Bitcoin is completely legal in at least 111 countries, and illegal in only 10

[Kemarit]

It's kinda funny to realise that bitcoin is illegal or restricted in most of the "not-so-democratic" countries.
The real problem is the unclear status of bitcoin in the Tier1 countries(USA,UK,Canada,Australia,New Zealand)+the EU countries.By 'unclear' I mean that bitcoin isn't considered a currency.It's still considered as a digital asset.

Isn't it Australia already the second country to adopt bitcoin after Japan in July 2017?

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-to-become-just-like-money-in-australia-july-1

Anyways, it will be exciting to hear the stance of Tier 1 countries, but for now, it's clear that regulations is really needed before they can somewhat classify what bitcoin is. But at least lots of countries really regulated or at least very open specially to bitcoin, which in the last 10 years have gotten lots of bad media that's why countries took a hard stance against it for the possible "disruption" in can bring to their financials system.

[plvbob0070]

"According to findings from Coin Dance, there are currently at least 111 countries where Bitcoin is legal. In many others, Bitcoin’s legal status is up for question or the currency is subject to some restrictions.

It's a great thing that most countries don't restrict the use of bitcoin. But the things is, not all countries that have been said that bitcoin is legal, not all are like actively supporting and/or promoting bitcoin and other cryptos. Its just that, they allow people to use it as a digital currency but don't give much attention to it.

[CryptoBry]

There is no question that Bitcoin in particular and the whole cryptocurrency industry in general is making many inroads in terms of country coverage. However, this is not automatically mean that soon we can expect millions of people truly adopting Bitcoin as there are still so many challenges on the field that we are all slowly tearing down. The road to massive adoption is still a little bit far away but am sure that we are getting there as this is not going to be easy for Bitcoin is really breaking through decades-old and traditional systems. This is just a big reminder to all of us to continue to have faith with Bitcoin.

[jrrsparkles]

In countries like India is not completely illegal,only banks asked them to stop dealing with crypto transactions but still you can hold or use the bitcoin in that country and no laws from that country will punish you for doing that so make it number 9.

[steveabrahams]

In countries like India is not completely illegal,only banks asked them to stop dealing with crypto transactions but still you can hold or use the bitcoin in that country and no laws from that country will punish you for doing that so make it number 9.

The situation is same here in indonesia. It's not completely illegal but it's forbidden here to use bitcoin as a money (well in reality, many people here use bitcoin to buy things. You still can trading bitcoin and invest on bitcoin too.

[MI6]

In countries like India is not completely illegal,only banks asked them to stop dealing with crypto transactions but still you can hold or use the bitcoin in that country and no laws from that country will punish you for doing that so make it number 9.

The situation is same here in indonesia. It's not completely illegal but it's forbidden here to use bitcoin as a money (well in reality, many people here use bitcoin to buy things. You still can trading bitcoin and invest on bitcoin too.

Maybe government want their people to use only fiat and that is why they prohibited any virtual currencies to be used in their country. We can see not only crypto that prohibited in Indonesia but other payment from some apps also prohibited too.

[Carrelmae10]

If there are only 10 countries which are against in Bitcoin, then it is indee a good start for Bitcoin to surpass all its adversaries because there are only few who don't recognized Bitcoin..In contrary to that,,many countries accepted the use of Bitcoin whether they threated it legal or illegal. We all have known that bitcoin have gone so far in reaching its peak although the rise and fall of its price is unevitable..The existence of Bitcoin is truely incamparable in many other altcoins..how i hope that the whole universe will accept and legalize the use of Bitcoin.

[kelz1]

The countries listing it as illegal as mostly islamic countries. They have strict laws so that is not surprising. I am surprised about vietnam though, that will change in future though

[Bitcoindigger02]

In most countries where Bitcoin is not listed as legal, the reason is simple: the legal status of Bitcoin has not yet been determined.

[Kelvinid]

In countries like India is not completely illegal,only banks asked them to stop dealing with crypto transactions but still you can hold or use the bitcoin in that country and no laws from that country will punish you for doing that so make it number 9.

The situation is same here in indonesia. It's not completely illegal but it's forbidden here to use bitcoin as a money (well in reality, many people here use bitcoin to buy things. You still can trading bitcoin and invest on bitcoin too.

Maybe government want their people to use only fiat and that is why they prohibited any virtual currencies to be used in their country. We can see not only crypto that prohibited in Indonesia but other payment from some apps also prohibited too.

They are not welcoming better opportunities for their country and they just like to stick for the old ones. Hopefully their government authorities will opened up their mind and see bitcoin or digital currencies have importance in this new generation.
Anyways, we can't them if they don't want but at least we wanting them turn their heads for this great technology.

[sunsilk]

It made me peek to the local boards of Vietnam but it's locked since 2017. Those countries that 'restricted' bitcoin will soon turn their tables and will announce that the people loves to use bitcoin and it is unstoppable so they have to adopt it.

Looking at the numbers where it is legal. People who have been doubting it will definitely be encourage to see this info. More legal countries means that more people who are trusting and using it, mass adoption is coming

As bitcoin is accepted more around the world, the cost of rejecting bitcoin will exceed the cost of adopting it. Bitcoin will begin to assume money’s traditional roles and gain institutional and government support. It will become all money and form the backbone of a new global economy. This continues and each halving creates big demand for bitcoin as the coins to be mined is very less in number.

