Legalization. In Ukraine and now Laos

[Darker45]

It is weird that an approval is already given sans official policies on Bitcoin mining and trading. It is hard to start building up structures and then operate while the regulations are still in the process of being drafted. If I were an investor in Bitcoin mining, I'd rather wait for the regulations to come out as officially approved before I begin spending money. It is hard to be investing big on something while on trial. Anything could happen next. There's actually no need to take such unnecessary risks.

[Potato Chips]

I am suspicious on the word legalize. It can be used inaccurately and I think we will need more time to see it is really a legalization or just a fake news, a misleading term using on media.

A good start would be to stay away from news sites with misleading headlines. I recommend coindesk, here is their take on this: Laos Authorizes Six Companies to Start Crypto Mining which fits better as there's no enough info to support the "to legalize" claim.

[amishmanish]

A good start would be to stay away from news sites with misleading headlines. I recommend coindesk, here is their take on this: Laos Authorizes Six Companies to Start Crypto Mining which fits better as there's no enough info to support the "to legalize" claim.

I don't think any of these mainstream crypto publications are trustworthy enough. They are just sources of news and one should make ones own conclusion. Coindesk regularly publishes articles for HYIP tokens too whose sole purpose is to find a new buyer. Even in case of the original article, the headline was misleading but the article clearly mentions that they have selectively authorized 6 companies for trading and mining.

What makes me happy about this stuff is though the other information that they have formed groups to study and find ways for incorporating Bitcoin. It is heartening that this is a financial decision in which smaller, less powerful nations don't necessarily have to take the lead of the bigger countries. They are in fact leading the path which is difficult but promising. Hoping for the best for the people there.

[hd49728]

I am suspicious on the word legalize. It can be used inaccurately and I think we will need more time to see it is really a legalization or just a fake news, a misleading term using on media.

A good start would be to stay away from news sites with misleading headlines. I recommend coindesk, here is their take on this: Laos Authorizes Six Companies to Start Crypto Mining which fits better as there's no enough info to support the "to legalize" claim.

It is exactly what I worried. Authorize and legalize are completely different. Word is changed and used intentionally to mislead readers and newbies on the market. Two points I considered when I saw that article title.

Laos is a small country.
Legalize is very likely a misleading term. Finally with your help, my worry is correct. I did not try to search around the Internet to verify that news because with me, it is unimportant news.

Thank you for the article.

[pergola]

"From now until 2025, Vietnam will purchase 3,000 MW of electricity from Laos at a price of 6.95 U.S. cents per kWh. It is expected that the amount of electricity sold to Vietnam will rise to 5,000 MW between 2026 and 2030, with the price to be re-determined," he said.

Laos is simply selling energy at 7 cents per kWh, directly to a country, clear contracts, why should they offer it cheaper to some miners that might not pay a dime on profit, maybe even not pay their bills on time and also flee next day if a better opportunity arises or go outright bankrupt. On the other side, why would a miner go to Laos if they can have better rates in other countries where they are not required to first ask for a license to mine on top of every other documents.

Very useful information.
Laos is making a wise move. Maybe this is their new policy for miners. As far as I know, the Chinese live in Laos and make up the majority here. This will attract miners in China to move in without having to travel far.

[Natalim]

"From now until 2025, Vietnam will purchase 3,000 MW of electricity from Laos at a price of 6.95 U.S. cents per kWh. It is expected that the amount of electricity sold to Vietnam will rise to 5,000 MW between 2026 and 2030, with the price to be re-determined," he said.

Laos is simply selling energy at 7 cents per kWh, directly to a country, clear contracts, why should they offer it cheaper to some miners that might not pay a dime on profit, maybe even not pay their bills on time and also flee next day if a better opportunity arises or go outright bankrupt. On the other side, why would a miner go to Laos if they can have better rates in other countries where they are not required to first ask for a license to mine on top of every other documents.

Very useful information.
Laos is making a wise move. Maybe this is their new policy for miners. As far as I know, the Chinese live in Laos and make up the majority here. This will attract miners in China to move in without having to travel far.

Laos has changed its policy since September 9 allowing six companies to mine and trade bitcoin on a trial run. This is really a wise move for Laos because its own place is definitely one of the most hydropower resource rich countries in Asia so its really ideal for a profitable and sustainable bitcoin mining.

And knowing Chinese are the majority residents in  Laos so this this will be a perfect time for miners in China to move into Laos where bitcoin mining and trading is fully supported by the government.

[DOH!]

One by one & then they will all come. In 20 years any country refusing to adapt & adopt bitcoin will be left behind.
It’s only a matter of time, we must be patient.

It is clear that more and more countries are opening up to receive and consider the conditions, resources, and infrastructure to legalize bitcoin.  Following Ukraine, the signals coming from Cuba and Laos are not surprising.  In the next 5-10 years, there will be a bunch of countries legalizing bitcoin.  And they will make September 7 a historic date from El Salvador
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cuba-s-cryptocurrency-regulations-take-effect

[Leviathan.007]

In the case of countries such as Laos usually, the governments will find bitcoin helpful assets for governmental and baking transactions. Also, they will use bitcoin as a solution for the economic sanctions they are facing or they may face later. So, the first and most important reason can be accepting bitcoin for their own benefits. On the other hand, they are aware of how bitcoin works and they know that they can not completely suspend bitcoin in their countries that's why doing legalization may work better, legalization of bitcoin can be a step before knowing bitcoin as an investment and taking tax from the investors.

