First Kenia, now the Phillipines. I'm pretty sure this has absolutely nothing to do with "cyber security systems of banks", since Bitcoin is not related to their systems at all. It's just a pretense to make exchanging Pesos for Bitcoin harder. The simple reason: Inflationary fiat money, that nobody wants to hold if there is a better alternative.
It's sad that the officials in these countries fight the inevitable instead of embracing a technology that could attract a lot of investment capital and foster economic development. Just get rid of the silly national currency concept and use a currency that is stable and can flow worldwide with minuscule expense. Especially for countries with low labor cost Bitcoin is not an obstacle, but a huge opportunity to obtain a slice from global wealth.
ya.ya.yo!
I'm not surprised at all. They just want to make it look like they enforce law-level policies such as anti money laundering and financing of terrorism, etc. But their motive is also to make Bitcoin usage harder for their citizens as they see Bitcoin can be a threat to their country. And on the other side it's a good thing as this just shows how serious they take Bitcoin.
