Sri Lanka's Central Bank was clear on the reasons.

They perceived bitcoin to be riskier than any other investing instruments out there and the use of bitcoin falls foul of anti-money laundering laws.

Besides it decentralization, Sri Lanka's central bank finds bitcoin to be more of a speculative asset rather than an actual currency.

Reading on through the article you shared, it is in good light to have a milk chocolate branded as bitcoin to stamp awareness to Walmart's shoppers.

It is actually nice to finally have bitcoin back in its most affordable state. Now everybody can have a taste to how it feels owning a bitcoin #smiles #winks

But nonetheless, Frankford's chocolate bitcoin would really stir a lot of curiosity to many who have not yet heard of our most favored cryptocurrency. In many ways, it does help promote bitcoin, a necessity we need these days to grow the market stronger.

Well, allow me to say that doubt is good (but not excessive doubt though) if channeled positively.

You see, that doubt or lack of conviction plays a viral role in our lives (which includes our decisions in the world of the erratic cryptocurrency).

Doubting can actually be tuned into the form of motivation. And that motivation can be used to understand the market more, learn the trends or find enough materials to boost your confidence. You see, an informed decision caused by doubts are milestones that can lead a person to succeed.

So, there's really no big of an advantage should you stop doubting.

And to shed more light on this, here's the link of the article detailing the news of Thailand unveiling Crypto Laws, regulations, licensing requirements, framework for ICOs, fees of course and few of the approved cryptocurrencies that are embraced by the country's government:

https://news.bitcoin.com/thailand-crypto-regulations-legalizing-cryptocurrencies/

No need to be too harsh there Salesman4coinz.

Cryptography itself is a difficult matter to understand, what more now that it turned its tail digital or electronic in form? And what more for blockchain?  I doubt that there lies a single sentence that can be used to easily grasp the whole concept.

But should one don't understand what cryptocurrency is really all about, i don't think that it is right to brand them with no intelligence at all. If you could be kind enough to lay down your explanation in its simplest form, perhaps i might side with you.

Please do entertain us.

Thanks for sharing the news GayOfThrones!

This is a good sign of progress for the crypto economy as a whole. It balances the idea of bitcoin and the rest of cryptocurrency to be illegal. With a number of countries acknowledging that bitcoin and altcoins can actually be regulated and could be economically beneficial too, the future of this digital economy will soon be set in stone.

And yes, as Iran expresses huge interest on cryptocurrency, we might soon see Iran as a hub of miners to take advantage of the cheap energy the country offers.

This is why i always say that knowledge is an empowering tool that could eradicate situations that you stated.

If only every bitcoin user decides to learn more about the crypto economy, FUD becomes highly irrelevant. With the proper knowledge acquired by each user, FUD could never shake them down. Their hands will turn to be strong, not giving in to the strongest and most convincing FUD released to frighten bitcoin owners to sell at a low price.

Part of the current bitcoin situation are those that came from uninformed bitcoin owners that ended up with weak hands after being shaken down by FUD.

Again, allow me to emphasize that bitcoin is not illegal per se. Unregulated, yes. But illegal? I doubt.

The problem lies in the government not being ready for the existence of digital currency. Who would have thought that digital cash can happen as early as 2009? No one anticipated. Moreover, no one thought that it would be possible to have a system of payment that does not require a central authority. And in this case, banks became irrelevant as they serve no intermediary purpose between user's transactions.

Then Bitcoin was designed to be permission-less. No one can restrict or impose its' usage. Here, the government becomes irrelevant. With pseudonymity in place, the government felt it is a direct threat to its sovereignty.

Perhaps it is under these impressions that Bitcoin seems to be illegal when it is not, rather, unregulated because the governments was never ready for cryptocurrency.

There lies much truth in your reply dankboner83.

Most of the times, people tend to shy away from anything new in nature. Like a new car company, no matter how competitive the new line of cars that is at offer, people will usually choose a car manufacturer that has been existent for decades.

And the same applies to cryptocurrency, with the economy existing for nearly a decade only and less than 5 years when it comes to popularity and general interest. This concept is actually a limiting factor for many which holds them back from engaging with bitcoin in any manner.

I'm a bit positive that paypal will adopt bitcoin sooner. Paypal's founder even admired bitcoin's success. So it will not be much of a surprise should paypal embrace bitcoin sooner or later.

And yes, there already exist a number of banks that accepts bitcoin thanks to Coinbase and speculation from the U.S. Congress and it's consideration to regulate bitcoin sales. and of course, thanks to blockchain. Blockchain was among the strong come-on factor that stirred much interest from the bank sector.

And few of the countries that have banks accepting bitcoin are Germany, Estonia, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

I do think that Armstrong's forecast of 1 billion people in 5 years digging cryptocurrency is not impossible.