[verita1]

Excellent initiative in Laos! People are already worrying about their future.
The Covid19 left some unproductive sectors such as tourism and the government of Laos as other countries are seeing how bitcoin can boost their economies.
Among the main sources of income of this nation is tourism as well as energy exports and using this they can take advantage of this resource to make legal use of bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin mining through hydropower.
Good for bitcoin and crypto because the nation can teach others a way to mine bitcon with less environmental impact.

[AakZaki]

The more adoption that is done by several countries that support bitcoin, the more popular the use of bitcoin will be. but even so the pros and cons will continue to occur. as happened recently in el salvador about the refusal of several groups of people who do not agree with the legalization of bitcoin to protest and burn one of the Bitcoin ATM machines.
Now Laos will also adopt bitcoin, we'll see what happens. Bitcoin is growing in popularity.

[dupee419]

The more adoption that is done by several countries that support bitcoin, the more popular the use of bitcoin will be. but even so the pros and cons will continue to occur. as happened recently in el salvador about the refusal of several groups of people who do not agree with the legalization of bitcoin to protest and burn one of the Bitcoin ATM machines.
Now Laos will also adopt bitcoin, we'll see what happens. Bitcoin is growing in popularity.

Big difference here is Laos is just legalizing Bitcoin, allowing its citizen to freely use Bitcoin, mine, trade, but not totally rely on Bitcoin just like what El Salvador did, making it as their legal tender, which is not the case for Laos.

Also, 7 million citizens in Laos, that's not a small number at all but my concern here is how big Bitcoin is in Laos, if it ain't that big there, then the impact is probably not that great, although it's actually for their citizens to actually move without the fear of being arrested, since they can do activities without fear nor hatred.

[eaLiTy]

I am suspicious on the word legalize. It can be used inaccurately and I think we will need more time to see it is really a legalization or just a fake news, a misleading term using on media.

I mean terms like ban, legalize can be used and misled by social media and whales.

This is a fact that we hear news like this that could manipulate the market for the past several years. In the past one year i have heard about news in either direction that a country banned cryptocurrency or a country is accepting them but the truth is far from reality and i do believe these are spread so that they think they can manipulate the market with these news.

[livingfree]

If this news tend to be true then that's a major news that we have, just another country that have adopted mining and trading of bitcoin.

Well, this time everyone isn't overhyped with it unlike before that when used to see news like this, we're all positive. But due to the fact that many fake news have came before, we just want to validate the news first.

[Naficopa]

Asian nation Laos to legalize Bitcoin mining and trading

I am suspicious on the word legalize. It can be used inaccurately and I think we will need more time to see it is really a legalization or just a fake news, a misleading term using on media.

I mean terms like ban, legalize can be used and misled by social media and whales.

Laos has cheap electricity price, you can check the chart: https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/electricity_prices/
Will the nation appears on the World Mining Map and move closely to nations like Kazakhstan or Ukraine? https://cbeci.org/mining_map

If this information will confirm, and it will probably happen soon (if it hasn't already happened), it will definitely be another big step on the road of Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies to the mainstream. Legalizing mining and trading cryptocurrencies is a great help for miners, so I'm sure many companies and investors will turn their eyes to Laos. I am sure that the low cost of electricity and the legalization of cryptocurrencies will mean that many mining farm will be built there.

[Dilladupak]

Laos is a small country in southeast Asia, and it turns out that this country has dared to take the decision to legalize Bitcoin. This is very extraordinary, is it possible that Laos will overtake other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar?
More and more countries will legalize Bitcoin, this is really good news.  It is proven that Bitcoin continues to show its development.

[ropyu1978]

one by one countries want to follow in the footsteps of el salvador, if el salvador is really successful in managing bitcoin, and can make their economy better, in the next ten or twenty years maybe all countries will legalize bitcoin, and make bitcoin a currency that OK, now we are just waiting for the development of El Salvador..

[Kittygalore]

I want to see what factors make laos implement bitcoin legalization?  if only based on the cost of cheap electricity it seems that is not enough for the main reason.  I want to make sure that the government is really serious about legalizing the bitcoin market so that in the future it can be a motivation for other countries, especially the Southeast Asian market.

Totally agree but cheap electricity is useful for bitcoin to flourish as it will make miners earn more in that country. Another reason is probably just advancements in technology and keeping up with it's neighboring countries.

[suzanne5223]

The Ukraine government and then Laos legalizing Bitcoin is a sign that some governments now truly understand the benefit and how helpful Bitcoin will be for society and the nation's economy. But, Ukraine only legalizes and regulates cryptocurrency and not as legal tender as we see in El Salvador why Laos only wants to benefit from crypto through mining and trading.

I won't consider it as legalization for crypto but it is still a positive motive though.

[chanler]

If that's true, it's certainly good because more and more countries are now legalizing crypto. the development of crypto can be even more brilliant in the future for sure. crypto has shown its existence in several countries and it makes a lot of people get the results. if a country has legalized crypto it means they know the benefits of crypto themselves for the government. although there are still some countries that are currently unable to accept crypto, we don't know how in the future whether there will be more countries that accept it or even less.

[Rengga Jati]

Based on the news, we can see that Loas still tries to a trial program of cryptocurrency. ANd the countries authorize some companies to do the trial program.
Actually, it may not mean legalization. But, it seems that they are still in progress on deciding the law of the crypto itself. But at least, this trial program can lead to better decisions after the final, moreover if the trial program is successful.

And one to note is that this program doesn't relate to any currency service. So, it means that they have not yet legalized crypto as a currency, not yet at least.