Australia Says Bitcoin is Money – Japan says Bitcoin can’t be owned

[dothebeats]

If Japan says bitcoins can't be owned, do they mean japanese yens on a bank account can't be owned either?

They lack tangibility just as much. And the "dependency on a 3rd party" as the judge referred to, is even worse with yens.

Agreed. In bank accounts, you can only see those numbers printed in a screen or a sheet of paper plus a proof that you really own it, but have you really touched those "money" stated in your bank account? Yens stored on bank accounts are also intangible and also depends on a 3rd party for safekeeping, so how is yen different from bitcoin in this case?

[BIT-Sharon]

The foundation of Bitcoin is Blockchain， which makes bitcoin become a direct and anonymous payment out of government's control. It is a distributed database driven by encryption technology.Speaking from low level, blockchain is a searchable account book.

[Kprawn]

The Japanese are not very fond of Bitcoin right now, after the bad publicity generated as a result of the Mt Gox scandal. It takes just a single person (Mark Karpeles in this occasion) to destroy the hard work done by tens of thousands of people. The Japanese citizens accounted for somewhere around 15% to 20% of all the Bitcoin losses due to the Mt Gox scandal.

This is a very good point, and I fully agree with you.. but in doing this, they actually invite criminals and scammers to their country. By their definition of Bitcoin, it makes it

easier for people to repeat the MtGox situation, and it will just get worst for them. They also provide Mark Karpeles with strong ammunition to not be prosecuted for his

actions. Now what is the point of that....? Do they want to hurt the reputation of Bitcoin, by creating a criminal safe haven for scammers in their country? This surely looks like

that....?

[ikydesu]

A couple different views on Bitcoin have come out this week, Australia and Japan both made statements regarding the digital or cryptocurrency.

www.thedomains.com/2015/08/09/australia-says-bitcoin-is-money-japan-says-bitcoin-cant-be-owned/

This is prove if Satoshi Nakamoto is not Japanese lol.

If Japan says bitcoins can't be owned, do they mean japanese yens on a bank account can't be owned either?

Maybe they not admit Bitcoin as currency because like @bryant.coleman said, they angry.

[Falconer]

Yeah, those governments can say anything what they want, totally true. And it is a good news for Australian then, which its government admit bitcoin as money. For Japan, maybe thats because of Mt.Gox incident.
We can ignore what government say about bitcoin, because we will using it, no matter what they say. But their statement could affect people's mind who dont have any idea about bitcoin before, so it will make them to stay away from bitcoin.

Well most of the people will believe what their government tells them, and we can't stop that. What we can do is to educate people what bitcoin REALLY is .

Sounds good, but dont you know that its very hard to tell what bitcoin really is for them even your family. Most people prefer to believe media or government than us, because they think those people are more trustworthy.

[boopy265420]

Australia recognized Bitcoin as money this is by itself another huge step for Bitcoin which will accelerate the adoption process and will support bitcoin to be recognized as currency in future by more and more countries.Japanese will have to accept it as currency after all.

[Falconer]

Australia recognized Bitcoin as money this is by itself another huge step for Bitcoin which will accelerate the adoption process and will support bitcoin to be recognized as currency in future by more and more countries.Japanese will have to accept it as currency after all.

After Mt. Gox incident, I dont think any Japanese want to risk their money in bitcoin. Its hard to get trust from them imo, and they prefer to work hardly instead of wasting their time to mind bitcoin.

[Sourgummies]

Of course it matters what these governments do with bitcoin! To think they have no say is very short sighted and lacking in depth. Lets say anyone with a bitcoin wallet can now face 6 months mandatory jail sentence. Does that not change the state of bitcoin?
Understand the hate for government but the day they do not play a role in our lives is still far away.


The fact the Countries are all over the map is not a good sign to be honest. It shows that a small aspect could dictate the future and throw bitcoin into turmoil.

[salek11]

  The currency part is pretty easy to understand. Someone is offering something for sale like a bike or a month's rent, and they might give you a quote in dollars, yen and bitcoins. Bitcoin basically acts like a currency then.

[Eastfist]

I think Japanese interpreted it more realistically that Bitcoin cannot be "owned" as a tangible object, not necessarily that it can't be "owned" by someone. It's like owning a name or birthdate. But it is very important that without a network of people using Bitcoin, it's has ZERO value.

[GetClams.com]

And when the DECENTRLIZED MOVEMENT gathers steam, nobody will give a shit what any government thinks virtual currencies. Oh happy day!

[Febo]

It doesn't matter what the governments say what bitcoin is. Bitcoin is what it is and it can't be changed, it is a decentralized cryptocurrency  in Australia, Japan , USA etc

Ofcourse it matters what they say. Decentralization here dont change anything. If your government say Bitcoin is this and that, you need to understand it that way. If government say that getting profit by trading bitcoin is not taxed but mining bitcoin is taxed, you just do that. pay tax of your mining profit and not pay tax of gaining profit by trading Bitcoins.

If you dont decentralization will not help you at all. Ofcourse your government cant turn Bitcoin off, but they can sue you for not paying taxes.

[Mickeyb]

To me it's very troublesome that different governments see Bitcoin differently. This will definitely put certain users at advantage and disadvantage, depending on how their country sees Bitcoin and how it decides to govern it. It's definitely not the same if ones see it as a money, others as a commodity, and third see it as nothing.

This just shows how versatile Bitcoin actually is. It has many use cases.

[christycalhoun]

The beauty of bitcoin is that it can exist outside of these laws and classifications of governments.

[OrientA]

Well... I wish the authorities would hurry up and decide so I can start using Bitcoin correctly. I would hate to do it wrong.

There is no law preventing the use of bitcoin at the moment.

[JeWay]

Well, we can see here that Japan has the opposite thought of Australia.
But the important thing is, don't make this thought effect on another countries.

[Kprawn]

Well, we can see here that Japan has the opposite thought of Australia.
But the important thing is, don't make this thought effect on another countries.

Yes, Currently most governments opinions on Bitcoin has come from the opinions from people funding their campaigns. Like the banks... so we know why some countries define it as

a commodity, rather than a currency.  The definition of Bitcoin is not a easy thing to put in a box... Most people see it as a commodity and some see it as a currency or a

payment method. The only thing we know for sure is... We can do more than one thing with it... and that is a bonus.  ... Smart contracts.

[~Bitcoin~]

why don't they say it is both currency and assets? It has become the currency or payment processor with lowest fee and its price fluctuation has created good environment in trading where it works as an asset.

[Hazir]

Discrepancies of the law regarding bitcoin only makes it clearer. We need one unified, global bitcoin law.
I know this is impossible right now, and probably won't happen anytime soon, if ever. But it is laughable that bitcoin can be treated so differently.

[kelsey]

We need one unified, global bitcoin law.

no we need bitcoin to be borderless, p2p and indifferent to gov laws or it'll be just become paypal 2.0.