Bitcoin Forum

Earlier in 2019 State Bank of Pakistan announced that bitcoin and other virtual currencies/tokens/ coins are banned in Pakistan. For organizations and institutions it is banned by State Bank of Pakistan. Bank will not get involved if there is any dispute. They will not facilitate any transaction for it.

Late in 2019, Prime Minister Pakistan started a new program "Digital Pakistan". Highly Qualified and well known team members are chosen from all over the world. PM will directly monitor this program, Head of this program is Ms. Tania Aidrus. During her address, said that she is quite aware of the financial troubles faced by Pakistan’s freelancers as Crypto Currency / PayPal is unavailable.

on another occasion Tania Aidrus has promised to bring PayPal and cryptocurrency in Pakistan. While speaking at an interactive session with the top entrepreneurs in Pakistan at the Usman Institute of Technology (UIT) she made these remarks.

with this hope that 2020 and the Digital Pakistan team will bring back crypto currency / paypal in pakistan.

Digital Pakistan looks like another Digital Yuan, centralized coin to track its users or they are going to adopt some of the public blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum?
Second option would be better for crypto mass adoption around the world.  :)

It's not something really relevant to cryptocurrency communities though.
YES it may make it a lil bit know in Pakistan & that's it.

Looks the new government in Pakistan under the leadership of Imran khan is pro crypto because he has talked about blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and distributed ledgers in his speeches at various events which goes to show his keen interest and following towards this segment, with the initiation of digital Pakistan initiative it would be great if all these steps and regulations regarding digital money and crypto is being done as quickly as possible because everyday is important and time is running out and Pakistan can become the leader in this field if they implement the correct policy as soon as possible.

I would like to hear more from someone who really lives there. But if they are making their own digital currency, they are doing the right thing because they can see that someday every transaction will become digitalized. And on this case, I hope that they'll reconsider bitcoin so that they don't have to waste a lot of money developing their own digital currency which might not be used by most there because adoption will take place and it will take time for all of their citizens. Although, on their perspective they will not handle the production of it because it's decentralized but I'm wishing the best for Pakistan's openness soon for crypto.

Good move by the government. If paypal weren't available for them since time of internet, it looks like they were penalized for a long time without access to online payment. I have seen many freelancers from Pakistan and its just now that I knew they don't have access to paypal.

I'm not sure though if they have something similar to paypal but crypto being banned will mean so much unbanked in this country that will finally be able to access finance trading.

I guess crypto currencies were never banned by government of pakistan since Localbitcoin site has offers from pakistan so only banks banned it like happened in India but bangladesh announced complete ban.But in future developed countries will be regulation so Pakistan also will do the same since they were afraid of how to regulate a decentralized payment.

I also hope that digital Pakistan will bring crypto or paypal to be a part of economic development at there ,making it easier to pay ,well this country must adjust to the development of an increasingly advanced world and a very good step to bring back crypto in Pakistan Tania Aidrus (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tania-aidrus-b68607?originalSubdomain=sg) have that skill

It's very obvious what they are trying to accomplish and it's the same for basically all the countries that are currently banning decentralised cryptos.

Ultimately, their aim is to drive out decentralised cryptos so that they can pave the way for domestic, centralised cryptos, whether that is issued by the government or the central bank. Pakistan is no exception to this, and we're hearing similar things from countries like Russia.

I doubt that these national cryptos will be of significant interest to everyday crypto investors though due to the fact that they're still tied to the national fiat currency and is essentially no different to them.

While I am happy that cryptocurrency is getting the recognition it deserves if this plan comes to fruition, I am skeptical at how the government plans to handle the project. It will only end up being another centralized coin and no different from the local currency aside from being virtual and probably blockchain-based as well.

They might be used a new blockchain or the different mechanism for their digital Pakistan. I never heard if digital yuan will adopt blockchain as its core system. I agree with you if the second option is a better thing than the first option as crypto can also increase the demand for digital pakistan to create a direct trade. Remember both will get the advantages by the integrate between both of ecosystem.
Paypal is also a potential payment option too. That's why the second option must be back again. If the digital exist but no service the connected with it and that will be useless.

its sux they are so controlling, imagine how many in their country could have been helped if they would have let people buy in early :O
now they sound like they are back tracking...   too late sadly, as BTC is too expensive for most of their citizens now and the scene is too competitive : /
thats sad really to hear they banned even paypal :(
 

Countries that have banned cryptocurrency inevitably make their own crypto, yes even though it is centralized.
This is for me like scapegoating bitcoin and other altcoins for their own crypto success lol. Although this government action as prevention of crypto fraud.
Though the choice is in the hands of each person and of course already understand the risks. But they are using the negative issue of crypto to build their own business. At least that's what I think.

