Fiat cash payment limitations funneling people into bitcoin?

[Cryptowatch.com]

(Those needing references could google themselves)

The french will this year starting to restrict cash trades to 1000 eur.

It is not strange how every act of terror is followed by tighter restrictions and eroding the freedom and privacy of citizens, yet governments are claiming the opposite?

They're in general claiming that tighter controls will give a more secure society. Is anyone really buying that? Is your non-bitcoin friends really buying that?

The question is, who will benefit the most from increased control of cash trade? The people or the government? I think the answer is clear.. But they are using these acts of terror as a wrench to get their way.

There are two options here, either the governments really believes that tightening control of cash is going to help prevent terrorism, or it is a deliberate action to increase their control and limit the usage of cash for the citizens. Now, all governments have lots of advisors and bright(?) heads among them, so it would be naive to think this is stupidity on the part of the governments.

As for the incidents that actually happens, these could be legit, or they could be orchestrated. I'm not putting any blame here, but if it was an official investigation all possibilities would've needed to be kept open..

I'm putting on my tinfoil hat predicting that cash limits will be reduced step by step, until cash vanish entirely.

The question is, will this drive bitcoin usage?

Also, since the war on cash is on, and since bitcoin exchanges effectively dispense digital cash (bitcoin) in exchange of fiat money, there's a trail left at the exchange. Everyone having an account at an exchange must assume that their account is "compromised" by one or more governments, if not now, it will be in the near future when every country's equivalent of the IRS starts demanding full transaction history from all exchanges, this is already happening (google is your friend). By the exchange disclosing your outgoing transactions to the government, the government will be able to look into what you're doing with the bitcoins, and they will do so, even if you're not part of a criminal investigation. Most likely we must assume that major exchanges at this point is in talks, if it has not been implemented already, the ability for certain govt. organizations to peek at users of interest in real time, as they do with traditional financial institutions. Exchanges will deny they're working with governments on these issues, some of them are honest about it (they're not yet hit), and the rest will outright lie. If they're honest, it means that customers will leave that exchange, and they might also be put out of business by their overlords.

Also, look at the explanation some exchanges give for closing up shop, it might not be honest explanations, but a coverup. Some exchange operators have spine, and will rather claim they were compromised through an electronic break in or similar, or no reason at all, and then close up shop, rather than caving in to the govt thugs.

So be careful, and take appropriate steps to protect your own freedom and privacy.

To be honest, I do not think that setting lower limits for cash purchases will help one bit against the terrorists. I also do not think that tax-income will be increased because of this. I'm quite certain that lots of people will be inconvenienced by this though.

It won't take long before ordinary folks will be hassled and harassed because they one way or another step over certain monthly limits or "suspicious transaction" limits, so instead of depositing the money from your grocery store to the bank, you will be brought in for intensive questioning, likewise the unsuspecting exchange user who traded his bitcoins with a random dude on the internet which thereafter went on to commit a hideous act for some weapon he bought with said bitcoins, might face a hard time with the police. Not like the criminal would not've done the same if he used cash or barter to get the same weapon..

When you disrespect people, they will not grow as humans. They might in fact turn to the "dark side", when they see there's no opportunities or respect in store for them. So perhaps governments should start looking at the very root of what causes people to become bad instead of trying to restrict the usage of "bad tools".

My opinion is that govts. do not care much, if anything about their people, they just look at what benefits they can gain themselves. So, it's all a poor masquerade in reality. Also, who's the largest criminals in this world, doing the largest transactions? I rest my case...

[Undermood]

I think most of the unbanked ppl will suffer the most, especially those tourists, immigrants, or those who hates depositing in banks which charges them negative interest rates.

[Lauda]

I think most of the unbanked ppl will suffer the most, especially those tourists, immigrants, or those who hates depositing in banks which charges them negative interest rates.

Well that is obvious. All these things that they are doing just harms the public, not terrorists or other illegal activists. They are abusing the acts of terrorism. They might  have even caused them themselves but that's another story..

I'm not sure if this will drive people to Bitcoin. Who knows how long it will take for the population to start realizing things in bigger numbers. We could have already had a few hundred mil. of users, but they are just ignorant. At least, the people who have already jumped on the train can enjoy Bitcoin and cherish its benefits.

[Q7]

The more restrictions imposed the more people will start to look for alternatives. Nobody likes to be controlled their freedom and this will certainly make people starting to take bitcoin seriously. I'm sure there are people who have heard of bitcoin but have not really make attempt to discover it so now is the right time.

[Kprawn]

Well I think it's more about the cost to produce money. {Mint/Print}

The United States paper currency budget for 2014 was USD$826.7 million (U.S. Federal Reserve, 2014) and the budget to mint US Coins in 2013 was USD$459 million (U.S. Mint, 2014)

The estimated life span of a $1 bill = +/- 6 years. {So it's a ongoing battle to keep money/fiat in circulation}

That money could be used to fund anti-terrorism campaigns or projects. 

Every country are going towards a cash-less economy, because it's cheaper and easier to track digital transactions. 

[NUFCrichard]

I think most of the unbanked ppl will suffer the most, especially those tourists, immigrants, or those who hates depositing in banks which charges them negative interest rates.

I don't think anyone likes depositing into banks with negative interest rates!
When people start holding cash, then governments will have to start heavily controlling cash transactions, that is when Bitcoin will really come into it's own, if you ask me.

