Pakistani Central banks wants to ban crypto

[Coyster]

The Pakistani government is the latest country to propose a ban on crypto, I know it's a possible ban that will affect crypto in general, but to be honest I'm pretty sure Bitcoin is definitely their main target in all of this as it's the crypto that most governments see as a "threat" to their complete dominance over their citizens financial activities, see this excerpt below:

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is reportedly seeking to ban all cryptocurrency transactions in Pakistan.

I know there's prolly no way Bitcoin can become the most used currency in the world in place of Fiat, and I know quite a lot of people are of the view that the government do not actually feel threatened by Bitcoin, but personally I think they are, they are mostly worried by the "be your bank" option Bitcoin offers its users, and it's something quite a lot of people are starting to understand its importance, and I also believe CBDC's were launched in reaction to the growth of Bitcoin, to convince people that it's a digital currency like Bitcoin, which it's not. They also plan to impose sanctions on crypto exchanges, see this excerpt below:

The Pakistani central bank reportedly urged the court not only to ban cryptocurrency activity but also to impose penalties against crypto exchanges.

I believe all of this is just a calculated attempt to forestall Bitcoins growth and development, but just as has been the case in previous scenarios of Bitcoin ban, it would prolly only have an ephemeral effect on the price of Bitcoin, but in the long run would be inconsequential. What do you think would come out of this?

Full news: https://cointelegraph.com/news/pakistan-s-central-bank-reportedly-wants-to-ban-crypto

[Charles-Tim]

Decentralized currencies are not yet banned in Pakistan but this is a threat to bitcoin and other crypto users in the country.

Pakistan’s Sindh High Court reportedly held a hearing related to the legal status of cryptocurrencies in the country, in which several Pakistani authorities, including the SBP, submitted a document to the court, arguing that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are illegal and cannot be used for trade.

I hope Sindh High Court will see good reasons not to ban cryptocurrencies other than what State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) brought them as a means to make cryptocurrencies illegal in the country. Just like what happened in India, but Indian court was later able to see the true reasons not to ban bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

What makes SBP think crypto is illegal when they deemed Pakistani rupee legal? Because they do not have criminals that are having means to scam people of Pakistani rupee? That is no of course. I am wondering how some people are so primitive and prefer to be fixated to certain level only.

Instead to call for regulation, they called for ban. Bank as usual.

According to local news channel Samaa TV, the document cited at least 11 countries, including China and Saudi Arabia, that have opted to ban cryptocurrencies.

This is the reason why some countries will always lack behind, just little insufficient research and comparison with other countries that may have hidden agenda.

[LeGaulois]

Who cares if this or that country decides to ban Bitcoin?
It won't change anything, except that the people who are in it only for the speculation will get out. Which is not so bad in the end. It's like during a crash when the weak hands pull out of the market.

Do you think the police will come knocking at your door to check your computer to see if you downloaded Electrum? Or request your ISP to monitor your activity on the web?

We don't need the approval of any government. Even if it comes from an influential country, like the United States, we don't care. Let's go Brandon. We haven't even invited them to give us advice.
A ban from some countries is just a joke to scare people. Governments can not ban the Bitcoin network! They may try to frame it but who decides? A government or us? The media tries to turn a useless news item into a dramatic one and people jump on the trap.

They can impose sanctions on crypto exchanges but again who cares? Only the companies that are worried for their business. We, bitcoiners, do not need CEXs, that's not how it was supported to work. If they do impose sanctions, well no big deal because folks will switch to decentralized solutions and that's how it should be.

Using decentralized currencies with centralized solutions/companies. How funny it is  

[ChiBitCTy]

Not much of a surprise that another middle eastern country is wanting to control its citizens. I do agree with you in a couple levels. First, technically no country can all out ban bitcoin, there’s always going to be over the counter trading that will counteract this, however we do need the exchanges for the on and off ramps which are what’s going to help make bitcoin a global currency. Just my 2.

[NeuroticFish]

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is reportedly seeking to ban all cryptocurrency transactions in Pakistan.

1. There will always be some who prefer to piss against the wind. Sadly it happens now and then. But it's far from sure that this ban will actually ever happen in Pakistan.
2. "Seeking to ban" means absolutely nothing. It's like the announcement that there may be an announcement. If more important things would happen, this would be ignored by these news agency wannabes.
From seeking to proposing and from there to getting it to be come law there are plenty of steps and time.

