Bitcoin Forum

Russia’s Central Bank: Bitcoin Users Can Face Jail Time

MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s top monetary authority slammed digital currencies Monday, warning that Bitcoin use can lead to criminal charges in the country.

The anonymously produced “virtual currencies” can be intended by its producers for money laundering and terrorism funding purposes, the Central Bank said in a statement.

This means that Russian digital currency users can become involved in criminal activity simply by using the Bitcoin and its analogues, the regulator said.

Digital currencies also lack any backing and are used for financial speculation, which increases risks for users, the Central Bank said.

Moreover, Russian legislation directly prohibits the issuance of surrogate currency, the statement said.

Money laundering is punishable with up to seven years in prison in Russia; funding terrorism – with up to 15 years. Russia’s legislation does not state a punishment for issuing surrogate currency.

http://en.ria.ru/business/20140127/186966541/Russias-Central-Bank-Bitcoin-Users-Can-Face-Jail-Time.html

If I hold 1 BTC in my wallet, I can go to prison? I don't think so.
With that attitude, Russia will just stay behind everyone.

well it is Russia, but I dont think you wanna try their government

this is the OP sniffing glue and not understanding the context of the article if he believes that bitcoin can land you in prison simply by owning it.

it has always been known, if you launder dollars, euro, pounds, yen. you will go to prison if caught. but now if you launder bitcoin because it is now treated as the same ranking as fiat, you will go to prison.

but if you use bitcoin legally, wisely and do nothing wrong. you can become legally rich.

this news article is not putting bitcoin into a bad category, it is putting the same rules on bitcoin as on any other countries fiat.

"The anonymously produced “virtual currencies” can be intended by its producers for money laundering and terrorism funding purposes, the Central Bank said in a statement."

where as fiat of all governments ALREADY is used for laundering and terrorism funding

No, that's actually exactly the way it's intended to be interpreted:


This is meant to provide a clear chilling effect for Russians, ie, don't do this, we don't approve - you have been warned.

It is Russia.

I wonder how this impacts Bitfury. ???

Great little speach if you don't do any thing illegal with Bitcoin you have nothing to worry about the same as fiat.

Russian Ruble is toast. Withdraw all your Rubles and convert to bitcoins now!

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/01-overflow/20140129_rub1.png

that's a good call

Wonder what impact if any it will have on BTC-E. Don't think it will.

It seemingly is behind everyone with their homophobic laws and anti-gay stance. Pathetic behaviour.

What does anti-gay stance have to do with accepting or not btc?

Russia has always attempted to control their people. Even before the Bolshevik Revolution, when the Czar still ruled, it was all about control and stealing from the people. The failure when the U.S.S.R. crashed in 1991 is what comes about when a government attempts to apply too much control over the people.

In America, the government has been operating things from the other end. Russia was always from the control freak end, having to go towards the freedom end to keep from being destroyed. The U.S. started way freer than Russia has been, like forever, and so they are testing the waters, to see how far they can go with taking freedom away from Americans.

Both, the United States and Russia are experimenting with constantly changing methods to screw their people. But both governments know that if they don't provide some freedom, they will be screwing themselves, royally. If We The People use Bitcoin the right way, we just might be able to change both governments into a whole lot more freedom, and free the whole world at the same time.

Let's put on our thinking caps and figure out ways to incorporate the freedom of the Bitcoin idea into everything - http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/01/ethereum/

:)

Russia is pathetic it's like evolution backwards. They get dumber and dumber. Vladamir Putin is an assclown.

I actually did look to see of lgbtcoin.org was taken (among many others) but someone got it.  The only one I ended up getting was nracoin.org.

My criteria was something that I didn't care enough about to feel guilty about not giving away.  I'd probably give the NRA a decent deal, but I they are on my shit-list for 20 years of awful mainstream political support so I don't mind gouging them a bit.  I might have given the queers a deal or even given it to them for free, but since someone else got it before me I won't have to make that decision.

