Bitcoin Forum

It's a big news from few days ago but i did not find any reference here on bitcointalk about it.

Remember this news came after few days of Tesla buying $1.5B worth of Bitcoins BTC

The free zone in Dubai is allowing customers to pay for Dubai trade licenses and visas with bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and the tether (USDT)

"Cryptocurrencies are now accepted as a form of payment at the KIKLABB free trade zone in Mina (Port) Rashid, Dubai."
"KIKLABB is United Arab Emirates government-owned entity and first in the region to accept crypto payments."

"KIKLABB is collaborating with international partners for payment processing of cryptocurrency transactions, guaranteeing all regulations are adhered to within the regional framework via international third-parties," said Tasawar Ulhaq, CEO.


https://www.coindesk.com/dubai-free-zone-becomes-first-uae-government-entity-to-accept-bitcoin
https://gulfnews.com/business/markets/dubai-free-zone-kiklabb-starts-accepting-bitcoin---first-government-entity-to-do-so-1.1613463760910

It is good to hear that the Dubai government is accepting bitcoin as a mode of payment and for countries like India who are planning to ban the use of cryptocurrencies should learn from these development and come up with regulation rather than making them a grey area but i am not glad to see that they are accepting USDT because of their shady path of minting new coins and the lack of clarity.

(taken from google)
Now they are not only accepting it as a form of general payment for their services but also for the services of things like :
VISA
Which is actually very beneficial, it is undoubtedly easier for a person to make international visa +/- ask for these services when coupled with cryptocurrencies since normally it takes a lot of time if you have to make international visa amendments , maybe apply for the future but with cryptocurrencies it would be excessively easy.
The government is also accepting the trade license fee in terms of cryptocurrencies now this might be good for them since the people involved in the trade might be tracked back by the government and thus this might work in their favour for the longer period. ( Hopefully the privacy is protected )
Other than that if companies like Tesla is investing in Bitcoins then for sure they would have to move a step forth if they do want to engage more with the future of the finance and cryptocurrencies are a major part of it now.

This is very good news because as an Islamic country by legalizing Bitcoin and other cryptos, this can be an example for other Islamic countries. With this legalization, BTC and other Crypto can have a market share for Muslims.  Previously, many Muslims strongly opposed BTC as an investment because prohibited.With one city in an Islamic country that uses it for transactions, in the future a country that has not been able to regulate can make the UAE an example country.  And this can expand the society that receives it.  What's more, the country is a paradise for businessmen, so this will no longer be foreign to conglomerates who stop by in the country.

I believe that this news may be another answer for those cryptocurrency users who believe that the United States or groups of countries that have created an organization to control the circulation of cryptocurrencies can influence the ban on cryptocurrency around the world. This fact is proof that cryptocurrency and the future of business will need to be treated as one and no government will influence this trend.

You can't even compare the UAE with India. The former is one of the richest countries in the world, and the latter has the largest population of poor people anywhere in the globe. In UAE, there is no income tax and a lot of people have become permanent residents to take advantage of this. And the inflow of wealthy expatriates have benefited the country to a great deal. India on the other hand witness approx. 150,000 of their most skilled people emigrate abroad every year.

And the real reason why the Indian government is coming up with a ban on cryptocurrency is because it has run out of cash. Their supporters need a constant supply of freebies and the government is planning to seize the crypto-assets of Indian nationals and distribute as freebies to make their supporters happy.

Anyway, glad to see more and more nations welcoming cryptocurrency. It will greatly benefit their economic growth in the future. The UAE has always welcomed technological innovations and this time also they have done the right thing.

thanks for sharing this because I didn't know anything about that before. first time reading about that here. and I must say it is absolutely a great news for present and future of crypto currency. in a time when crypto is having it's highest bull run and so many coins having their ATH. getting such news as this and like tesla buying billion dollar of BTC is very encouraging.

That's a huge news for dubai. Well we have admit that dubai is a country where people truely smell the real freedom. I think this is the place where people can work, live with full freedom that is why country also becomes a world's beautiful country and a country to live like king size. We also have to say that they understand that this is a technology. And technology is not for banned. And our people have to use technology, they should know about latest technology which will make our people more smart. That is the main reason what our countries also thought that technology is not for banned if there had some illegal then find a solution to make it user-friendly but banned! Its  not a solution. By the way congratulations the free city of dubai.

There is something special about Dubai, they always seeks to maximize opportunities. you see this is one of the countries to accept btc and some altcoins as a means of payment, It is positioning itself to leverage the first mover advantage. In the nearest future, other countries will consult them to guide them how they did it and they will become an authority in this technology to other countries.

Great move

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Some countries that are anti-crypto are of the view that it is a means of financing terrorism and money laundry in a country. Well, what these country should do is they should seek ways to ensure they explore the positive sides of the technology and also come up with a framework to ensure that it would be impossible to use it to finance terrorism.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

Does anyone remember atari, kodak and others boosting stock values 20%+ by announcing dubious vaporware blockchain projects years back?

Wouldn't it be great if Dubai was able to boost business and sales 20% by implementing BTC support?