Honestly it is hard ti hope that crypto world have a good chance to live in communist communist country because all we know of what kind of government that they have, on the other hand I think in their situation netizen really need crypto to make their transaction even they are not going outside that considered as a risk of their life.

"Digital Pakistan" is not necessarily a crypto and could possibly something that is a lot centralised just like Ali pay in china or apple pay. Although I don't really know the circumstances there regarding regulation against crypto but they just promised to bring crypto back to their own country which could probably only happen if the ban got lifted. Although, it's always good to see another market opening up to cryptocurrency.

Probably to avoid the risk of capital escaping the country and at the same time taking advantage of the technology which most of crypto carries as well as the benefits.

Any source regarding this information? The conflict country will be hard to accept bitcoin or cryptocurrecy as whole even if we see the Pakistan very thick with the terrorist state according to US government. It will affects to the using of cryptocurrencirs for the citizen since many government that will be worried if they accept cryptocurrencies it will be using by the terorist to accept the fund. I will not be suprised if the government decide to ban cryptocurrency in their country. But, since the cryptocurrency decentralistic and we don't need bank to trade them there will still many people who using them.

Not only Pakistan, China, Turkey and Venezuela will also soon make their own cryptocurrency made by the government. this shows that cryptocurrency with its blockchain technology is very interesting to learn and apply. if indeed in 2020 the Pakistani government launched cryptocurrency then I am sure in the future they will also accept bitcoin and altcoin.

Seems to me that they are doing the same move by China. At first they ban all related activity with cryptocurrency and later on just recently they are now supporting it and announce to funded some blockchain projects on their own turf.

I can see Pakistan now repeating the same. Isn't it hypocracy? They dont want to affiliated in any of it but now they even recruit some bright personnel to bring in some blockchain projects and big names into their house?

There is future for Pakistan if they started to adopt with it slowly. I would love to see the article for this? Any source OP?

i am not fully aware of china's move, but i am totally agreed with your hypocrisy term. in previous governments parties stopped and banned Paypal and crypto currencies due their own concerns. the new prime Minister is taking some good steps to improve the digitization and crypto currency future in Pakistan. Ms. Tania Aidrus is an ex Google employee, who is currently heading this project.

Source: Cointelgraph and complete interview of Ms. Tania Aidrus can be found on youtube.

I cannot find a 2019 news article that says the State Bank of Pakistan banned bitcoin and other cryptos but I found 2018 articles that says the state bank does not recognize them as legal tender. It's not an outright ban like what others portray.

I doubt that it's going to be on a public blockchain. Government authorities are control freaks and would want to keep things as private as possible.

for freelancers, paypal and crypto have become very important platforms. so if a country bans the platform, freelancers will not get a secondary job. in my opinion if pakistan receives paypal and crypto, that would be a good start for pakistan to be open to digital technology and digital investment.

It is considered as hope for every countryman that don't have any freedom to accumulate crypto with their life. It somehow Pakistan government are closing this opportunity for their people, it is a similar thing that it happens in China. They couldn't do anything even they want to if their leaders won't open up their eyes and see how this thing could help the living of their countrymen. The future acceptance of crypto lies with them. 

This news is good for all crypto enthusiasts and investors and all those who love cryptocurrency. I believe this encouraging statement relating to cryptocurrency by Pakistan's Prime Minister is a good move in providing Pakistani people with the benefits of cryptocurrency. I also believe cryptocurrency will help the people of Pakistan.

actually digital currency helps people get freelancers' jobs, the state can reduce the number of unemployed people in their country because of the internet. and in the internet world there are quite a lot of jobs and one of the payment methods uses this crypto industry. so with the ban, freelancers in the country will have difficulty due to limited access.

Its really good news for the people of your country and the whole crypto world,If it will be legalized people will get benefit from it.Creating awareness to the people and encouraging them to use modern technology,It helps to support for the stable economy of the country.Students and jobless people earn from the crypto and it can leave many positive things n economy.

As if in Pakistan there are no more affairs of others. It's funny when in such countries they make such statements but essentially nothing changes. If they still live there without paypal, then maybe they don’t need it?)

Why should they accept bitcoin and altcoin if they create their own cryptocurrency? They had previously banned bitcoin and altcoins because they could not control it and considered it a danger, and now they create their own cryptocurrency to be able to control and they will definitely ban forever bitcoin and altcoin

It's like China with their own cryptocurrency, don't get me wrong so there are no more mistakes like the previous China news, because China wants to use its own blockchain, so it won't have an impact if Pakistan makes its own crypto currency, even if they only learn blockchain technology without have to adopt bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, I often see this kind of news bitcoin is always banned, actually they are also hypocritical, I always laugh and let time force them to use this technology too, lol therefore I never believe in any news about the prohibition of bitcoin in any country