South African Reserve bank says bitcoin not a legal tender, : regulation move

[zycrypto]

South African Reserve Bank says bitcoin is not a legal tender because only the banks are capable and authorized by the South African Government to issue a legal tender.

Continuous regulatory governments involvement in bitcoin keeps on spiking up, due to the huge popularity that the cryptocurrency has gotten and went extremely mainstream.

The bank thinks that there are huge risks on cryptocurrencies, like for money laundering and legal uncertainty caused by lack of regulation.

Read More => https://zycrypto.com/south-african-reserve-bank-bitcoin-not-legal-tender/

[TheQuin]

The definition of legal tender is simply that the government of that country will accept it as a payment of taxes. It'll be a very long time before Bitcoin become legal tender anywhere but that doesn't really matter.

[emuLOAD]

bitcoin never claimed or aimed to be legal tender in the first place. plenty of things arn't. most, in fact.

Legal tender is merely the officially recognized coinage by a given government, i.e. the the government will accept legal tender, and shopkeepers must accept legal tender as a form of payment (to the recognized value of the legal tender).

it's... really inconsequential. it's simply a clarification on what is an obvious condition. it probably has some tax impact, that's all.

[Siren]

So far its only Japan who have accepted bitcoin as legal tender. So its similar to their local currency which is the Yen. So I don't see any wrong with the news, maybe except that we are expecting that South Africa will embrace bitcoin as well. So its better to just make a strict regulations similar to what other countries have been done like complying to KYC/AML rule to further prevent "money laundering" as they have described it.

[stompix]

The definition of legal tender is simply that the government of that country will accept it as a payment of taxes.

No it is not.
Legal tender means by definition a method of payment recognized by a legal system for a financial obligation.
It does not imply taxes.

For example you can come here and buy something in euros, although we have another currency.
The contract will be valid between you and the seller as the euro is  recognized legal tender.
But good luck paying property taxes with it. You will first need to exchange it.

It varies from country to country, remember that Japan has legalized bitcoin as method of payment not a curency.

So far its only Japan who have accepted bitcoin as legal tender. So its similar to their local currency which is the Yen.

As I said above. Check the news. They still don't consider it a currency the same as the yen but a simple method of payment.


Back to the subject, South Africa???
Aren't they going to be extinct by 2050 because of HIV?

[Kprawn]

The definition of legal tender is simply that the government of that country will accept it as a payment of taxes.

No it is not.
Legal tender means by definition a method of payment recognized by a legal system for a financial obligation.
It does not imply taxes.

For example you can come here and buy something in euros, although we have another currency.
The contract will be valid between you and the seller as the euro is  recognized legal tender.
But good luck paying property taxes with it. You will first need to exchange it.

It varies from country to country, remember that Japan has legalized bitcoin as method of payment not a curency.

So far its only Japan who have accepted bitcoin as legal tender. So its similar to their local currency which is the Yen.

As I said above. Check the news. They still don't consider it a currency the same as the yen but a simple method of payment.


Back to the subject, South Africa???
Aren't they going to be extinct by 2050 because of HIV?

Not even the USA wants to acknowledge Bitcoin as a currency, but rather define it as a commodity. All of these governments

wants to protect their own local currencies, because they can manipulate it. It has nothing to do with money laundering, but

rather giving up control over fiat manipulation. Before HIV destroys South Africa, their own government will have wiped the

economy. { Their current government is very corrupt and untouchable } They should welcome a technology that would open

up new possibilities for tax income / innovation / job opportunities and tourist income, but they are too dumb to see that.  

Unemployment Rate in South Africa averaged 25.46 percent from 2000 until 2017

http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/27Jan2016pressrelease-cpi.pdf

[BurstIncomeAsset]

Yes, what do they mean when they say "legal tender"?

Like it is illegal by essence, or it still lacks proper regulations, or can't be used for payment and taxes

[Dhaaaw]

This is a classical banker move. Old bankers or as i love to call them thieves are affraid of bitcoin gaining popularity and putting them out of buisiness so they're trying to combat it. Just like JP Morgan did, good news is they wont succeed.

[stompix]

Yes, what do they mean when they say "legal tender"?

Like it is illegal by essence, or it still lacks proper regulations, or can't be used for payment and taxes

It depends..
There are regulations even for legal tender.

For example in any country the national currency is considered legal tender but there are scenarios when you can refuse it.
Because of a form of protest in which people used to pay taxes or buy fuel with 1/100 coins suing thousands of them there was a proposed law that allowed merchants to deny anyone trying to pay in more than 50 units of denomination.

And credit card and debit card payments are recognized all over the country but guess what.
Till one year ago you couldn't pay your taxes with a credit card in my home city. Because...the mayor decided.

So even the term of legal tender has it's shortcomings.

And I really doubt that the guys in charges of finances in RSA will figure it out by the end of this century.

[buwaytress]

Bitcoin's adventure in South Africa is still a bumpy one. Not entirely representative of the continent, though, and the Reserve Bank in Johannesburg has always been quick to quash enthusiasm. Mind you, don't mistake their statements for being anti-crypto. The favourite word in that country now isn't Bitcoin "acceptance" because of this, but "trial" just like Standard Bank years ago and Pick n Pay just two days ago. Don't write them off just yet though, they've been working on regulatory frameworks for a while now. The very same Reserve Bank has already selected several businesses to "trial"... I'm 100% sure Pick n Pay was just one of them.