Even better, what if others recognized the profit potential of cryptocurrencies and adopted bitcoin support in an effort to reproduce their success?

It could trigger a stampede in the private sector where everyone scrambled as quickly as they could to include bitcoin support, in an effort to boost sales.

Here in India, the government is moving in the opposite direction, by making the ownership of cryptocurrency a criminal offense. They did the same blunder more than two decades ago, during the dot com boom, when they refused to support the IT industry. This time also they are trying the same approach, by rejecting technological innovation. Anyway, this move once again proves that the government of UAE cares for its people. They can't depend on oil forever, and the government is doing the right thing by promoting innovation.

I would have to say this is not that big of a deal considering it is just licenses and so forth, of course it is great that a place of government accepts bitcoin but that is really not a huge deal considering we are not talking about billions of dollars.

If it was like a zone that accepted tens of billions of dollars in crypto that would be a huge deal, but these licenses are probably at most few million dollars at most, probably just few hundred dollars realistically, who would pay that much money for crypto and make it go up? Also let's not forget that Ohio is accepting crypto payments for crypto profits as well, which means they were the first one that we know of, this doesn't mean that we are aware of every single nation, it could be a bit different as well, but at the end of the day as far as we know Ohio is the first one and Miami was before UAE as well.

There is only one word to say- Great! Gradually government organizations will accept bitcoin as a payment mean. The process will be slow so we do not need to hurry. But they need to hurry to accept payments in bitcoin because it is beneficial for them too. Bitcoin increasing in price and in the future, it will worth more than $100k. If they accept bitcoin now then their funds can double in a short time. Tesla bought 1.5 bln Bitcoin when it was ~$35k. BTC is not ~50k (it dropped from $58k). 50-35=15   15*100/35=42% Their Bitcoin holdings increased 42% in dollar amount.

Dubai not coming slow.. another good news for Bitcoin coming soon..

"Dubai businessman pledges largest Bitcoin investment in history.
Khurram Shroff (chairman of Dubai’s IBC Group) says he has pledged 100,000 Bitcoin, worth $4.8bn, to set up the Miami 2.0 Blockchain Strategy Foundation
Burkhan currently has over $1 billion worth of real estate projects in Miami in its pipeline that are being empowered with technological innovation."

https://www.arabianbusiness.com/banking-finance/458881-dubai-businessman-pledges-largest-bitcoin-investment-in-history

In due time we will see more and more businessmen jumping in to the Bitcoin bandwagon. Many are starting to realize that Bitcoin represents the future. I don't know much about Khurram Shroff. To be honest, this is the first time that I am hearing about him. But I am sure about one thing. His massive investment in Bitcoin will give huge profits to him in the long term.

They are experimenting with the concept, that is why the zone is still small. Don't worry, it will become a huge deal when this free zone experiment becomes successful and you know that Dubai has a lot of oil barons and this will definitely catch on to this people and the incoming money will be unimaginable right now but it will definitely be big, I get that it is not worth celebrating but this is a pioneering in economy so there isn't much to celebrate, this is the stage where if they fail, they will be called a fraud and if they are successful then they will be called genius.

I think the value of this giant decision by the UAE government goes beyond monetary. It does not matter much whether the monetary proceeds from this decision is only worth a few dirhams. I guess the most important point to consider is that Bitcoin is being accepted by the UAE government, which means it is being acknowledged as a legitimate form of payment. Even if the offices implementing the said policy automatically convert the Bitcoin payments into fiat as soon as received, it does not take away the fact that Bitcoin is now being trusted and deemed acceptable by a government. That makes it a very huge of a deal.

The policy includes free zones, which are not subject to regulation by the state. It is not directed by the government, although I would not be surprised if the UAE government accepted crypto payments.

the same guy @Khurram Shroff has a history of controversial statements^[1] and we haven't heard about them.
I did not find any news in the local economic channels, so I doubt the veracity of this news or that it is just news for media gain. 

[1] Dubai entrepreneur Khurram Shroff's IBC Group to invest $10 million in the 'Genesis' launch of Ethereum 2.0, in partnership with CanETH pool (https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/press-releases/story/Dubai_entrepreneur_Khurram_Shroffs_IBC_Group_to_invest_10_million_in_the_Genesis_launch_of_Ethereum_20_in_partnership_with_CanETH_pool-ZAWYA20201118064233/)

Dubai has always been known to be good with creating a favourable environment for business. With a move like this, entrepreneurs, innovators and companies with foresight will be attracted to Dubai.

One of the best cities in the world adopting to Crypto. Wow. Soon more country will adopt to this new technology and probably same as this also accepts BTC and other crypto as payments. This is a good news.

A flight ticket from India to the UAE costs less than $100. So in case Bitcoin is banned in India, the cryptocurrency users can travel to the Dubai Free Zone, sell their coins and return to India (I guess there is a maximum limit of $10,000 on cash being brought back after international travel). Looks like an attractive option for me. The best part is that the UAE doesn't have any income tax or capital gains tax, although there is a Value-added tax (VAT) of 5%.