I also got 'bitcoin-legacy.org' and I will give that one away for free.  But very selectively.

Better lock your doors man.. word travels fast around the globe.  ;D

Putin is cool though, as a person.

It has to do with Russia being behind everything else and stifling things they have no business repressing.


In soviet Russia gaycoin owns you  ;D.

Anyone fancy creating a  putinisgaycoin.


Stalinist dickhead. !!!

 ;D

And if you stay out of jail you also need to worry about being blown up at least if you go to the games.

Yeah. Putin can send his hitmen over here in a minute, and nobody would know.

If Obama wanted to protect America from terrorism, he would arm ALL Americans to the hilt, and train them in how to protect themselves from all terrorists. As it is, what is his real plan?

I wonder if he is worried about Bitcoin throwing a wrench into his operations.

:)

you guys need to aknowledge the fact that russian central bank is not governed by the russian government, putin's party, elite or any other entity that serves russian people. russian central bank just like in most countries in the world is owned by multinational families and clans who oppose the idea of bitcoin becoming mainstream. putin is big enough now to wait for fiat system to crumble a little for him to sieze control and to start issuing money on state level - just like its supposed to be. dont forget the people who are behind central banks, fed, euro etc are way bigger and few steps higher than any president in the world today.

Don't worry people.  If the Western governments crack down on Bitcoin we'll just move to China Russia somewhere else.  So there is no need to harden the solution and consider corp/state sponsored attacks.  Those are just whacked out 'conspiracy theories.'  Having a pretty UI is much more important.  If we can bloat the blockchain enough then maybe it will get to big to attack!

This is kinda true. Take Hitler for example. He took Germany from being possibly the poorest of industrial nations - a nation that had "lost face" before the world when they lost WWI - to being one of the most powerful in the world. And he did it in just 6 years by kicking the Jews' banking system out.

It took the banking system a long time to recover from the wound that Hitler gave them. If Hitler had been a good guy, if he had not been a bit crazy, killed a whole bunch of innocent people for nothing, he might have become famous and conquered the banking system for real. Of course, we wouldn't have Bitcoin then, because we wouldn't need it.

As it is, the banking system used the United States and Russia to conquer Hitler before he could destroy them. After all, you hear about the holocaust on a regular basis. But you seldom hear about the fact that Stalin might have murdered as many as 10 times more in Russia and surrounding nations than Hitler did. And look at the 55 million of its own citizens the U.S. has killed through abortions!

:)

China Russia India USA UK Who's Next? The list of countries we can run to seems to be shrinking. lol

I suppose that there is always the Cayman Islands. heh.

ok lets translate it again for you

if you accept bank notes you can become involved in criminal activitiy by handling:
drug money
defrauded money
stolen money
money that eventually ends up in terrorists hands

so does this stop you from accepting bank notes?? no

Of course the banks would issue such a fear-mongering, irrational threat. A last-ditch effort to scare people away from cryptocurrencies.

These are the ragged last gasps of an injured and cornered animal. Time to put it down.

"After all, you hear about the holocaust on a regular basis. But you seldom hear about the fact that Stalin might have murdered as many as 10 times more in Russia and surrounding nations than Hitler did."

Most people when asked about the holocaust will quote the 6 million Jews that were killed but Hitler actually had 13 million "untermensch" put to death in total, 6 million of whom were jewish. The other 7 million seem to have been conveniently forgotten.

Russian exchange indefinitely down and not answering their emails and support tickets in 5...4...3...

I went the better part of my life thinking that Gypsies were Jews in some muddled way most likely associated with the rather, um, 'charged' nature of the curriculum surrounding this matter.

I recently had a Romanian co-worker and learned all about Gypsies.  And not in some namby-pamby politically correct way either!

I started to look into this and quickly started to realize it seems to just be a case of a journalist/newspaper over exagerating things and coming up with a shock story title to get views.  I havent seen any other articles suggesting anyone would go to jail simply for using bitcoin...only that current finincal crimes would apply to bitcoin as well. 

