Bitcoin Forum

The canton of Zug is known as Crypto Valley, because of support of blockchain-related projects and mild taxation of operations with cryptocurrencies. I've been reading about it lately, and while it is cool that the government really supports various projects, I think a significant downside is that cryptos are assets, not means of payment in this country. Also, even though Swiss financial regulator acknowledges that there are different ICO projects (with utility and asset tokens, but they also distinguish payment tokens as the third type), they are treating utility tokens as securities:https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2018/02/20180216-mm-ico-wegleitung/! My thought is that cryptos should not be treated as property or securities, because that's not what they are. No matter how sweet the policies are there towards cryptocurrencies, I don't think that something called 'Crypto Valley' can go on without recognizing cryptos as money. What are your thoughts on this matter?

Cryptos won't start being treated as currencies until they are used in that way. Many new projects are not too far away from being traditional fund raising with shares. Being a currency by name does not make a cryptocurrency in to a true currency.

I don't get why people call a country "crypto-friendly" because it has a low tax rate when it's about the crypto industry. I could give several industries as examples with a low rate but a nightmare for any business owner.
Most countries don't really care about the crypto industry, they're just forced to create new regulations to adapt to the trend. And happy to collect million from the taxes.

Switzerland is a country apart when it comes to the finance industry, money is not a taboo there and it has often been ahead of many other countries. For example, the country didn't have a problem to manage/store Hitler's funds.

Sure cryptos aren't properties or securities but see yourself how people here are happy to see new regulations, claiming "it will help cryptos!" "Bitcoin is an investment!"...the community shoots himself in the foot,  We can only blame ourselves

It seems like a lot of companies are moving over, the government is trying to help out the crypto world as well. I know the biggest company there is ShapeShift.

For cryptocurrency to be refer to as a currency and used as such there is a need for wider adoption of cryptocurrency as a means of exchange of goods and services and at the moment cryptocurrency has not attained such recognition. Many refer to cryptocurrency as a property due to it monetary value in the exchange where it is best recognized, many market and firms does not recognize cryptocurrency as a true currency.

There are other countries like Estonia, Liechtenstein, and so on that also claimed to be crypto friendly because they have regulations for crypto business. Most ICO register themselves here.

Most of the times ICO is securities, it's hard to believe ICO is not securities because people invest on it for profits. Not surprised when they consider ICO securities, but I'll be surprised if they categorized Bitcoin as securities.

Nope, though the country has relatively have some.good reputations on cryptocurrency basing on the feedback of the users, clients or the investors. However, best project may come to any place. It is just that how the project is being market and how team works for the project. If the team works hard foe the success of the project after the money then that will work but most failed project were because team were only after the money and not the success of the project.

It is true that Switzerland it is very popular among projects related to cryptocurrencies, but in my opinion the world capital of crypto is Malta.

like most of the current ico projects that lack glow, scam and a lot of fraud, because one of them is the impact of the decline in bitcoin prices. but many say that Malta is a place for a good crypto business today. provided that a country's government provides flexibility to develop, and is supported by a project that is truly, I think it will make a quality project

I think Switzerland has the leading edge to become a safe haven for the cryptocurrency, just like what they've done with fiat. Switzerland is well known for bank secrecy and client confidentiality, features similar to cryptocurrency's anonymity. Surely, they will find ways to play a big role in this blockchain era.

For example, if someone launches a regulated cryptocurrency exchange in Swiss, traders will feel more secure about their assets and data protection.

I think that creating a crypto project in Switzerland would be quite expensive.Crypto taxes might be low,but all the other costs would be higher.There are many questions to be answered.Where will be the hosting/servers?In Switzerland or some other country?Where will be the crypto dev team location?Offshore islands might be a better option for crypto projects.

I know Malta want to be a base for crypto in the past but what advantage can they offer.   Would cost of power be quite relevant still, there is surely some cost perhaps labour that is most vital to crypto.

Switzerland could be good just because it has a fairly open attitude to all business.   Classing crypto as securities means it would not normally be handled by ordinary public where as money usually is, but this also depends how much difficulty they put into anyone holding securities as a free member of the public.    I assume there is no great difficulties to do so and its purely a disclaimer type difference

Sir, you contradict yourself.




You're criticizing Crypto Valley because they don't recognize cryptos as money, yet you don't recognize cryptos as money either! You state that cryptos should be considered property or securities, both of which are stores of value or investment assets, not currencies.

Malta for sure is not good place to open crypto mine, so for sure it is not about costs of electricity.

Malta is a good place for all kinds of commercial activities based on cryptocurrencies - mainly exchanges (for example Binance). It is a comfortable place when it comes to legal regulations and taxes. The government is very friendly to cryptocurrencies - this is the main advantage.

