Why doesn't North Korea open up a bitcoin exchange?

[monsanto]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/investing/north-korea-banks-swift-ban/

North Korea has been banned from the swift banking system. Wouldn't it make sense for Kim Jong-un to open up a bitcoin exchange and issue a North Korean digital currency? It would be like btc-e only a hundred times bigger and with tons of margin options and currencies.

p.s. mtjong.com is available 

[1715018966]

1715018966

[1715018966]

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[avikz]

That they definitely can do but if they do it, then bitcoin will be under fire from all the other countries. It is one such country where people are struggling to live a minimal life only because of their dictator ruler. I don't think N. Korea is the right place for bitcoin. Specially bitcoin is for financial freedom.

If N. Korea starts accepting bitcoin, then only the ruler will have access to it and no one else. It will make him more richer which we don't want because he possess a significant threat to the world peace. 

[hardtime]

Other countries would probably put regulations out in order to stop this exchange from gaining any traction due to the only reason it would be there is to make money for the North Koreans who are cash-strapped at the moment. I think their GDP is less than most major US business, which is sad but it's not much thinking about a country which is communist and has completely closed itself to the outside world.

So, sadly it wouldn't work as no one would want NK to be able to profit from this exchange in the least.

[sportis]

I’m pretty sure that Kim Jong-un was advised and already has bitcoins and maybe other cryptos in some exchanges in America and China. There is no reason,imo, to establish an exchange in N.Korea when people all over the world cannot transact with their banks due to swift ban. Moreover as avikz said this would be not good about the bitcoin's reputation.

[mrcash02]

North Korea is a miserable country because Kim Jong-Un and his ancestry, people there don't have internet connection or even computers... They don't have permission to access free internet content. That is a slaves nation and it's not a digital currency what will change the reality of that people, what will change things there is the end of the nefarious dinasty that control that country.

[Yakamoto]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/investing/north-korea-banks-swift-ban/

North Korea has been banned from the swift banking system. Wouldn't it make sense for Kim Jong-un to open up a bitcoin exchange and issue a North Korean digital currency? It would be like btc-e only a hundred times bigger and with tons of margin options and currencies.

p.s. mtjong.com is available 

The issue is that they need to bring in "real" money for trade somehow, and having their own digital currency means diddly squat if they can't sell KimCoin for anything to anyone but their own people, who also don't have any "real" money.

I can see a system where the workers in foreign countries (such as Poland) buy KimCoin for their relatives within the country/for the government and they bring in revenue that way, but it's all such a hit-and-miss system that I doubt they would be able to pull something like that off. They don't really have any good systems in place and they keep pissing people off making it harder for them to be close to viable for the international trade zones.

[magneto]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/investing/north-korea-banks-swift-ban/

North Korea has been banned from the swift banking system. Wouldn't it make sense for Kim Jong-un to open up a bitcoin exchange and issue a North Korean digital currency? It would be like btc-e only a hundred times bigger and with tons of margin options and currencies.

p.s. mtjong.com is available  

Not a good idea because it would mean that North Koreans get financial freedom.

Kim obviously doesn't want that, he wants something that he can control.

However if banking isn't viable, they can create their own cryptocurrency, maybe call it Kimcoin?

I mean, North Koreans probably don't use banks anyways, it is much better for them to use cash because i would guess nobody in the farmer's markets would accept card payments and nobody has a good enough credit history(if there is one) to get a credit card.

[shinratensei_]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/investing/north-korea-banks-swift-ban/

North Korea has been banned from the swift banking system. Wouldn't it make sense for Kim Jong-un to open up a bitcoin exchange and issue a North Korean digital currency? It would be like btc-e only a hundred times bigger and with tons of margin options and currencies.

p.s. mtjong.com is available 

If you have read the recent news about the north korean intelligent service is using bitcoin to received his funds from the north korea.

And in my opinion bitcoin exchange site already exists on north korea itself. But I don't think if they must issue north korea digital currency if the bitcoin already enough to fill his needs. Although they're want to make something different in his own crypto for the future purpose.

[Yakamoto]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/investing/north-korea-banks-swift-ban/

North Korea has been banned from the swift banking system. Wouldn't it make sense for Kim Jong-un to open up a bitcoin exchange and issue a North Korean digital currency? It would be like btc-e only a hundred times bigger and with tons of margin options and currencies.

p.s. mtjong.com is available 

If you have read the recent news about the north korean intelligent service is using bitcoin to received his funds from the north korea.

And in my opinion bitcoin exchange site already exists on north korea itself. But I don't think if they must issue north korea digital currency if the bitcoin already enough to fill his needs. Although they're want to make something different in his own crypto for the future purpose.

I refuse the believe that there are people that are willing to exchange Bitcoin for NK wons from outside of the country. You can't even really get anything from North Korea that is of value. Maybe if there's someone on the inside with an internet to someone with Bitcoin I could see something like that, but I just can't figure out for the life of me who would honestly want to buy NK wons. The concept just seems impossible to understand.

If he's using USD or something then it all makes sense. But if it's using the native currency then reality is likely much stranger than fiction.

