Bitcoin Forum

I currently find myself in Turkey - odd thing is that without a VPN outside of the country, bitcointalk.org will not load. Was it banned here somehow?

The closest I've found explaining this was: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2047410.msg21295277#msg21295277 (about Turkey blocking social networks).

Yes, it seems to be banned. -- https://www.comparitech.com/privacy-security-tools/blockedinturkey/

Why? I don't know. (Well, i could make an educated guess- censorship driven nation etc- but no particular explanation about Bitcointalk can be found anywhere it seems.)

Edit: *blocked by some providers, not banned.

Turkey doesn't just block Bitcointalk.org, but a number of Bitcoin related websites. Several block explorers, and news sources are also blocked from being accessed within Turkey. Seems that Turkey has a somewhat hostile look on Bitcoin related websites, and not just social networking sites. I'm pretty sure some of the more popular VPN services are actually hosted in Turkey which is a little bewildering.

You should post a redirection towards here in the turkish local board, they should know the reason.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=133.0

bitcointalk.org not blocked officially in Turkey. you can check this from official department https://internet2.btk.gov.tr/sitesorgu
website not accept get or api method i can not give direct link :D
i guess some of isp dns servers block bitcointalk if you change dns servers bitcointalk accessible without vpn.

Thanks for the site, never heard of it before.


Could be quite obvious (since 2008 their currency has devalued like 8 fold). 1 euro used to be 2 lira now more like 6/6.5.. Politicians be like "hmm let's prevent people from stumbling onto new ideas"..


Thank you, but as bileq (thanks) says I thought it was rather an admin thing @theymos would be able to fix.. Though even bitcoin.com is blocked according to comparitech.com - so definitely a censor thing.

Yes, it's only a dns problem. DNS which used by Turk Telekom (Turkish ISP) blocked bitcointalk. So Turkish users cant view directly.
On my first try for joining forum i've tried vpn and my first account blocked by bitcointalk system. (You are unable to post. How to enable posting.)

account link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1812287

One week later i've tried changing dns and registered with this account it has worked. It's not usefull for new Turkish users.

I sent a mail to Masak (https://www.hmb.gov.tr/) and Cimer (https://www.cimer.gov.tr/) about this situation. They told me that Bitcointalk.org is not officially banned in Turkey but it seems to be illegally banned by some internet service providers. Even if we don't like our goverment, sometimes they can do something (;D) good. They have published a cryptocurrency that backed by physical gold and it is sponsored by Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. Still, I don't think our government understands Bitcoin's decentralization because they developed Biga on HyperLedger Fabric. It is not working like Bitcoin. It centralized by five banks and they can control the network easily. Özgür Güneri who is owner Btcturk.com that founded in 2013 spoke about Bitcoin and Privacy and the founder of Biga spoke about Use of Blockchain in Financial System at 2nd National Blockchain Workshop in Istanbul that was sponsored by Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. If you wonder, you can find more details on this topic (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5187257.msg52546110#msg52546110).

Yes as other users pointed out it's a Turkish Telekom DNS censorship issue.

The fastest way to access BTT in Turkei would be to just switch to any reputable non Turkish DNS server.

Meanwhile, if you are in Istanbul, there is a Crypto cafe in Kadikoy you might really enjoy checking out where enthusiasts gather to discuss crypto currencies almost 24 / 7, it's called Altcoin Turk ;) (I can give the directions for anyone interested)... Enjoy your trip

It is strange that Turkey blocks Bitcointalk forum, because Turkey is one of the countries
where Bitcoin is most popular compared to all other countries in the world...
but maybe people who rule this country are thinking differently.

There is always Tor browser as alternative

This sounds good. It also makes me wonder why a nation who seems not to be too friendly with bitcoin/cryptocurrencies would acts as a 'container' to a cryptocurrency cafe for enthusiasts, which obviously would include bitcoin enthusiast, to gather and talk.