This year alone had contributed to a world wide awareness rally for cryptocurrency led by the crypto leader, bitcoin. As Vitalik believed, cryptocurrency gained enough attention already, what's next depth or utilization to grow the crypto economy even stronger than ever.

And i think that 5 years is a safe estimate for this adoption of utilization to take place. With bitcoin derivatives being deployed, institutional investors are about to make the crypto economy more lively. And for sure, user utilization will follow suit as confidence and trust will exponentially increase over time.

That's a really tough one there Faysal.  Having complied with the KYC requirement just to have your Blog & Video application rejected by them is really a bummer.

That's why i personally think that KYC should be imposed on Project Investors, not for bounty participants. I somehow conclude that ICOs are doing this to gain enough records on their database to show others that they have a flux of supporters (and at times refer them as investors too) willing to undergo KYC just to be able to support their cause.

There's really a lot going through with the KYC issue at hand. It will be wise to take precautions everytime before submitting yourself to a KYC.

And if we follow such logic of unpredictable futures, then none can be proclaimed king? That would be a paradox really. I think the OP is merely soliciting people's opinion regarding this and not official declaring ETH to be the actual king of ICOs.

But with a number of ICOs utizing the ETH platform for their token sales, smart contracts and blockchain needs, it is somehow relatively safe to assume ETH to be the ICO King. Though if we base the coronation in a historical manner, MasterToken was the first ICO launched in 2013, a year before Ethereum was launched and during this time, Eth raised 3,700 BTC in token sale.

As sad as it may sound, 2018 was really a year filled with much frustration and disappointments.

Imagine bullish predictions turning more bearish one after the other. Investors keep experiencing losses. The sea of red seems endless.

But i do believe that we can take part in turning the tides upside down. Since crypto has amassed a lot of attention and interest, making the market alive through utilization can help bitcoin land more attractive again inspite of failing prices.

So it would be wise for us to stay active with bitcoin, hodling is not bad, but earning and spending bitcoins will help a little bit more.

Indeed Rashid. There is a big distinction between money laundering and bitcoin being used for illegal activities.

You see, money laundering is illegal money sent out in concealed transactions (usually overseas) so that the money comes out clean in another form of fiat currency and then used to purchase legal property and assets or simply spent legally. Whereas the issue with bitcoin is not illegal money (unless of course if the money used to buy bitcoins are from an illegal means), rather pseudonymous transactions that are then used for illegal activities.

As sad as it may be, these are part of any cash system, even if we go back to bartering, activities as such will always spring out somewhere, somehow.

I do believe that the bitcoin network itself remains to be hack proof til date. The cryptography applied to every wallet and every transaction and the peer to peer method of confirming and recording of every block is super strong. There is no effective way of injecting dubious transactions nor trying to redirect a transaction to another wallet to steal bitcoins.

News of bitcoins being stolen did not originate from the bitcoin network itself, rather, it is the exchange or the bitcoin owner themselves that gets hacked. It is in this event that attempts to steal bitcoin becomes possible. But never over the network of bitcoin.

I got your point actually. The so-called complication of usage for bitcoin is a rampant and prevalent idea that seems to kill the end goal of having the general public accept bitcoin and all its offerings. Adapting to bitcoin will then look impossible since usage remains to be complicated in the perception of the majority.

Yet, time proves that people does adopt automatically with every passing innovative & revolutionary technology that sounds so complicated at first. And as much as such technology does not hold any imperative purpose, its growing popularity is able to push people to embrace it despite the hurdles in usage.

So i guess we are set to witness in the near future how easy it would be for the people to use bitcoin like 1-2-3.

Truly, with advancement in mining processes, nearly any device that could do calculations can be used for mining. But as many asserted, is it worth it?

There was this one study i came across with wherein they setup a a good configuration laptop with nicehash and let it run 24/7.  The good thing is that it did gained results, it actually mined. Great isn't it?

The sad part? The mining merely resulted in a 9 cents incentive a day.  Take that average for a year and you end up with around $328.50 in a year. I think that is very less for the price of the laptop and consumption of electricity.

Few of the mystery that really baffles me is the conspiracy theory of the whales manipulating the market.  If this is said to be true in nature, then what future does bitcoin have? Would it not simply end up as fad? Are we really at the mercy of the whales alone?

If so, are we supposed to be grateful or angry at them? Whales and price manipulation is really something i would like to understand better.

I do hope that whoever resorts to blockchain gives enough and sufficient credit to Satoshi Nakamoto as a sign of respect and gratitude.

Yet, as blockchain was declared an open source software, Satoshi Nakamoto for sure knew that he is allowing any person to modify, enhance and use the source code as they deem needed.  So with due credits or not, the blockchain was decided by Satoshi to be open and free for all. I guess he was not expecting anything in return but for the technology to be used.