[1apps]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/investing/north-korea-banks-swift-ban/

North Korea has been banned from the swift banking system. Wouldn't it make sense for Kim Jong-un to open up a bitcoin exchange and issue a North Korean digital currency? It would be like btc-e only a hundred times bigger and with tons of margin options and currencies.

p.s. mtjong.com is available  

Easy the population has no access to the internet.
The population is fed by the state.
The population gets clothes, housing, medical care and electric from the state.
Everyone works for the state.
Farmers give 70% of all food grown to the state.

N Korea is in the dark ages and have no clue as to what is happening in the world.

They don't drive cars, they walk, ride bikes and use the metro which is the deepest tunnels in the world and double as the best bomb shelters there are.

So the country has no public interaction to the internet and have no real money, they get a currency that has no value outside NK.

The few won they make is nothing and the population as a whole is malnourished and ignorant of what is going on in the rest of the world.

There's one TV channel in NK that plays non stop state propaganda all day.

North Korea and btc, or any digital currency will never, ever happen.

 

[ahmedjamal1998]

OK this might seem nice and shiny in our eyes "now" but ... This won't happen and would better not happen.

If bitcoins are implemented in N.Korea this would just mean the whole world starting to ban it.
That's the first point in short.

The thing is bitcoins means freedom in currency right ? That's not the way how that country works.
The government has control over each and every thing (although it might seem to us that they're enslaved or whatever but this system is working out great for them what so ever if compared to the "free" 3rd world countries.

PS: Most of what we know is from the media which is ... meh ..

[1apps]

OK this might seem nice and shiny in our eyes "now" but ... This won't happen and would better not happen.

If bitcoins are implemented in N.Korea this would just mean the whole world starting to ban it.
That's the first point in short.

The thing is bitcoins means freedom in currency right ? That's not the way how that country works.
The government has control over each and every thing (although it might seem to us that they're enslaved or whatever but this system is working out great for them what so ever if compared to the "free" 3rd world countries.

PS: Most of what we know is from the media which is ... meh ..

Bitcoin means access to the net and that is forbidden in NK except in rare instances, like state employees using social media to pump out propaganda, as a whole, the population in NK has no internet access and 1 TV channel.

It is 100% controlled by the state.

I guess most have no clue what is really happening in NK.

[machinek20]

I think financial freedom wont too success in there, the government likes total control to rule the country, so the government wont likes anything that they cant be controlled, so I dont think bitcoin will be success over there and there will be a big chance bitcoin will be banned

[Hydrogen]

Unfortunately, under socialism, the majority of north koreans don't enjoy modern luxuries like electricity.



That could make north koreans using bitcoin or their own crypto currency, difficult.

They might be able to develop their own crypto currency, using an abacus or something but somehow I don't think that would work.

[aso118]

Unfortunately, under socialism, the majority of north koreans don't enjoy modern luxuries like electricity.
That could make north koreans using bitcoin or their own crypto currency, difficult.
They might be able to develop their own crypto currency, using an abacus or something but somehow I don't think that would work.

Bitcoin exchange would help North Korean exchange their existing currency for Bitcoin, a currency accepted worldwide.
You don't need 24 hours electricity to store bitcoins in your wallet.

[hermanhs09]

Unfortunately, under socialism, the majority of north koreans don't enjoy modern luxuries like electricity.



That could make north koreans using bitcoin or their own crypto currency, difficult.

They might be able to develop their own crypto currency, using an abacus or something but somehow I don't think that would work.

Yeah, exactly.

Hard to implement when there are so many people lacking basic access to internet.

When you have internet, you can go anywhere. But obviously Kim Jung Un doesn't want that to happen. Doubt he will ever invent something that will allow average Joes to trade across borders.

[Hydrogen]

Bitcoin exchange would help North Korean exchange their existing currency for Bitcoin, a currency accepted worldwide.
You don't need 24 hours electricity to store bitcoins in your wallet.

If north koreans knew how little freedom they had in comparison to the rest of the world, they probably would have rebelled and overthrew Kim Jong a long time ago.

North koreans don't own modern luxuries like cell phones or computers & if they did, they certainly aren't able to access the internet of the outside world in a way that would allow them to use bitcoin.

Its not that north koreans lack 24 hr electricity. Its more like their entire civilization exists in a pre electrical age. Only the military and elites have electricity. Everyone else is using smoke signals or whatever people used to communicate before electricity and telegraphs were invented.

[TastyChillySauce00]

Yeah, exactly.

Hard to implement when there are so many people lacking basic access to internet.

When you have internet, you can go anywhere. But obviously Kim Jung Un doesn't want that to happen. Doubt he will ever invent something that will allow average Joes to trade across borders.

That's right, instead of using bitcoin they'll make their very own cryptocurrency.

[European Central Bank]

no internet, no electricity, no computers outside pyongyang. what could go wrong? i guess they could post printed private keys to each other.

[deadsilent]

Internet there is prohibited as far as i know. Only rich people there or powerful person can access internet. If theres bitcoin user there. Only few and they are powerful people. Ordinary people can't use internet. Thats how crazy north korea laws are.