Banning Bitcoin is Like Banning the Internet, Says Russia’s Finance Minister

[Zlantann]

It is generally known that the Russian Central Bank’s stance is to ban crypto-assets, cryptocurrencies, arguing that they creates risks, primarily for citizens, and financial institutions, banks, and create an obscure settlement market.

But, Anton Siluanov (Russia’s Financial Minister) believes that banning cryptocurrencies is like banning the internet. He argued that although the risks the Central Bank is raising are understandable, but he once again reiterated that banning the sector is considerably worse than regulating it.
 
There are still debates on this issue and President Putin have encouraged the two financial bodies to find a solution to the deadlock.

https://cryptopotato.com/banning-bitcoin-is-like-banning-the-internet-says-russias-finance-minister/

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[tranthidung]

Not only Russia but also other nations failed to ban the Internet. So what do you expect when you say and are witnessing that they are trying to ban Bitcoin like what they tried to ban the Internet?

Do you know that Bitcoin has much more impressively growth than the Internet?

In 1990s, people tried to ban the Internet and now, 30 years later, we know that they failed eventually. Bitcoin has had 13 years in history so far and it won't die. 13 years old is good enough to say Bitcoin is here to survive and will stay with us. The world need blockchain technology and Bitcoin is the first successful blockchain-based project.

[Poker Player]

Contradictory information has been coming from Russia lately, because it is clear that the Central Bank and the minister have conflicting views. I hope that in the short term the Minister's vision will prevail, as he is the one who understands what this is all about. However, even if the Central Bank's vision were to prevail now, in the long term that vision cannot be sustained.

[Henrobakkara]

It is generally known that the Russian Central Bank’s stance is to ban crypto-assets, cryptocurrencies, arguing that they creates risks, primarily for citizens, and financial institutions, banks, and create an obscure settlement market.

But, Anton Siluanov (Russia’s Financial Minister) believes that banning cryptocurrencies is like banning the internet. He argued that although the risks the Central Bank is raising are understandable, but he once again reiterated that banning the sector is considerably worse than regulating it.
 
There are still debates on this issue and President Putin have encouraged the two financial bodies to find a solution to the deadlock.

https://cryptopotato.com/banning-bitcoin-is-like-banning-the-internet-says-russias-finance-minister/

For them to even consider looking at the possibilities of Banning or not banning means a good thing because if it was not, they couldn't even consider it.  I think in the years to come even though I don't see most countries taking it as a legal tender but there will surely be more acceptance and regulations with Bitcoin because it is no longer undeniable.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

He’s not wrong, these nations who decide to exclude themselves from the future of finance will regret it. They can’t really ban bitcoin, anybody who knows about Tor, VPN’s, P2P trading can work around it. They can only exclude themselves which is a big mistake.

[mirakal]

In the first place, there's no reason to ban the internet because it connects us, it gives information that we can share even for free and it makes us smart because we make ourselves informed of the latest news and stories.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is considered a digital currency, it should not be compared to the internet because bitcoin as a currency can be used for illegal activities and therefore needs to be regulated or banned if cannot be regulated. In the end, it still depends on our government but we see that some governments are pro-bitcoin, so bitcoin will certainly exist even if other countries will ban it.

[pooya87]

"You can't ban the internet" is being repeated but you have to realize that the governments didn't abandon banning the internet because they couldn't. They abandoned it because they ended up having a very good level of control over it.
Take Canada for example, you'd assume they need some sort of court order to pressure the social media companies like Facebook to reveal the shit their people are liking but the recent police raids of Canadian homes proved they don't need it at all. The authoritarian regime already monitors everything fully.

One of the reasons why they still keep fighting bitcoin because they still haven't been able to find any way to have any kind of control over it. They have tried so much too with their spy nodes, chain analysts, etc.

[The Cryptovator]

Yes, the finance minister is on right track. Since they are unable to stop using the Internet means can't prevent their citizens from using Bitcoin or cryptocurrency as well. Central Bank always will stand against Bitcoin, nothing new. It's because they don't like to destroy their business. But they aren't realising the reality and potentialities of Bitcoin or they ignoring that for their own benefits. I don't think Russia will ban crypto ever. There are many things related to that.

