btcmind (OP)
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April 18, 2013, 10:40:15 PM |
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What are potentially good places to run an exchange? If country A would ban Bitcoin and banks refuse to deal with BTC, but country B allows it, flows of money from A to B could circumvent the ban.
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grue
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April 18, 2013, 10:47:12 PM |
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Switzerland Sweden Somalia North Korea
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btcmind (OP)
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April 18, 2013, 10:53:52 PM |
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Iceland, Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Singapore...
Traditionally offshore places are also Cayman, Channel Islands, Macau, Switzerland. But if you operate there, users will rightfully not have so much trust. But what i mean is in terms of banking-infrastructure. I highly doubt Somalia and North Korea are good places. High-inflation countries could be very interesting, such as Argentina.
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fnordfnordfnord
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April 19, 2013, 02:45:30 AM |
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Luxembourg? Antigua?
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ninjaboon
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April 19, 2013, 03:16:47 AM |
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What about Malta ?
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Nova!
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April 19, 2013, 09:22:01 PM |
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Belize is the best for this sort of thing actually. Next choice would be Panama. Finally New Zealand. Many, many countries really don't care what you do as long as you pay taxes and don't do whatever it is you're doing to their people.
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Donate @ 1LE4D5ERPZ4tumNoYe5GMeB5p9CZ1xKb4V
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joesmoe2012
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April 19, 2013, 10:07:12 PM |
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On a boat in the middle of the ocean.
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fnordfnordfnord
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April 20, 2013, 02:49:53 PM |
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Sealand?
I think not, see HavenCo.
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QuantPlus
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April 20, 2013, 03:13:38 PM |
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You want to look at "gambling friendly" jurisdictions... Research where major poker and casino sites are located.
It's often a trade off between:
(a) dealing with a reasonable level of AML regulations. (b) being at the mercy of a corrupt Third World Govt.
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wilfried
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April 23, 2013, 04:56:20 PM |
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sealand is an urban myth, just a guy and a platform
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Walter Rothbard
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April 24, 2013, 03:55:04 AM |
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sealand is an urban myth, just a guy and a platform
Which is not any different than any other government leaders around the world. They aren't actually special either, and are not ontologically different from you and me. Just a guy, and a bunch of weapons to make his word "law."
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Pinwheel
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April 24, 2013, 04:11:26 AM |
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You want to look at "gambling friendly" jurisdictions... Research where major poker and casino sites are located.
It's often a trade off between:
(a) dealing with a reasonable level of AML regulations. (b) being at the mercy of a corrupt Third World Govt.
that is good advice, plus governments such countries easy in producing new regulations and can make BTC exchange business legalized or approved in some way. Aruba and Isle of Man are some places to consider.
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Tom Waits: We should just start as soon as possible cause we might catch a rabbit before we have our pants on. (Juxtapoz)
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wilfried
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April 24, 2013, 11:19:27 AM |
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sealand is an urban myth, just a guy and a platform
Which is not any different than any other government leaders around the world. They aren't actually special either, and are not ontologically different from you and me. Just a guy, and a bunch of weapons to make his word "law." yeah, but as far as i know that sealand guy did follow the british insolvency proceedings when his "sealand" was off funds..
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mrrhames
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April 25, 2013, 02:12:02 AM |
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Belize Singapore Indonesia
I'd stay away from Panama(used to be great), New Zealand and any European countries. To many laws like the USA, plus the US government has slowly been working their way into some of these countries with shared information and laws.
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repentance
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April 25, 2013, 02:27:19 AM |
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It depends on who you want to be able to move funds in and out of the exchange. If you choose a country which is on the FATF blacklist, then banks in other FATF member countries often refuse to deal with banks in those nations and any transactions to and from those nations are automatically reportable to financial intelligence services in your own country.
The problem isn't so much one of finding a way to trade your Bitcoins offshore. It's one of being able to repatriate those funds so you can spend them. You shouldn't be using any exchange as a bank/online wallet in the first place, so you always need somewhere to transfer your BTC/USD when you've finished trading.
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All I can say is that this is Bitcoin. I don't believe it until I see six confirmations.
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jinni
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April 30, 2013, 11:07:29 PM |
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It depends on who you want to be able to move funds in and out of the exchange. If you choose a country which is on the FATF blacklist, then banks in other FATF member countries often refuse to deal with banks in those nations and any transactions to and from those nations are automatically reportable to financial intelligence services in your own country.
The problem isn't so much one of finding a way to trade your Bitcoins offshore. It's one of being able to repatriate those funds so you can spend them. You shouldn't be using any exchange as a bank/online wallet in the first place, so you always need somewhere to transfer your BTC/USD when you've finished trading.
Great point. Of the countries already mentioned Belize and Singapore look like good options. But I would add Hong Kong and Japan (they haven't done anything about Mt. Gox yet). Personally I think Singapore is the best option as they are business friendly, wealth friendly, a financial trading centre and are a small hierarchical country that can adapt regulation quickly if needed.
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Schrankwand
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May 01, 2013, 01:25:11 AM |
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What about Malta ?
Malta is a great place. It is quite easy to run a business there, however exchanging money for assets like BTC won't be easy there. Tons of regulations and hoops to run through. But GREAT tax schemes.
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btcmind (OP)
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May 01, 2013, 09:37:33 AM |
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I'm not so worried about taxes, rather about confiscation and more. Risks are potentially similar to running a Piratebay in the long term. Hausdorff is in serious trouble for running B24 in Germany. So not only does he have the Bitcoin mob after him (if the laws don't apply people get nasty quickly), the bank accounts were frozen in an instant, and he is charged with money laundering, financial terrorism, etc.
Singapore is one of the most strict regimes. If you look at organizations which are not liked, most countries obey to the US pretty quickly. Megaupload had some special forces come in, on behalf of Hollywood. So I think you need some serious cash for lawyers, and then a very smart strategy. A EU country is definitely not a good option.
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