[Snaic]

Such statements as the South African Reserve Bank have no significance for bitcoins and crypto currency in general. Crypto currency can go around the world without official recognition of it by the majority of governments. Banks, if possible, will always oppose the introduction of the crypto currency, because it violates the established foundations of financial relations of any state.

[|Bitkoin|]

That's okay. Other governments say Bitcoin can't, and shouldn't, be regulated so it's just a matter of which one loses out the most.

[CryptoBry]

Central banks and the banking sector can be one of the most formidable anti_bitcoin community and of course we all know why they are doing it as they are really protecting their own interest and business. With Bitcoin they can gradually be eliminated and so they are using different reasons why Bitcoin should not be recognized legally. It is time we tell them to shut up and behave well as the power is now slowly being returned to the people.

[cafucafucafu]

South African Reserve Bank says bitcoin is not a legal tender because only the banks are capable and authorized by the South African Government to issue a legal tender.

Continuous regulatory governments involvement in bitcoin keeps on spiking up, due to the huge popularity that the cryptocurrency has gotten and went extremely mainstream.

The bank thinks that there are huge risks on cryptocurrencies, like for money laundering and legal uncertainty caused by lack of regulation.

Read More => https://zycrypto.com/south-african-reserve-bank-bitcoin-not-legal-tender/

Bitcoin is not legal tender, because it is not a fiat currency. There are no laws backing bitcoin saying that it must be accepted by merchants or it is a national currency.

Every single country is introducing new means of limiting how bitcoin can be used it seems.

And imo, it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not bitcoin is a high risk investment and whether or not bitcoin has a founder. The governments are scared that bitcoin is going to drive them out of their business and power, essentially.

[jseverson]

Let us not overreact here. This simply means creditors and the like are not obliged to accept cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment, as was stated in the article. They do think it's a huge risk, and that is true to some degree, but it does not say anything about their government taking a hard stance against cryptos like China's government did. I'm happy enough that they acknowledged Bitcoin use with no current plan to regulate it. For what it's worth, Bitcoin isn't considered legal tender anywhere, and it may never be.

[hello_good_sir]

South African Reserve Bank says bitcoin is not a legal tender because only the banks are capable and authorized by the South African Government to issue a legal tender.

Continuous regulatory governments involvement in bitcoin keeps on spiking up, due to the huge popularity that the cryptocurrency has gotten and went extremely mainstream.

The bank thinks that there are huge risks on cryptocurrencies, like for money laundering and legal uncertainty caused by lack of regulation.

Read More => https://zycrypto.com/south-african-reserve-bank-bitcoin-not-legal-tender/

Of course bitcoin is not legal tender. it is not issued by a government and nobody is forced to use it as a currency. You are able to use it when you want to where you want to, nobody ever claimed that bitcoin is legal tender.

This seems to be to be an excuse for the South African government to start restricting access to bitcoin.

I'm all for regulation, if it is healthy. However, recently the Chinese government has come out with some pretty limiting and restrictive regulations that i personally don't agree with. Hopefully the SA government knows better.

[Jating]

South African Reserve Bank says bitcoin is not a legal tender because only the banks are capable and authorized by the South African Government to issue a legal tender.

Continuous regulatory governments involvement in bitcoin keeps on spiking up, due to the huge popularity that the cryptocurrency has gotten and went extremely mainstream.

The bank thinks that there are huge risks on cryptocurrencies, like for money laundering and legal uncertainty caused by lack of regulation.

Read More => https://zycrypto.com/south-african-reserve-bank-bitcoin-not-legal-tender/

Bitcoin is not legal tender, because it is not a fiat currency. There are no laws backing bitcoin saying that it must be accepted by merchants or it is a national currency.

Every single country is introducing new means of limiting how bitcoin can be used it seems.

And imo, it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not bitcoin is a high risk investment and whether or not bitcoin has a founder. The governments are scared that bitcoin is going to drive them out of their business and power, essentially.

Exactly, they are just making lame excuses not to accept bitcoin. But the real reason behind is that they are really afraid specially big bankers that they will be extinct because bitcoin will take over. So to somewhat control it, they are putting 'regulations' so that they can limit how it can be used. They can't really hide the fact that bitcoin has been hugging the limelight and this year alone its surges at $5000. So they have to do something otherwise banks will be irrelevant in the coming years.

But they have a point saying that there are huge risk in crypto currencies. I have to agree. But now everyone should now about that. But if you are willing to take risk then why not? Or just set up a tighter regulation so that the government have something fall back if something went out of the normal.

[Carlsen]

Bitcoin was not declared to be illegal in South Africa.
They just said bitcoin is no legal tender there. Many, or most countries have the same oppinion.
That is not good or bad news for bitcoin. It does not affect the circulation of bitcoin.
We have to wait and see what regulation moves will be made.

[wildet60]

Total bullshit. Without bitcoin money laundering happened. And will continue to happen. Bitcoin is not the problem. Authorities incompetence is.

[Herbert2020]

banks say all kinds of crap. you shouldn't really pay them much attention. otherwise we would have given up on bitcoin last week that JP Morgan bank CEO said bitcoin is fraud
as long as it is not a law and it is not official all of it is just empty talk that nobody cares about.

in any case it is pretty interesting to see how different countries are treating bitcoin though! majority of countries are currently considering bitcoin as a legal way of payment and as a legit currency and then you still find random talk here and there about how it is not!