I would much rather launch any new Bitcoin project in a country like Japan, because the Japanese government is open to accepting Bitcoin as a currency and they are also supportive of Bitcoin Self regulation. 

Switzerland has lately followed guidance from the US government and things like privacy has been watered down through US influence. I would much rather launch a new Bitcoin project in a country that are open-minded towards Crypto currencies and who will respect some of my anonymity concerns.  ::)

Swiss nation always made a name for themselves by having a lot of foreign currency in their market. That is their specialty and allows them to have the upper hand in any currency situation. They have laws that help them attract people with a lot of money into their nation and invest there or at least put their money there. They found the trick, if you give them 10 billion dollars out of nowhere, they will not ask where you found that money and won't care even if you are a drug dealer or worse like a wall street broker. In exchange for that they do not give you any interest rate or maybe too little rate. Shady rich people put their money there without worrying about paying taxes in US while they keep money there.

Same applies for crypto, you can have 50 thousand bitcoins and in USA you will have to pay taxes for it, in Switzerland nobody asks you anything about how you got it and you don't pay any taxes.

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but that was not what I meant. I said that (a) Switzerland thinks cryptos are assets, (b) I think cryptos should not be treated as assets and (c) something called 'Crypto Valley' should recognize cryptos as money.
Switzerland is focused on maximising profits. It protected itself from radical religious groups by not allowing to kill animals in a Kosher and Halal ways. It kind of welcomed both sides during WW2, and I think the reason it's sticking to calling cryptos assets because otherwise it can risk losing a great banking system. Switzerland is still the most trusted country to store fiat. If they proclaimed cryptos another kind of money, the banks would probably disagree. If crypto is just property, however, it means that it's not competing with banks and fiat. It's just a smart way of getting more profits (also, cryptos would not have been taxed if they were recognized as money), but you are right that it's the crypto community's fault that we let it happen.

Switzerland is a country that is known as the bank of the whole world. Maybe it's one of the best options for your money in this environment.

Switzerland loves money, and money loves Switzerland, cryptocurrency support from the authorities of this country says a lot, namely that smart people understand global trends and will not support false projects and pyramids. This country is an indicator of success. And if they are in business it is not necessary to treat the cryptocurrency seriously.

Any where in the world could be a nice place to do a project with crypto and blockchain except for those place who bans it because somehow in the future all people will still use it.

Well amazingly Switzerland might be one the best place for crypto no doubt that they will become the leading blockchain country all over the world. Their passion about the technology is very bold and clear embracing it like there’s no tomorrow, they are just showing how big and serious they are about blockchain industry knowing its benefits.

yes, with good money management, and also open to crypto, switzerland can be an ideal country for crypto.

For a financial management agency, all value should be on paper and they want to make it legal.
ICO projects and ICO businesses are only valid on the internet but this is really a vague value. it can die at any time like many other big dead altcoins like Bitcoinnect, ARCHcoin, ...
In order to ensure the safety of investors, the financial management agency only wants to obtain the number of assets corresponding to what is recorded in the market.
This is really very difficult and it is also a big defect. We need a lot of time to solve this problem.

With the government legalizing crypto and giving freedom to crypto, I think it will be a good country for its development. besides Switzerland, we know Malta is also a paradise for crypto

As it is a country providing with legal support on cryptocurrency it seems to be a good pick, but at the same time establishing into Switzerland won't make a big difference. Maybe the money flow is big, but at present cryptocurrency needs usage by the common people same as the fiat. This needs a vast number of users, upon which it is good to focus on big countries than small nations.

That also happened in my country on February 9, yesterday, critpo was legitimately admitted and could be traded on the exchange but only as a futures investment asset, my country still could not make bitcoin a currency or a transaction tool because it was against the applicable law, but I am optimistic that this is a good start, every thing needs a process and regulations can sometimes change, although it seems impossible but at least my country has admitted it, and hopefully has a positive impact on the market, which I see even though there is no significant price increase but at least the price Bitcoin is currently not touching the lowest point

I think it all depends on what cryptocurrencies are meant. Some cryptocurrencies can really fall into the category of assets, because in fact they are analogous to stocks and can bring additional income to their owners. Bitcoin is certainly not an asset and can only act as a means of payment. I was not interested in how well laws in Switzerland are implemented in relation to cryptocurrencies, but Switzerland is still one of the countries that is most loyal to cryptocurrencies. The legal framework is only beginning to form, so it is more important that regulators are loyal to cryptocurrency and try to develop the most convenient laws.