There needs to be more places accepting bitcoin for a major influx to occur, but it is happening slowly.

[BitmoreCoin]

I think most of the unbanked ppl will suffer the most, especially those tourists, immigrants, or those who hates depositing in banks which charges them negative interest rates.

I am not sure about the immigrants, but tourists can use credit cards and tourism attractions should cost less than 1000 E.

[pawel7777]

If I understand this correctly, the limit of 1000 euro is for a single cash transaction. If so, that itself shouldn't increase demand for Bitcoin. After all, you can still use cash for black-market transactions (I don't imagine your local drug/weapon/explosives dealer would voluntarily limit himself to 1k/tx).

On the other hand, such limits could and will piss off a large number of people (who don't have to much trust in banks and like to have control over their own finances) and push them to look for alternative to fiat money. And this could create a higher quality demand (but not immediate).

What annoys me the most, is that governments effectively enforce everyone to use banks (private, commercial institutions), without providing proper customer protection. Your application for bank account can be declined, your account can be closed without giving you any reason. So you have to have an account, but no one can guarantee that you will get one.

But I don't think cash money will disappear anytime soon.

[duckydonald]

If I understand this correctly, the limit of 1000 euro is for a single cash transaction. If so, that itself shouldn't increase demand for Bitcoin. After all, you can still use cash for black-market transactions (I don't imagine your local drug/weapon/explosives dealer would voluntarily limit himself to 1k/tx).

On the other hand, such limits could and will piss off a large number of people (who don't have to much trust in banks and like to have control over their own finances) and push them to look for alternative to fiat money. And this could create a higher quality demand (but not immediate).

What annoys me the most, is that governments effectively enforce everyone to use banks (private, commercial institutions), without providing proper customer protection. Your application for bank account can be declined, your account can be closed without giving you any reason. So you have to have an account, but no one can guarantee that you will get one.

But I don't think cash money will disappear anytime soon.

I think the more the government try to take control, the more p2p will get out of hand, so the govs are there own undoing.

[Snail2]

As most people are still unaware of bitcoin itself and its benefits most likely we will not see a sudden change in the near future.

[DarkHyudrA]

The more Bitcoin gets accepted, the better.
Country to another country transactions will be a lot easier and almost instant.

[duckydonald]

not alot of people are aware of p2p, I will see p2p being used for geeks only.  Maybe the younger generation are the ones will use it the most.

[pedrog]

I'll quote here my reply to a similar topic:

I believe the limit in France is 3000 euros, reducing to 1000 is not that big change.

Plus, they are planning this change for like 2 or 3 years now, why did this became news after all this time?

In my country, Portugal, the 1000 euros limit exists since 2012, previous limit was around 10,000 euros, this is pretty common around EU, it's a measure to fight tax evasion by companies.

There was no increase in bitcoin search because of the 1000 euros limit since 2012, bitcoin is quite unknown in Portugal, and the majority of people, probably, don't even know there's such a limit.

Now for the French situation, does 3000 to 1000 such a really big change?

Do French people carry around with them thousands of euros in cash so they can pay big purchases in cash?

[Natalia_AnatolioPAMM]

The more Bitcoin gets accepted, the better.
Country to another country transactions will be a lot easier and almost instant.

but a bit more risky and unprotected, won't it?

[pozmu]

It's only temporary fix for such limitations. Bitcoin's unregulated for now, but only for now. If it will be a sizeable chunk of daily financial operations it will regulated and legit companies will have to obey these regulations.

[gentlemand]

not alot of people are aware of p2p, I will see p2p being used for geeks only.  Maybe the younger generation are the ones will use it the most.

There are millions of torrent users who are well aware of the benefits of p2p. Perhaps it'll take the odd legacy financial system calamity for more to wake up to the idea of p2p money, but it's likely the day will come. It's too obvious an idea not to appeal to a decent number of people.

[jonald_fyookball]

not alot of people are aware of p2p, I will see p2p being used for geeks only.  Maybe the younger generation are the ones will use it the most.

just like twenty years ago not a lot of people are aware of internet, it was geeks only.

[Meuh6879]

(Those needing references could google themselves)
The question is, who will benefit the most from increased control of cash trade? The people or the government? I think the answer is clear.. But they are using these acts of terror as a wrench to get their way.

they want destroy the bank-run feature ... and they have do the job (in france).

on ATM, you can only retrieve 500 euro per day or 1600 euro per month (yes ... with a normal credit card even if you have more on bank account)

the final goal is to swap money with bank action at the end to destroy the whole debt limitation.

---

thant why i have swap the 94% bank account in bitcoin in 2014.
6% is only for usual month bills.

but merchand are so cold ... to pay with bitcoin.

[Meuh6879]

The question is, will this drive bitcoin usage?

yes, because bitcoin don't have the limitations for big payments (like 1000 euro per day, for vacancy motel or other usually big invoice).
for me, it's the actual thing that it will (like paypal to use emial/pass instead of multiple codes) enpowered bitcoin to people.

[countryfree]

Your application for bank account can be declined, your account can be closed without giving you any reason. So you have to have an account, but no one can guarantee that you will get one.

I'm not totally sure, but I think anyone can get a bank account in France. It might come from the EU. Any citizen is entitled to a bank account (getting a credit card is different). I know that to get any benefit, or social security, a bank account is required.

Back to the subject, this is just another awful lie to control all financial activities. Closing all my bank accounts within the Euro zone was one of the best decisions I've ever made.