Though we're far from the real state of thinking that bitcoin as global currency like dollars and other well known currencies, we're going there and it's not too far for bitcoin to reach that moment.

Large countries that already adopted shows support to it which means to say that it's a real thing. It's not a threat to a country's security and it's not just a digital money that can be used for illegal deeds just like the typical no coiner belief.

[stompix]

Why is Iran green on that map?

Trading cryptocurrencies is still not legal in the country, as the Central Bank of Iran banned domestic banks from dealing crypto earlier in 2018.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/central-bank-of-iran-bans-banks-from-crypto-dealings

because 90% of things you read on cryptocurrency related news sites are pure bullshit specially when they come from click-baity sites as shitty as cointelegraph.
not to mention that this topic is about legality of bitcoin in different countries not what banks are allowed to do regarding bitcoin!

Yeah, I don't even know why I'm trying it anymore.
Sometimes I do it just because I like to point to others what bs the whole story is but seems like nobody but the ones that spotted the mistakes before me care.

And yeah, what means "legal". It is legal to possess, legal to transact, legal to pay, legal tender, etc etc.

Imagine a scenario where the United States makes bitcoin illegal. <>

Stop right there, it doesn't need to go any further, at this point hello 10$ again!

This is a hypothetical scenario pulled from my arse but how would you think the Bitcoin network would adapt to a situation like this? If every country started making it illegal, how significant of a threat would this pose to the network? Would miners and nodes running illegally be enough to sustain the network?

Normally the network would be fine since there would be no real monetary incentive to attack it anymore.
The only problem is with the millions of ASICs that will be sold for scrap prices, and who might buy it, back when bitcoin was at 100$ there were no 2 million miners just waiting for a miner.

But seriously, at this point, probably nobody will give a fword anymore.

[sapnu]

In countries like India is not completely illegal,only banks asked them to stop dealing with crypto transactions but still you can hold or use the bitcoin in that country and no laws from that country will punish you for doing that so make it number 9.

The situation is same here in indonesia. It's not completely illegal but it's forbidden here to use bitcoin as a money (well in reality, many people here use bitcoin to buy things. You still can trading bitcoin and invest on bitcoin too.

Bitcoin is legalized in countless countries meaning these country already noticed or recognized the advantages of using this Cryptocurrency, it has actually so many advantages and one of it is having faster payment method or transaction in different address. Knowing that there so many other crypto that has also solid platforms.

[Daniel91]

Very interesting info, thank you.
In my country, we still don't have clear legal opinion or regulation about bitcoin.
Central bank issued statement that Bitcoin is not currency or financial asset.
It's still unclear how to report taxes, for example.
Still confusing.

[manfredmann]

You might be right but reminder that only few users are using or knows about bitcoin like here in our country. Only few people knows about it and it has only limited option in using the bitcoin or cryptocurrency. It will be .05 percent chance that you can use bitcoin in purchasing of products you want to buY. This because bitcoin adaptation is not yet widely known.

[valentin68]

In my country Romania, Bitcoin is legal. Bitcoin can be bought from every market and from every shop.
There are 33 Bitcoin ATMs in the country.

I have not created bitcoin but I can say that my child wish is coming true:
My wish was to shake hand (to meet) with every person in this world and to become an astronaut

[TheCoinGrabber]

It's kinda funny to realise that bitcoin is illegal or restricted in most of the "not-so-democratic" countries.
The real problem is the unclear status of bitcoin in the Tier1 countries(USA,UK,Canada,Australia,New Zealand)+the EU countries.By 'unclear' I mean that bitcoin isn't considered a currency.It's still considered as a digital asset.

Well it makes sense that they are wary of it. They're afraid of capital flight as well as people doing generally doing things that they can't easily control. Wasn't there rumors before about KSA considering making their own crypto?

The countries listing it as illegal as mostly islamic countries. They have strict laws so that is not surprising. I am surprised about vietnam though, that will change in future though

Vietnam is still a communist country, it's very easy for us to forget that.

i think most country do this? for example, in Indonesia most government only accept bitcoin as digital asset. i think that's enough for now, at least they don't ban it. in the near future they should started to accept bitcoin as a means of payment when the prize is stable enough. even right now, payment processor convert bitcoin asap when they receive it, so that means bitcoin needs to be converted before it can work.

Yes, that's good enough, better than an outright ban. When you said they only treat it as digital asset in Indonesia did you mean it cannot be used for payments?

[Slow death]

Currently, it says Bitcoin is illegal in only the following ten countries or regions: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Pakistan, Qatar, Republic of Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.

does this mean that a small group called the government decided to make bitcoin illegal and i wonder what were the reasons why those countries made bitcoin illegal? did they use these arguments: "Bitcoin is used to finance terrorism and money laundering."? But money launderers are the corrupt politicians who use Fiat to launder money, and terrorism has more religious and political motivation.

[kingpin4321]

For better clarification of countries where bitcoin are restricted.
Bitcoin is not totally restricted in this country just that there are some sort of ban placed on cryptocurrency

[thankyoulord]

well i am not surprised at this statistics given. I have always knew despite the various critizism by several people, bitcoin is being legalized gradually for usage by so many countries across the globe and sooner than later those countries who placed a restriction on bitcoin usage will see reasons to adopt and accept bitcoin as a means of transaction