[The Cryptovator]

Noticed that from Cointelegraph, it seems they are following China's footprint. If my memory serves correctly, many times heard that Pakistan going to ban cryptocurrency. The government could announce it as an illegal asset. But they can't prevent you from using cryptocurrency. Due to the decentralized behavior of the cryptocurrency still, people can use it. Do you think China citizens haven't been using cryptocurrency? I don't think so. Banning cryptocurrency means governments don't want to get tax from you. That's what I believe.

[JrRini]

Not only Pakistani banks but it is also banned in a few other countries like Bangladesh and Bangladesh because the thief Batper, who is a thief by phone, captures the child Zimbi and demands money through his free mountain bitcoin.  Bitcoin can be given through different wallets so only the address of bitcoin can be traced as it is very difficult to catch the killer mafia so these countries have banded coin cryptocurrency.  Besides, a lot of stolen money from Bitcoin is looted from one country to another and exchanged.

[OcTradism]

Pakistan is not a big nation in terms of crypto adoption. According to Chainalysis and usefultulips, bans if enforced in Pakistan won't affect global crypto market. If bans news come from big countries like China, USA, Russia the market will be affected more but only in short term.
https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-global-crypto-adoption-index/
https://www.usefultulips.org/combined_Asia%20Pacific_Page.html

Long term Bitcoin beats all of FUDs, all of bans, from whatever countries.
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/

[Tellek Garing]

Noticed that from Cointelegraph, it seems they are following China's footprint. If my memory serves correctly, many times heard that Pakistan going to ban cryptocurrency. The government could announce it as an illegal asset. But they can't prevent you from using cryptocurrency. Due to the decentralized behavior of the cryptocurrency still, people can use it. Do you think China citizens haven't been using cryptocurrency? I don't think so. Banning cryptocurrency means governments don't want to get tax from you. That's what I believe.

Think the headline of the news is kind of shows bad journalism as it is not started that Pakistan has banned cryptocurrency rather it trade which is the same as not being allowed to be used for payment of goods and services within the country which is normal and is expected from such country just to protect the Central currency from totally failing into high inflation, but the citizens can still hold Bitcoin and will transact in cryptocurrency without any state punishment for using bitcoin. So the citizens are free to own and use crypto.

[Coyster]

Decentralized currencies are not yet banned in Pakistan but this is a threat to bitcoin and other crypto users in the country.

Yes, I made it known in the OP, it's still a proposal for now, nothing concrete, and no decision has been made as for now

What makes SBP think crypto is illegal when they deemed Pakistani rupee legal? Because they do not have criminals that are having means to scam people of Pakistani rupee?

It's basically just about control, the government of course control their fiat currencies, thus there is no way to they will want to see anything wrong with it, but as for decentralized digital currencies like Bitcoin that offers users control, the government will come up with crazy lies just to discredit it, they just want control, and that's just it.

[hyudien]

Even if the policy is passed, the market will not be too much affected. As people have said before, even though there is a ban it doesn't mean that people who use cryptocurrencies can't fully access their crypto. So this is still in the development stage and the validity test of the data comparability needs to go through various stages of ratification by amendment of the board in Pakistan. Pakistan's presence and impact on crypto don't really have much of a role to play, so we still remain optimistic that the ban will not have too much impact on the stability of the crypto market, especially Bitcoin.

[Ochuski]

The Pakistani central bank reportedly urged the court not only to ban cryptocurrency activity but also to impose penalties against crypto exchanges.

Governments world over will always fight to take control. America might be quiet but deep down they are pained and can secretly hack the whole system down just to see paper currency win.

[franky1]

as mentioned with every other country, including america,

a country cannot offer licences, permits regulation of a product unless it first prohibits its use. then it gains legal control to punish those who use it. then then allows them to offer special provisions of using it (licences/regulations) for those that do want to use it.


this means a country banning a crypto is also the first step to allowing crypto(in a regulated system)

[stompix]

If bans news come from big countries like China, USA, Russia the market will be affected more but only in short term.

Short term? A ban from the US?
Do you even realize what the implications of such ban will be?
Look at the companies holding bitcoins, look at the public traded mining companies, hashrate distribution, number of ATMs, a number of both nodes and LN nodes, remember every damn crypto card uses either Visa or Mastercard, a complete ban from the US? It's going to be a massacre.