Doesn't seem to be much "news" here , just a single paper/journalist using shock journalism to get views...and it appears like it worked as this article is getting more views than any of the other articles about russia that point out russia only said if you commit a crime with bitcion it's treated the same as if you commit a crime with fiat.

I wish everyone world wide would just say fuck you government we will govern ourselves.

What do we need these crones for anyways? We have the internets!

the "T" word... the most dreaded word in the english language that could indeed kill bitcoin in it's tracks for all intents and purposes.... the US could certainly use "terrorism" as a justification to ban the currency. Better hope that all the seedy people using it are not into that sort of activity...

Those who believe anarchy and self rule would be better than our current system are however... misguided. I believe it would be complete chaos and we'd be back in the dark ages without organizations like the Illuminati and the progression towards cooperation amongst governments globally.  I prefer not having to go to constant war over someone's idiotic ideology as long as I have freedom of speech and can guide my destiny along in a free manner which for the most part I can in the US and many other first world nations....

I can deal without crypto-currencies and go back to platinum and palladium honestly... I won't lose that much sleep if cryptos end up banned, which they might if their users don't police themselves. Could terrorists just use gold? Well they'd have to lug an awful lot of it around and they'd more than likely get their  own people killing each other and stealing the gold. :)

If anything I planned to get off the computer this year and get out of the house more and these damn currencies put a hamper in that to a degree because they are so... appealing watching them move around in market cap like micro cap stocks.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-28/russian-bank-halts-all-cash-withdrawals

This may have a little something to do with this...

I'm kind of happy to have roads and fire departments. I'm not sure you would build enough of them if you were in charge. Infrastructure =  :D  No Infrastructure =  :(

It's coming; banks and governments are starting to understand and they will regulate harshly, then persecute us all when it fails...

It's a reflection of how far they are from the 21st century.

I'm kinda happy you're not in politics!

I agree that a lot of taxes are bogus but to say that governments don't have their place is a bit absurd. Whether or not they function properly is another story... Russia's pretty fucked!

It's completely unrelated, but shows how behind the times they are.  

So its for money laundering not for holding

Might be cool as person. As a leader, he's a despot. Nearly all leaders are hugely charismatic. That's why people follow them.

I figured people liked him because we was not a corrupt lard-ass boozer who carved up his country and gave it to his crony oligarch friends who then turned around and sold it to the Western corporations.  The Russian proles are made out to be as being dumb as rocks in the West, but I'll bet that a good number of them are not completely blind.

Not corrupt? lol.  He's crushed every opponent he can get his hands on. Crushed all free press. Learn some recent Russian history, please.

Being a tyrant and being corrupt are two subtly different things.

I don't doubt that Putin is a real bastard and I'm goddamn glad he isn't my leader and that I'm not a Rooshin, but if I were I would bet I would feel a at least a tinge of pride that my country was not a total ass-bitch to the U.S. as is most of the rest of Europe and a great many other countries besides.

OK, he's a real bastard, a tyrant, but you think an average Russian is proud of him? Russia has never been an "ass-bitch" of the US, that we all know. I don't think its a reason to feel any tinge of pride for Putin.

Read again.  I said pride in Russia.  Not pride in Putin.  I forgot the previous looser's name (oh ya, Yeltsin) but as far as I'm concerned Russia was a pathetic laughing stock under him and on the fast-track to ass-bitch-ism.  From where I sit it looks to me like Putin has turned that around.

Russia got a few more issues to worry about other than bitcoin users..
the revolt issue in the Ukraine.
the Olympics .
preventing the US from bombing the living crap out of Syria for not handing over there chemical weapons.

I'm sure he's a great guy. Managed it by ruthlessly crushing all opposition. If Russians are proud of that, shows how shitty previous regimes have been. And I admit they've had there fair share of shitty communist regimes.

Yeah.  There are a lot of US citizen right now like Putin, they think he bought us a lot of time last year and somehow is holding up some kinda resistance and/or power balance. 