It makes me conclude that It could also be that this sites that block bitcointalk forum, do so out of their own arbitrary decisions, without the enforcement of the government, because if it were, no site would be able to house it, but apparently there are many others that do, users should be aware of them, so if they find themselves in Turkey, it wouldn't be an issue accessing the forum.

As far as i know turkish government is well notified about bitcoin and its use. Most probably its not like that they don't wanna let their internet users to get in touch with bitcointalk. Turkish tech advisors are pretty much gentle about the use of blockchain technology like Iran and maybe they will start the process of accepting bitcoin on their native platforms soon.

Here is the list of total bitcoin tellers around Istanbul ;
List of bitcoin ATM around Istanbul (https://coinatmradar.com/city/1952/bitcoin-atm-istanbul/)

Woah, be careful there. Merely using the word 'Turkey' associated with anything even remotely negative can get you accused of racism by the Turkish mob here  :D.

It's crazy to think that governments still try to censor certain things. I think most probably do it some extent. Piratebay and some warez sites are blocked in the UK by court order but I'm not sure what good that does when you can bypass it in a second with a proxy. Proxies seem to be a booming business right now. They seem to be sponsoring half the big youtubers and I've even seen them advertised on the banner boards at football games and even during the TV commercials over here.

Seems its not the government, but the internet providers that are directly censoring the content. Which is weird, because some of the bigger, and more popular VPN services operate within Turkey. I do remember one of the VPN providers making a move from Turkey to Georgia a few years ago though which might be because of some ruling the government made. If someone wants to put their conspiracy boots on they could say the government isn't directly blocking the sites, but are putting rules to the internet providers that they have to block certain content.

I can't speak for any where else but in the UK with the case of PirateBay etc it's the movie studios and TV networks that go to court to get an order which if granted is then legally enforceable and ISPs have to follow suit in blocking them. Kinda futile as they can only block a specific domain so if it's piratebay.com all they have to do is start using piratebay.net or whatever then they have to go get a court order to block that one but specific proxies just to access piratebay pop up all the time so it'll be a never-ending battle. 

Plausible deniability. ISPs are more than aware that users are using proxies, VPNs and Tor to bypass all the restrictions they put in place and view blocked material or torrent illegal content. But that can't be easily proven from IP logs, so they can't be taken to court over it. All they need to do is the bare minimum which the courts mandate (such as block piratebay.com whilst ignoring the .net, .org, .it, .biz, etc., sites), whilst also maintain the maximum amount of freedom so they keep customers.

It's only getting more common. All Western governments are increasingly censoring more and more material, and spying more and more on their citizens via Google, Facebook, etc. The latest story I say was that the US government are demanding Facebook install a backdoor to WhatsApp to allow them to access everybody's messages unencrypted. Governments want control.

I'm really wondering how citizens can be blocked from accessing a specific site by a government that doesn't own the site. Also, this is one of the reasons why the Blockchain technology isn't adopted quickly (I still remember discussing this in one of my last topics). However, I strongly believe that one day, they'll definitely stop all these restrictions (not just Turkey; even other countries that ban bitcoin)

Yeah, that's true. Turkey is one of the countries where Bitcoin is the most popular. But the government of Turkey was blocked twitter, youtube, Wikipedia (still), facebook and other social media platforms in the past. But what is the reason? The government doesn't want to accept even the slightest criticism that might come to it. And it doesn't want this idea of criticism to spread. Isn't it a bit dictatorial? Yeah for sure. But there is really nothing to do atm, sad but true.

Are you using free/hotel wifi or roming data? Last year I was on a vacation in Antalya and with roming data and hotels wifi I wasnt able to open bitcointalk.org page. But managed to do it in McDonalds free wifi  ;D

This year I was in other hotel in May and easily access forum...

Bitcointalk.org can not be banned in Turkey. Take a look in huge local Turkey section. Doubt that they all access only via vpn.

Ah - you probably just found the reason tbh.. I needed to be on certain wifi's and otherwise use VPN. Anyway, locking this thanks for everyone's input.