Bitcoin not legal tender in Canada

[BearKing55]

Another falsehood that the suggested FBI action to auction off their seized Bitcoins makes it legally recognized somehow.  This is no different from them selling off a car, house, boat, painting or anything else seized, they are simply selling an asset.

I don't see this as a "falsehood"!

The Govt does NOT auction off pot, counterfeits, forgeries, fake goods, ETC.

They ONLY auction articles that ARE LEGAL.

so IF they do auction any BTC's they ARE setting up a precedent for recognizing them AS a LEGAL product (by their existence, not necessarily ever use of them)

[pening]

Another falsehood that the suggested FBI action to auction off their seized Bitcoins makes it legally recognized somehow.  This is no different from them selling off a car, house, boat, painting or anything else seized, they are simply selling an asset.

I don't see this as a "falsehood"!

The Govt does NOT auction off pot, counterfeits, forgeries, fake goods, ETC.

They ONLY auction articles that ARE LEGAL.

so IF they do auction any BTC's they ARE setting up a precedent for recognizing them AS a LEGAL product (by their existence, not necessarily ever use of them)

I meant recognised in terms of legal tender, though agree didnt make that clear.  It not setting a precedent though, back the main point i made, anything is legal until outlawed (or determined its covered by existing law). This sale doesn't mean future legislation cant make them illegal. 

[dm8]

Another falsehood that the suggested FBI action to auction off their seized Bitcoins makes it legally recognized somehow.  This is no different from them selling off a car, house, boat, painting or anything else seized, they are simply selling an asset.

I don't see this as a "falsehood"!

The Govt does NOT auction off pot, counterfeits, forgeries, fake goods, ETC.

They ONLY auction articles that ARE LEGAL.

so IF they do auction any BTC's they ARE setting up a precedent for recognizing them AS a LEGAL product (by their existence, not necessarily ever use of them)

no,if any, the precedent they are setting is, they are not illegal.
as above, unless legislated against, everything is legal.
selling pot (in most places) fakes forgeries are already accepted as illegitimate.
If anyone wants to buy my bag of magic beans, please PM me

[Enkel]

Wouldn't this be a good thing (not legal tender) in that they're explicitly saying that they're not going to regulate is as an official Canadian currency.

I think the FBI auction does set a precedence because (a) they've recognized the BTC as an asset with value instead of a basic computer file and (b) they can't auction assets that are not legal - hence, in the US, the auction implies that the BTC are an asset that is legal to own and exchange.  There are also legal exchanges in the US that are operating under US regulations as money exchanges. That also backs up the legality of cryptocurrencies.

[MikeXBT]

Legal tender simply means you can pay taxes with it.

"Legal Tender: coins or banknotes that must be accepted if offered in payment of a debt."

This news is irrelevant.

[BTCisthefuture]

No other currencies are considered legal tender in Canada either, that's normal and fine. Doesn't mean you can't accept it or pay for things with it.  Last time I was in Canada I paid for my hotel using USD even though USD isnt "legal tender"

To the comments about merchants being less likely to accept bitcoin if it's not legal tender , that's simply untrue.  Especially considering very few merchants who accept bitcoin actually ever receive bitcoins, they receive fiat currency because they use a bitcoin payment processor.

Like others already mentioned legal tender basically just means if you owe money for something offical  such as taxes or a court fine etc etc you have to pay in canadian dollars UNLESS otherwise agreed upon. If someone sues you and you have to pay $100 and you pay $100 worth of bitcoin instead, they can claim you never paid because it's not 'legal tender'. However if someone sues you and you have to pay $100 and you both agree to use bitcoin as the means of payment, then that's perfectly fine and it's considered payment made.

This news isn't shocking or anything that already exists with all currencies in most countries in the world.  One more quick example,  today I exchanged rmb in a bank in china for usd , the bank gladly and is willing to give me usd in china even though usd isn't legal tender in china. legal tender has nothing to do with something being "banned" or not.  You can still receive it, use it, spend it etc etc except in situations where someone demands payment in legal tender only, ie the government asking for taxes.