If you spent much time outside of the US during the W years there was pretty universal hatred of everything that happened while he was in power. Although it was probably Cheney calling the shots. Certainly Putin doesn't seem any more ruthless. Just like Cheney, but more popular and no pacemaker. When Bush was re-elected most people that I heard commenting in other countries were saying WTF? What are they thinking?

France or Scandinavia is my best guess.  Australia has no bill of rights or guns, and Canada is still a slave colony of Britain.

RE: being blown up <-- is this real perception of safety at Olympics?

Some facts about Russia.
They invaded the Chechen Republic and then issued a law that guerilla freedom fighters are terrorists, then tried to do the same with Georgia.
Flew their new nuclear bombers over EU air space to check if they could nuke Sweden.
When polish president's plane crashed in Russia they never gave back the wreckage even though the country requested it.
They poisoned their own KGB agent who asked for asylum in Britain.

No wonder they are afraid of terrorists :D They are the biggest bully in Europe.

Love insulting Canadians do you? Classy.

thank God Im not russian  :-\

Even if this was the case I don't see how they would enforce such a law. Executing drug-style raids on houses of people suspected of running Bitcoin clients, pulling up the floor looking for hidden micro sd cards or paper wallets, interrogating people for brainwallets... Not going to work.

correct

What you mean backwards? You can call yourself pussy riot and sing silly protest songs in a church in Russia nowdays.
Back in Stalins day.. there were no Churches, No Riots, No Silly singing, no protesting, and no Pussy..

now that's progress
boom boom..

oyeah and there's no KYC rules in russia either... its more like KYFLSM.. "know your friendly local strong man".

Don't worry. As soon as the Netherlands gets our delivery of JSF's we'll be able to chase away those sneaky Russian bombers before they get to Sweden!

 :o

That's the Russia central bank trying to spread FUD. You can similarly accidentally become involved in criminal activity & money laundering by accepting any amount of fiat and giving back change.

Yeah but  Pussy Riot got arrested.

and then released... where have you been ? lol

I think in this aspect, Russia is way better than China.
At least, you can protest against the political leaders.  ;)

Lets Go Break them OUT!!

I'm making the point they even got arrested in the first place.

All countries governement control their population not just russia even the so called Representitive Constitutional republic America where the constitution with bill of rights is supose to block that , there is no country where they don't do what russia does it's just a degree to wich they regulate freedoms away from people and most people like it that way

And they only got released because it became a worldwide famous case.  Imagine all the nobodys who are wrongfully arrested with never again a second thought. 

Of course that happens in the USA a lot too.  It's just a matter of degree compared to China, Russia, etc, the USA is much better with allowing protests etc.

In 'Free Speech Zones' at least.

Your point is actually a valid one, but if we in the U.S. are satisfied with being 'only half as bad' as China and Russia, we'll end up with a pretty shitty place to live and not much real hope to escape from it.  Part of the reason is that there is a lot of room for China and Russia to get a lot worse than they are even today.  Once a police state is achieved it's just a matter of twisting a few knobs to adjust how extreme it's expression is.

I hate to see countries do stuff like this. Lose your life to jail time for having a certain type of money..?

Yeah can someone make it already as I think Putin is just a stupid bigot for his anti gay laws.Thankfully I live in UK so I can express my views more freely than in Russia. :)