Generally Switzerland is a good place if you are doing a sincere, legitimate project and are not planning to collect money in an ICO-style from random people. If you take lots of money from random investors, it can be quite difficult to access financial services or build your business. Instead, doing things in a slow, sincere way is the best.

centralized world finance in Switzerland all countries put their trust in saving their reserves in Switzerland, and it is a concern if many crypto projects carry out their legality in Switzerland because they invite a level of investor confidence,
but regulation in Switzerland is very professional and maintains private participants if it has been legalized a part of a good company for the crypto project.

that's right because the Swiss country is a well-developed country and is perfect if crypto projects are made in that country, because I'm sure it will succeed

It is true that Switzerland is a very well developed country and is friendly to projects related to the cryptocurrency market, but does not perform well in statistics related to the costs of doing business. In my opinion, Singapore looks much better, and in Europe - Malta and Cyprus.

"Best" is a really loose term. Is it a good place to start a crypto project ? Yes, it definitely is, is it the BEST ? I don't know. It all depends on the type of project you want to start I suppose.

If you want to start a small crypto company than I am sure its a good place and you can have a reach to whole world from there if you can afford marketing enough and get your name heard and there will be people who are interested in your company enough to work there and all the financial laws and infrastructure is already built there so everything is perfectly ready.

However, coinbase for example is based in USA silicon valley and they are literally reaching all Americans from there, maybe more taxes and issues but they are at least the leader in the USA which is a huge country to be based in. Basically what you want to do should decide where you should do it.

As far as I know, some European countries like Switzerland, Estonia, Malta are friendly countries for cryptocurrency, but that certainly does not mean it will be easy to build crypto projects in that country. There must also be certain strict rules regarding this. At least if you build crypto projec on those country, it can guarantee to be the top project

Crypto is a really broad term here, the projects which are run are collecting money initially with the help of ICO and they can be seen as securities or bonds or shares for the project we are investing, there is nothing wrong in it but i am sure Switzerland accepts bitcoin as a currency as i have read some features earlier that you could purchase bus tickets with bitcoin. There are many places that are crypto friendly like Singapore, Honk Kong and Japan.

crypto currencies are decentralized so it doesn't belong to any country even if it is originated from their,maybe they have their own regulations of using crypto there but what about the people from other countries,they will keep using as their wish.Everyplace is good to make crypto projects but if it is an crypto friendly country then chances of getting local investors will be more.

indeed crypto is not owned by a country, therefore investors certainly look for countries that have loose regulation of crypto. incidentally Switzerland is a country that fulfills these conditions. therefore I think there will be more bitcoiners there, because the state gives freedom

Given the reputation of Switzerland and the support of cryptocurrency in this country, these are excellent conditions for investment.

It is not only that they acknowledge cryptocurrency but they also have low power bills that most miners want to invest. Given the fact that cryptocurrency in Switzerland is widely acknowledged, they are also open on technology adoptation.

swiss is going to become the crypto most prefered destination we can say the main reason is swiss crypto policies is user-friendly for crypto  companies to start their operations

Switzerland is one of the ideal countries to carry out all kinds of financial activities. Of course, some regulations in this sector to be done and not be left completely free is something that restricts us, but compared to all countries, the only place where economic freedom and freedom in this sector is the Switzerland.

When you use word crypto you need to say what you mean by that. You mean by that Bitcoin or Monero. Or you mean by that some security that was issued and sold in a ICO?  How can a security be money and not an asset?

Switzerland is incredibly expensive.

A McDonalds six piece costs like $20!

One of the richest countries in the world, but well placed and well managed.   Great setup economic wise and tax is more localised then many countries, lots of positives.    Isnt somewhere with great solar or hydro power going to be quite well placed for mining at least, if its innovation alot of countries are trying to welcome crypto startups with various strengths to placement and recruitment in that area



That part is a major deal because if you require tax registration every time you move a token from one wallet to another, its going to produce a truck load of paperwork to stay legal.    It ends up being nonsense and is in danger of criminalising a population for just simple usage.    Maybe Switzerland has a less restrictive tax regime and securities dont need constant paperwork to book gains and declare taxes depending on that days official exchange rate but if it does require all that its not workable

I believe we would have a lot of other places were users enjoy the use of bitcoin and blockchain technology without any interference from any government agency, I think in no time, we are going to still have much more adoption this way because there is a crisis coming to the economy of so many countries of the world, and the only saving grace at that time would be crypto, this is why a lot of persons are already buying as much bitcoin as they can purchase.

I am not sure whether your idea about having a free market will be fulfilled as more governments around the world are trying to come up with rules and regulations to have a foot hold on the market situation and trying to extract money from the investors as much as they can, government will interference in a space where money is involved and there is nothing that can be done, if there is an financial crises i am not sure how people will trust a volatile market to invest, only time can prove this theory right.