We don't need the approval of any government. Even if it comes from an influential country, like the United States, we don't care. Let's go Brandon. We haven't even invited them to give us advice.

They can impose sanctions on crypto exchanges but again who cares? Only the companies that are worried for their business. We, bitcoiners, do not need CEXs, that's not how it was supported to work.

They are seeking a complete transaction ban, and at that moment no merchant will be allowed to take payments in crypto what are you going to do? Will switch back to SR? Buy lama socks on craigslist? An all-out ban coming from the US will be a disaster, not even mentioning the fact that with all mining companies going out of business and miners dropping like flies, with a  ton of gear that can be bought at scrap metal price the cost to attack the network would be cut one hundred times in a moment.

But, fortunately, the US is not Pakistan and nobody cares about Pakistan (when it comes to crypto).

[kryptqnick]

What I like is that there's no movement of the price after such news, even though it's natural for news about restrictive crypto bills to be followed by about a 5% decrease of Bitcoin price. Hopefully, it won't pass and people in Pakistan won't have to face a ban. As for feeling threatened, I think that apart from Bitcoin replacing banks, the governments can also be afraid of its decentralization and thus something out of their or anyone's control. But it seems that this news abut Pakistan is exaggerated, especially if it's just the position of their central bank.

Who cares if this or that country decides to ban Bitcoin?
It won't change anything, except that the people who are in it only for the speculation will get out. Which is not so bad in the end. It's like during a crash when the weak hands pull out of the market.

I believe that it's actually important if the rules are strict and are actually enforced. Sometimes some laws exist but aren't enforced, and in that case they don't matter. In my country, for example, it's the legislation against piracy. It's illegal to download or watch movies online (excluding legal subscriptions), but pretty much everyone does it and there's literally never any punishment for this. It's so common that a friend of mine even didn't know it was illegal. But some laws are enforced and can mean big fines or even some prison time. And if something like this is introduced regarding cryptos, the majority will abandon them because it won't be worth it for them. Another significant result would be major crypto exchanges and other services being unavailable in that country because big companies don't want to break the laws of some countries and be in trouble for that.

[virasog]

The Pakistani government is the latest country to propose a ban on crypto, I know it's a possible ban that will affect crypto in general, but to be honest I'm pretty sure Bitcoin is definitely their main target in all of this as it's the crypto that most governments see as a "threat" to their complete dominance over their citizens financial activities, see this excerpt below:

Well, we see a lot of countries ban bitcoin but does that have any effect on bitcoin adoption? When countries as big as china announces the bitcoin ban news, the bitcoin dumps but recovers quickly. With other small countries, like Pakistani banning the cryptocurrencies, that will have absolutely no impact on bitcoins.
However, i do feel sorry for the citizens who will face difficulty trading and involve in other crypto related activities.

[franky1]

If bans news come from big countries like China, USA, Russia the market will be affected more but only in short term.

Short term? A ban from the US?
Do you even realize what the implications of such ban will be?
Look at the companies holding bitcoins, look at the public traded mining companies, hashrate distribution, number of ATMs, a number of both nodes and LN nodes, remember every damn crypto card uses either Visa or Mastercard, a complete ban from the US? It's going to be a massacre.

you do remember the NY ban and then the bit licence era right..
yep it already happened and so no drama now.

[bekti3]

whatever they want to do
I don't really care whether they want to accept it or not because what I believe at this time even if they refuse, of course it will not have much effect on bitcoin's growth, especially now that their adoption is getting better and better. why should care about things like this even if they are sorted important or impossible this I don't think is important to see

[stompix]

you do remember the NYC ban and then the bit licence era right..
yep it already happened and so no drama now.

NYC is the city, bitlicense is a state license and a state government regulation.
There was never a ban on personal or on merchant transactions ever, so you're comparing apples with monkey dumps, as usual.

[kaya11]

It is just a short time negative effect, and a positive long term on the other hand. Remember the day when China imposed on banning Bitcoin? It gave a spark, a momentum hitting new ATH, it gains more popularity. It gains more audience as they are putting it on mainstream Media. The people who doesn't know about crypto accidentally brought to the system and therefore gets curious what it is, leaving them to try it and then gets mixed with the pump and therefore boom, it goes viral again and the price surges more.