it seems there is a lot of hatred and disinformation in this thread. the public of western countries have been exposed to tons of russiaphobia and demonization for 3 generations now. all this duck and cover crap, rambo and the rest of the hollywood agenda did a good job at making people completely terrified of russians. during 90s when russia was sold out through oligarchs to the west the US government invented new threat - TERRORISM! now that russia is getting strong again all this bullshit is coming back. dont you see that the western propaganda is all about keeping its citizens scared - as a result the masses are easier to control. everything that you ever hear about russia now comes through the western media cartels that will obviously shape it in their own way presented to you appropriately. its simple hatred that been enforced upon us. most russians are absolutely proud of putin. after the devastating 90s people lost everything due to hyperinflation, after humiliation that yeltsin brought upon them people were immigrating like flees. life expectancy dropped and population demoralizing fast. the only drug you could buy was heroin coming very cheap fresh off taliban fields. the life was so bad there were almost no births. kindergartens and schools were almost empty and heavily underfinanced. the resources were sold for almost free. defence budget became non-existent. yeltsin did one good thing though - he made putin a prime minister. in that short year he started to literally fight for the justice and sized control from oligarchs that split the country into their zones of influence. back in ussr only the very smartest people ever made it to kgb. the guy remembers almost everything, talking off his head he references all the names, surnames, dates, sums of money, numbers etc. he dont report to his masters/sponsors like in the west where leaders are only simply spokespersons talking off teleprompter and never making decisions on the spot. russia right now dont have national debt - noone owns russia but forces within the country. the central bank (as i stated above) is not government owned - fed pretty much controls it. this central bank collapsing is all imposed as another trick against putin's dominance. though they are playing right into his hands as if/when russian central bank goes under its obvious who the new owner is going to be. whatever i write here can be cross referenced. but for the love of god dont build your opinion based on one sided information. see both and then make up your own mind.

 :-[ :-\ :'(

No, no no

Russia's bank WARNED against using Bitcoin, that you could be unknowingly involved in illegal shit, and did the standard FUD about devaluation. If you convert rubles to USD on the street blackmarket in Russia you could also be unknowingly involved in something illegal, or if you bought a bottle of counterfeit vodka from a street vendor, or if you deposited money to one of the criminal oligarch owned banks...

They did not threaten prison for simply using Bitcoin. Russia has plenty of virtual currencies like Webmoney and Perfectmoney is run by Russians, same with Okpay and dozens of others. Remember the Russian govt says a lot of things then you walk around Moscow and it's a free-for-all of blackmarket currency traders openly operating without a care in the world.

I have several friends in the US who are Russian emigres. They love Russia and their native culture but they hate/fear their government and most will never go back, even to visit. Very sad.

At least Russian women are foxes :)

Wow, that's little harsh there :O

People love to use exaggerated title for their own reasons (to attract eyeball, to spread FUD, etc).
Just like how people kept saying "China banned bitcoin" a while ago.  ;)

Tell me about it... :-\

it happened in Germany in 1920s and 30s when the jews had too much gold.
so yes having a certain type of money can get you killed..

more recently Argentinians cant own gold and im sure that anyone caught with USD in north korea (that isn't connected with the ruling class) would probably be jailed or shot.

atleast BTC and other crypto are easier to hide. if you keep your private keys in your head or your entire BTC environment encrypted on your computer.. who's going to know you have them?

Benefits outweigh the negative use of Bitcoin by about 50,000 times why cant they see this ?

You may be parroting some disinfo here. Which laws are you referring to?

I don't know the specific laws because all the news I've seen seems to ban giving info about gays,which effectively stop people from saying we want equality or something to that effect.

It's drawn a lot of complaints though.

disinfo?Never heard of that term before.Starting to think things aren't so clear :/

Edit:Here's a better article on it http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russia-anti-gay-law-casts-a-shadow-over-sochis-2014-olympics/2013/09/29/3646344c-27a6-11e3-9372-92606241ae9c_story.html

are you asking why a bank cant see the benefits of bitcoin?

i would have thought that would have been obvious, because bitcoin threatens to disrupt their entire business model.
anyone who expects federal banks, central banks or reserve banks etc to embrace bitcoin are just being silly.

ask yourself this... if a central bank cant print money and do whatever it wants to influence the economy then what is it good for?

In case anyone still thinks this was "just" media hype, the first thing I would say is that media hype in Russia (especially via state-owned media) is often the preferred method for signalling how the authorities feel about something, and maybe preparing the country for upcoming policy or legislation.

