their transaction while the genuine crypto user will be affected.

By the way banning crypto trading isn't going to resolve the issue....
The fact that there are people who still send funds in the name of romance is a bit too gullible...
I am not justifying the scammers, but am saying the victims should have been smarter by now....
Banning crypto trading will only make it harder for some of us, like myself who really believes in the potential of blockchain technology!!
and for those who are saying the fraud level in Nigeria is high, there are some of us here (majority) who earns from the internet LEGALLY.... my people say there is no land where there are no wicked ones, your country might do it but do it differently and very subtle, after all empty vessels makes the loudest noise..... Nigeria may not be the prince of darkness as you all paint us out to be, big sophisticated websites scam in the millions, and thats a high level of fraud am not sure my country can perform....


I sign off.......................

Though you are right, since the introduction of BVN, people that get huge money through illegal means protect themselves by investing in crypto currency and they are hereby untraceable by the Nigeria Law enforcement agency.

Isn't this good in a way because most scammers are from there?

One big problem when a country cannot provide jobs for its people.
They will try to make money to survive and one of the easiest paths is thru illegal methods.
You cannot blame the people if it's the country that is at fault.
Especially now at a critical time when there is still a pandemic that you need to escape.

I hope they can find a better solution instead of just directly banning it. There must be another way.

There are countries that are in bad situations than nigeria, yes if you do your research well there are few other african countries that are in huge suffering but still their names are never heard like Black people from Nigeria, is hurting people the only way to move forward ? Is scamming people the next solution? Let's stop fooling ourselves, this will only make the situation of the country get worse

CBs always want to protect stupid people in harm of smart people. I dont like this policy

Tell me this. Did you not ever got scammed once in your life? Didn't even once someone sold you something that was broken or useless and then disappeared or didn't accept refund telling you that you broke it or any other excuse? Scams come in many ways and every person has been scammed by someone else. There are some that hide it but others that don't.
You think this has to do with intelligence? You are wrong and you have no respect for your fellow human being. You made it a case for race too and this is even worse. Probably you are too young and naive to think that people are stupid but it is the scammers that will get arrested and rot in a prison.

well, scammers are one of the main reasons for getting banned on crypto. however, I think a lot of people are so quick to believe in new crypto that they easily send their money for the investment.
well, it's only natural that there are a lot of scams there, especially Nigeria is a country with a population that is very interested in crypto, so it's natural that there are many scammers. but the government's move for that seems to also hurt crypto investors or users who are there. even according to some information, thousands of people protested against this

I never did realize that there are a lot of cases like that. I believe it's not just romance but some are tricksters and hackers that do it as well.

I believe those people who are in search of love have the capacity for it but sending a lot of money without meeting someone in real life is already a tragedy. There have been multiple cases like that was published but for sure there are a lot more considering the emotional stress that we are experiencing now. It's just that it's not publicized probably because they are ashamed or something.

We will all be surprised at how much there could be instances like this. It's not healthy for sure.

In as much as it was blocked for a good reason, let me also remind you that everything that has a  dis-advantage also has an advantage and the case of crypto and a country like Nigeria whose economy is not stable ,I think the need to adopt  the crypto lifestyle
 

You have got to be kidding if you really believe that this is the reason for the ban. Yes there may be some bad actors but doing a blanket ban  on the future of digital finance because of it is equally bad. Rather they should see how to prevent it.

Trust me,,, it is not just white people even a lot of Asians also get scammed so no need to point out a single race! I do not think this is the truth though. Nigerian email and love scams have been around since the 90s and you did not see anyone banning Western Union or bank transfers.

This is just false reporting. 90% of scammers still do not use Bitcoin.

Scams do come in many different ways but this is different, it's something that's been ongoing in the US for years and people have been warned about online romance scam, must they date people online? Must they send money to someone they've never meet before? This isn't about been the wisest, what I said was right, it shows that some people in US are too stupid to be cautious, they trust easily

Nigerians will always be nigerians, there are some good people among them but this isn't a hate speech it's just a bitter truth, many are into online romance scam, credit card stuffs and others but Bitcoin makes their cruel work more easier, I will never say something that I haven't seen, education means nothing in nigeria now, even secondary students, police, military are into this stuff, if you raise voice they will say everybody is a thieve, that's the slang word they always use.

Assuming that Nigeria doesn't know about these scams. Is it possible that they will not ban cryptocurrency if the FBI does not send an alert to the government that lots of scam US dollars have entered Nigeria through cryptocurrency? We all know how much the US dollars also help countries to grow their economies. Here in our country, the US dollar remittances help our economy a lot that if $200 million comes every week it is already a big help to the people.

There is more that meet the eye, nigeria is a failed country that's plagued with too many problems, from low levels to high levels every thing about the country is huge corruption but crypto comes to the rescue, remember when money flows to people they will have some power and gut, I believe the government may not like this, remember the endsars craziness? The government find all means to silence their people but crypto was used to help some funding then, you really think this won't pissed the government off? Like I've said there is more that meet the eye

This is still very bad, they shouldn’t have banned it because it’s not everyone there in Nigeria that are using it for scamming people. What they should have done is to look for ways that they can track down the bad eggs and make them face their punishment , instead of banning Bitcoin. I know people in Nigeria who have taken out their time to learn everything there is to learn about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading, and that has been their source of income for years.

This government banning cryptocurrency is totally wrong, it means so many of the people there are losing their sources of income, some exchanges that has spent money to establish their businesses there will also be losing it.

I agree that those seeking love have the ability to find it, but sending large sums of money without meeting someone in person is still a disaster. There have been few cases like this reported, but with the current level of emotional stress, there are undoubtedly several more. It's just that no one knows about it, presumably because they're embarrassed or something.

It is absolutely unacceptable for any government to cripple the earning and economic potentials of their citizens just because citizens of another country has fallen victims of criminal activities of a few people.
The united states itself has not banned cryptocurrencies and have many big companies who are already adopting cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology.
The smart thing to do is to devise means of apprehending that criminals responsible for the criminal activities

I really don't see this to be a genuine reason!!

The government is afraid of these guys cashing out using bitcoin, come on , and what would stop these guys from spending it on latest luxurious gadgets and later sell them for some cash,banning btc doesn't solve the problem it just delays it.

These guys are better giving reasons like the only reason they don't want bitcoin is the banks are not making any money from banking services, something in those lines.

Their reason is weak. I also don't think that's the main reason why they are going strict to crypto. Based from stats last year, Nigeria is included in the top 5 countries having large volume in bitcoin trading. Now, if the government will be hard to its crypto users, how can they help with their citizens that are relying their income from crypto? It is actually good that their people is finding alternative source of income via crypto and not relying from them. I believe they are finding that government can't have the full control over crypto transactions of their constituents, the reason why they are banning it.

The majority of people in nigeria lack education about that. If they have no clue about keeping send money to the stranger and then this is the most non sense thing that I have ever meet in my life. Even when they were using the fiat money and if they are still doing it and they can get scammed by scammers. There are a bunch of scammers these days.

Crypto has become the main target by the central bank of nigeria and I think that the reason should be other than it dude. Crypto is always getting blamed by them