The most bitcoin-friendly region in the world?

[Jerry Walker]

I mean outside US - where most of successful bitcoin startups are located?

In Europe I think it's Netherlands, but what about Asia? Couple of years before - I'd say Japan, but right now I think it's either Indonesia. Though looks like things are going great in Philippines too.

[Lauda]

You could look at several things to figure this one out. Let's put the legal status aside for now. There used to be a map of the whole world which was displaying places where Bitcoin was being accepted, but I'm unable to find it again.
You could look at Google trends, and the uptime of nodes in the past 48 hours. This article might also help you figure it out (even though it contains outdated information). This one is more recent.

[b-trading]

I mean outside US - where most of successful bitcoin startups are located?

In Europe I think it's Netherlands, but what about Asia? Couple of years before - I'd say Japan, but right now I think it's either Indonesia. Though looks like things are going great in Philippines too.

i'm indonesian and live in indonesia you are right bitcoin have a positive development here in indonesia especially in Bali island..you can find many merchat that accept bitcoin as a payment there in Bali, Indonesia. Also Indonesia has a great bitcoin exchange vip.bitcoin.co.id, it is tbe biggest exchange in Indonesia with a great services

[coinpr0n]

Not that many startups, but there's a street in Madrid referred to as "Bitcoin Street" (Calle Bitcoin in Spanish) that boasts many retail businesses that accept Bitcoin. By no means the friendliest region in the world though.

[BTCFaucets]

In Asia there is not much hype on cryptocurrency yet. You can try talking to any person on the road and they will not know what it is. Chances are Asia will not be friendly to bitcoin any time soon, because they are conservative and something this new will take a long time before it is used. I am Asian.

[LiteCoinGuy]

UK & Switzerland are pretty bitcoin-friendly too.

[gentlemand]

UK & Switzerland are pretty bitcoin-friendly too.

No UK BTC business can get a bank account. Compared to the USA it's in the dark ages for actual acceptance.

The Philippines seems to be surging ahead for crypto usage. There's some very cool stuff happening there.

[98problems]

UK & Switzerland are pretty bitcoin-friendly too.

there arent a lot of countries that are bitcoin friendly in europe what is really sad as i live there, i believe the biggest reason is that banks are afraid of bitcoin though its just my opinion

[LiteCoinGuy]

UK & Switzerland are pretty bitcoin-friendly too.

No UK BTC business can get a bank account. Compared to the USA it's in the dark ages for actual acceptance.

The Philippines seems to be surging ahead for crypto usage. There's some very cool stuff happening there.

iam not talking about acceptance by the population. iam talking about "friendly" from a gov-perspective.

UK and Switzerland are pretty bullish.

welcome to the future:

[bitcart]

There are a lot of ATMs in Canada if that means anything. That would only mean it's accessible not necessarily btc friendly. I'm not sure which country would be the most "friendly" or adopt btc the most. Maybe Cyprus?

[Dire]

I think Canada is on the right track: http://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/canada-senate-study-bitcoin-regulation-should-be-almost-a-hands-off

“This technology requires a light regulatory touch – almost a hands off approach. In other words, not necessarily regulation, but regulation as necessary,”

Here's a list where Bitcoin is "legal" - air-quotes due to the fact that it not being illegal doesn't mean it's easy to navigate the establishment, take the U.K banks for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country

[gentlemand]

iam not talking about acceptance by the population. iam talking about "friendly" from a gov-perspective.

UK and Switzerland are pretty bullish.

I'm sure there would be acceptance by the population if they were able to transact. UK banks seem to harp on about unclear regulation, presumably as cover to refuse to deal with it. If the government was actually interested they'd lay on something to shut the banks up rather than stand around posing.

[Kakmakr]

If you could answer this question based on Tax, these are some of the countries that declared Bitcoin as being VAT free:
Finland - http://www.coindesk.com/finland-classifies-bitcoin-vat-exempt-financial-service/
Switzerland - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/20833/swiss-tax-authorities-confirm-bitcoin-vat-free-switzerland/
Spain - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/20118/bitcoin-now-vat-exempt-spain/

That is a good start, if a country exempt Bitcoin from VAT. I am not sure, if things changed since these anouncements was done, but it's worth your time to investigate further.

Added info = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country

[bornil267645]

I think Amsterdam is the Bitcoin hub in Europe. And for Asia, I guess Indonesia in recent times.

[Amph]

surely it must one which bitcoin isn't heavily regulated or banned, i would say singapore(it come in handy that another thread is reporting this), it seems that one of their business located there bitx(this isn't bit-x) gets 4M in funds from digital currencies group

https://www.techinasia.com/singapore-bitcoin-startup-bitx-4m-funding-naspers/

singapore together with japan can be a central hub for the "rising sun" countries

[nerFohanzo]

In Asia there is not much hype on cryptocurrency yet. You can try talking to any person on the road and they will not know what it is. Chances are Asia will not be friendly to bitcoin any time soon, because they are conservative and something this new will take a long time before it is used. I am Asian.

Your are right. It will take a long way for asians to have faith in bitcoins and start using it. As you said that asians are very conservative and they will not trust something that is totally new to them.

Even if we recommend them for bitcoins, they would think twice before using it and out of 100 only 10% of the people would show their interest in learning something new.

[Slark]

I really like this topic so I searched about it a little and I found pretty interesting article about the bitcoin ATMs. Apparently Bitcoin ATMs are not sparse as I thought in Europe.
Data from CoinDesk’s bitcoin ATM map include a total of 64 bitcoin ATMs distributed across 20 countries.
The UK and Netherlands are home to more than 30% of Europe's bitcoin ATMs with 10 machines in each country.
When adjusting for each country's population, the UK ranks only eleventh most popular in Europe for the digital currency machines.
Other countries with multiple bitcoin ATMs that missed the top five include the Czech Republic,
ranked sixth with six ATMs; Switzerland, ranked seventh with three ATMs; and Italy, ranked 14th with four ATMs.

http://www.coindesk.com/5-popular-european-countries-bitcoin/

[bitcart]

I really like this topic so I searched about it a little and I found pretty interesting article about the bitcoin ATMs. Apparently Bitcoin ATMs are not sparse as I thought in Europe.
Data from CoinDesk’s bitcoin ATM map include a total of 64 bitcoin ATMs distributed across 20 countries.
The UK and Netherlands are home to more than 30% of Europe's bitcoin ATMs with 10 machines in each country.
When adjusting for each country's population, the UK ranks only eleventh most popular in Europe for the digital currency machines.
Other countries with multiple bitcoin ATMs that missed the top five include the Czech Republic,
ranked sixth with six ATMs; Switzerland, ranked seventh with three ATMs; and Italy, ranked 14th with four ATMs.

http://www.coindesk.com/5-popular-european-countries-bitcoin/

My experience with ATMs in London is that they all suck except for the one in cex. So some of those 30% might have been taken away or not running since. Although I have heard the Netherlands are good so they would probably stock most out of any European country.

[bitcoinmasterlord]

UK & Switzerland are pretty bitcoin-friendly too.

there arent a lot of countries that are bitcoin friendly in europe what is really sad as i live there, i believe the biggest reason is that banks are afraid of bitcoin though its just my opinion

That is correct. Banks here fear that bitcoin payment related transactions are related to money laundering. They don't want to investigate, because this means work and they don't get paid for it. So they chose the easy way and simply close the bank account. It's a poor behaviour. Thought that's why we want to avoid banks...