The CBR announcement (link below) specifically states that "the issuing of currency surrogates in the Russian Federation is prohibited."  They may not be planning to arrest everyone with a BTC-E account, but they are saying that the Bitcoin economy is not welcome in Russia.

(One potential implication: this could be problematic for Russia Today's work as a Bitcoin cheerleader)

http://www.cbr.ru/press/PR.aspx?file=27012014_1825052.htm

that sounds more like the Russian miners and mining pool operators might have a problem since it is their work that issues new currency.
as for BTC-E I wouldn't worry too much as it is in bulgaria which is part of the EU.

if Russia wanted to invade and shut them down they would have to deal with more than just the Bulgarian government.

This is sobering proof that Russia is looking to take over Bitcoin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXqKkYYALMU

Central banks starts to be threatened by something better, decentralized cryptocurrencies. But I dont think society is ready for decentralized cryptocurrencies to take over centralized ones right now or in near future

that's a very good point.. RT and Max Kaiser have been championing bit coins for a very long time.

I personally make it point to NOT learn about ANY country by reading media controlled by it's government.  In the case of Russia and especially China, this means pretty much all domestically produced works.  In other countries which enjoy a bit more press freedom such as the U.S., it means simply avoiding the mainstream media.

Two points here:

Firstly, offence is entirely on the side of the receiver. You could tell me to go fuck a pig, and I wouldn't be offended. Tell the same words to my neighbour and they might faint at having heard the most offensive thing ever in their life.

If people become offended by words and opinions, they need to review their internal mental state and why they chose to take offence in the first place.

Secondly, I can only rate Russia on the image that it wishes to give us outsiders. A nation run by lawless oligarchs, with a corrupt, festering political core. A nation of men who must appear hyper-macho at all times, and women who are nothing more than subservient beautiful dolls. A nation which promotes despicably backwards views about gays and blacks. A nation which is desperate to cling to its Soviet past by invading 'breakaway' states - guess what, if they want to break away what right do you have to force them to remain?

Which is the true Russia? Show me the peace, love and tolerance which we come to expect from civilised countries and I will change my mind. Until then however...

So please correct my interpretation of:

Gay rights in Russia, Dagestan, Georgia, traditional male & female gender stereotypes, oligarchs.

You mention bombs?

"When the Russians besieged the Chechen capital, thousands of civilians died from a week-long series of air raids and artillery bombardments in the heaviest bombing campaign in Europe since the destruction of Dresden"
P.S. It was in 1995 so 19 years ago, either your media got confused or they treat that country as part of Russia, just like Georgia.

What a retard. You say in 1 breath 'media hype in Russia is often the preferred method for signalling how authorities feel about something' then in another say 'this could be problematic for Russia Today's work as a Bitcoin cheerleader'

If Russia Today is a Bitcoin cheerleader it means the authorities are OK with Bitcoin.

The rest of Europe wouldn't lift a finger to stop Russia, they never did in the past and Russians love to test the borders.
The “package” was detected on the radar over the Gulf of Finland and for one hour they seemingly carried out attack runs against Poland, the Baltics — and the southern tip of Öland in Sweden.
“I think the purpose was to practice various types of attacks as well as highlight the Russian presence in the southern Baltic,” Anders Persson, acting flight tactical commander on the Swedish Armed Forces said in an interview with SVT.se.
The world prefers to sit by and watch while the giants bully smaller countries, I'm not thinking only about Russia.
Did you ever see countries joining the weak against overwhelming agression?
Invasion of Poland 1939, Afghanistan 1979, same thing happened in Iraq and Afghanistan when US forces attacked them.
Nobody wants to engage in military conflict unless they have to.

Since Bitcoin is decentralized and unregulated the governments won't allow this.

The real problem here is that Putin isn't a good politician. He may be a good statesmen but he can't sell it to the world.

There are similar laws actively being enforced in Arizona, Texas, Alabama and Utah against gay propaganda to minors.

Moreover, in Russia the law carries a >80% approval rating of the people. In the U.S. the same laws carry a < 50% approval rating.

If Putin was more of a politician, he would go up on stage and read the laws of the U.S. to the press, pointing the finger back at the U.S. and saying that the U.S. is doing the exact same thing - the only difference is that the U.S. is doing it without consent of the populous. There are lots of U.S. talkshow hosts that would just love to prance on a story like this.

the term "independent media" or "free press" keep on being mentioned here. most in the US understand it as media not owned by the government. but wait a second, all media in the USA is corporate controlled, so in reality handful of elite clans own the whole information stream. now the government is also owned by them since they sponsor all parties and government institutions. so we have situation where yes the government is not controlling the media but the whole system is ruled by one entity. in russia there are several government owned tv channels but also plenty of 'private' channels that are funded mostly from abroad to pass their own agenda of putin bashing. nobody is suppressing those. people choose what to whatch and what to agree with. in my understanding that is democratic environment.

most of what you hear from western media about russian federation is very subjective and biased. stop being sheeople.

the thing about Russia Today is that its a mouth piece for the Russian government but they hire Americans to do all the talking so people think its just another "free press" american news channel. ingenious..
I guess in some sense it is like every other US news channel, because 90% of news from the US (and most countries for that matter) are controlled by very powerful people with an agenda as you say.

that's why I watch PBS if I watch any news at all from the USA.

that being said however... I think they talk about bit coin a lot and get that crazy max kaiser on the show because they want to play up anything that is potentially disruptive to the US financial system.
this doesn't necessarily mean they approve of BTC only that they like how it messes with the US Banksters.

wouldn't surprise me at all if Max had a silk road account. He looks like he is always on something and I believe he has even admitted he used to do lines back in his wall street days...

that 15 years will go to zero after they have hoarded enough coin

He probably has some bitcoin. He probably doesn't have a silk road account. 90% of wall street did cocaine at one time.

So what.

so he might be the next one to go under... im sure the powers that be in the US would love to shut him up.
all I'm saying is.. it wouldn't surprise me if that were to happen.

the NSA has dirt on everyone just in case they ever need to use it.

Merkel doesn't imprison people who disagree with her. Merkel hasn't started wars with breakaway republics. Merkel has only been in power since 2005.

Putin went from Prime Minister --> President --> Prime Minister --> President

Next?

So i'm guessing there won't be any Bitcoin ATMs present at any of the Olympic Game venues??

And if the people of Zimbabwe keep re-electing Mugabe, who are we to question their choice? Is that what you're saying here?

This pretty much tells me everything I need to know about your position.

1. Lack of knowledge of world politics
2. Unwilling to stand up against tyranny
3. Willing to whitewash any valid criticism with cries of 'oh, but Iraq' and 'oh, but Afghanistan'

Except that Russia Today is aimed at Western audiences... Bitcoin does not get positive coverage from domestic Russian broadcasters.  Presumably they see it as subversive.  In a similar vein: the US domestic media demonise "the dark web", while the parent body of Voice of America (the international propaganda broadcaster) helps fund the TOR network.

If this is the case then HSBC needs a taste of Russia's approach to money laundering punishment.

we need decentralized exchanges

 >:( not thrilled with russia

are you sure? read this

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/02/03/calm-down-internet-btc-e-is-not-about-to-be-shutdown/

When you see a newbie posting doom news just ignore.

This is ridiculous. These government need to start understanding this virtual currency because it's not going anywhere. They need to get on board. Bitcoin company owners in the good ol USA are going to jail for accepting or allowing other companies to accept bitcoins. WOW.

Do you believe there's a difference between a presidential candidate seeking election by visiting many states, and a nation which enacts a law that is discriminatory against its own people?

Was this tongue-in-cheek irony? Do you realize where PBS's funding comes from? Between the tax-exempt foundations, the board members of which are also the board members of the world's largest corporations (and CFR members besides), and the US government, that's the overwhelming portion of the PBS's budget.

I 'grew up' on NPR.  Back in the day they used to go on at length about the plight of the Palestinians who have been being systematically ethnically cleansed for generations now.  Somehow a cork got put in that bottle and rammed home.  Seemed to me that it happened about the same time that some ultra-rich woman died and left them a pile of money back around the turn of the century.

Ironically I was pretty turned off about what I considered to be their one-sided reporting about the Zionist related programs (in favor of the Palestinians) back in the 80's and 90's.  Just like I was about a lot of their other 'gay dolphin' style pet projects.(*)  Now I've come full circle and am much more sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians even as NPR/PBS has done an apparent 180 on the issue.  But I'll admit to neither funding them nor paying much attention to them for many years now.

* It's a bit of a joke...not meant to be taken (to) literally.

what's that old saying... best of a bad bunch? lol
as I said, you'd be hard pressed to find any major news channel from any country that didn't have an agenda.

even the BBC in the UK was seen as one of the most impartial news channels in the world until it was discovered they were protecting paedophiles lurking within their own ranks for the past 30 years.

the BBC is the biggest scam in history.

you should see the coverage of the Scottish independence thingymabob. News presenters finding it difficult not to bite their lips in anxiety, desperate to 'do her majesties willing'

LOL thats typical Putin, what he can't control he imprisons or bans.....lol

Now the US should counteract and recognise BTC as a currency..... bring back the cold war....LMAO

You took the headline of the thread at face value? There's an important little detail in the OP:

Lol this is hilarious. ;D

Cool... so its not BTC but money laundering :-)

I'd probably give the NRA a decent deal, but I they are on my shit-list for 20 years of awful mainstream political support so I don't mind gouging them a bit.

I am going to steal one BTC, and send every user in the world 0.00000001 BTC, turning every user into a criminal!

Then Bitcoins will fall!

So, let me get this right...

I am walking down the road, a thief comes and takes my wallet... Now I have just "participated in funding a thief", so I am to be arrested...

I am at a gas-station, behind the counter, that thief comes and buys a pack of cigs... Now I have just "participated in facilitated money laundering", so I am to be arrested...

I am walking down the street, a bum asks for some change, I give him change, he buys a gun and shoots someone... Now I have just "participated in facilitating criminal activity", so I am arrested, along with the guy who sold him the gun, along with the owner of the mall where the guy was shot since he provided the location, along with the guy who sold the bullets, along with the hospital for not arriving fast enough to stop the bleeding, along with the govt for providing the funds which were used for the purchase... Just throw everyone in jail!

No.

(The misunderstanding about Russia on this board is getting waaay out of hand.)

Let's start with this faulty translation of a sentence from an article that was obviously written in Russian...


A correct translation would be:

Money laundering is punishable by up to seven years in prison in Russia, while funding terrorism is punishable by up to 15 years.

Assuming you want to donate to 8 billion people, you will need to steal 434,400BTC as the minimum standard transaction is 0.0000543BTC.

Without transaction fees these still may take a while to confirm.

Also I am unsure how you will collect the receive addresses of everyone on Earth; you could troll the blockchain but that is only going to be people who already use bitcoin and you'll pay some of them multiple times.

I feel you haven't thought your plan through, but I look forward to my 0.0000543BTC with anticipation.

Russia=Stoneage

There are not 8 billion "users" in the world... Less than a few million... less than...
1 / 0.00000001 = 100,000,000

I should have some to spare... BTW, you don't "have" to pay fees. You can send them free of txfees. Takes forever though, but you can.

Stones hurt when they hit you!

Rest of world = Technology age

Technology does not hurt so much when it hits you!

Want to buy some technology? I have a bunch for sale... 50% off... All the technology you will ever want! Get some technology now, supply is limited!

You're quite right, he said "users" but I read "people".

Still it is going to be difficult to work out one address per user.

So okay yes if we'll say 100 million recipients it is still going to need 5430BTC to start it off.

I did say this.

Hell what so wrong in using bitoins i wonder why Russia is so against it ???

Is bitcoin the only currency banned in Russia or they are against every crypto currency ????