[romero121]

When it is seen from outside it looks like a threat. When one starts using it, people start understanding the need for it and the true power. With internet this has been experienced and the internet changed the world making anything possible from any corner of the world. Now in the financial ecosystem the same is being done by bitcoin along with other cryptocurrencies. Maybe the service available out of cryptocurrencies were also available with fiat, but how it happens vary between the two. This is why more countries prefer making it an alternate than banning it.

[BlackHatCoiner]

No, it's much harder than that.

As a government, you can approve or disapprove the usage of the internet from your citizens. You have greater access than they do. If someone gave me their IP address, I couldn't have known much, maybe approach where they live. The government, on the other hand, can know exactly where they live, which pages they've visited, when did they do it, they can link their devices etc.

In Bitcoin, everybody has the same rights. It's a set of rules everybody can follow. Therefore, I'm gonna change it and say that: Banning Bitcoin is rather like... Banning gravity.

[Leviathan.007]

It is generally known that the Russian Central Bank’s stance is to ban crypto-assets, cryptocurrencies, arguing that they creates risks, primarily for citizens, and financial institutions, banks, and create an obscure settlement market.

But, Anton Siluanov (Russia’s Financial Minister) believes that banning cryptocurrencies is like banning the internet. He argued that although the risks the Central Bank is raising are understandable, but he once again reiterated that banning the sector is considerably worse than regulating it.
 
There are still debates on this issue and President Putin have encouraged the two financial bodies to find a solution to the deadlock.

https://cryptopotato.com/banning-bitcoin-is-like-banning-the-internet-says-russias-finance-minister/

That's what China did they wanted to ban bitcoin but the ban could fail if they didn't ban the internet before banning bitcoin, I saw, many news about Russia trying to ban bitcoin a few weeks ago but just a few days after that I saw some articles about Russia trying to legalize bitcoin, so considering the usage of bitcoin by Russian people that's very much expecting to see Russia trying to ban bitcoin, in the worst case they may try to somehow try to adopt for taking tax and tracing he transactions.

[icopress]

Not only Russia but also other nations failed to ban the Internet. [...]

When it comes to attempts to ban the Internet, supposedly protection from external threats is meant, which in reality is aimed at censorship.

Btw, since 2019, a bill has come into force in Russia, which should eventually make the Russian Internet space similar to the Chinese one. I'm not sure at what stage the implementation of this project is, but after digging around in the bill's document on the Internet, I found that: The restrictions apply primarily to Telecom Operators who must switch to Russian-made equipment, equipment that provides for deep traffic filtering (such that it can distinguish a Telegram traffic package from Facebook, but without seeing the contents of the package).

It's the same with bitcoin... any government is always trying to extract as much money (in the form of taxation) from the population as possible with as much control as possible. And the possible regulation that everyone is so actively discussing is actually aimed at obtaining new levers of pressure on that layer of the Russian population to whom the banking system is alien, (that layer of the population that has cryptocurrency wallets).

[avikz]

He’s not wrong, these nations who decide to exclude themselves from the future of finance will regret it. They can’t really ban bitcoin, anybody who knows about Tor, VPN’s, P2P trading can work around it. They can only exclude themselves which is a big mistake.

That's probably true! In this advanced computing age, it's very very hard to ban anything that runs over the internet. Because it is quite easy to find a workaround and for the enforcement agencies, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. So what the Finance Minister of Russia is saying, makes complete sense! This way the Russian government will be able to generate tax revenue. But if they ban it, the activities will remain as it is, but they will loose on the tax revenue.

The central banks around the world, are against bitcoin. Because a mediator-free system is an existential threat to the centralized financial bodies. So not only Russia, but other central banks are also vocal about banning the entire crypto ecosystem. It's good that at least a progressive person is leading the finance ministry in Russia.

[Anonylz]

Couldn't agree more, it is highly ridiculous to think of banning btc, the federal government should stop thinking about banning and and look for better ways to incorporate it into the economy, after several failed attempt it is pointless to keep trying, we are in the digital era where many things are done digitally, technological advancement is taking over and btc is part of that advancement.

[Ozero]

Banning Bitcoin is a futile act, yes, this is as the Russian Ministry of Finance said that banning Bitcoin is the same as banning the internet. Bitcoin is widespread throughout the world, Bitcoin can be spread widely through the internet network but the internet network is impossible to destroy because the internet network functions not only for Bitcoin but the internet network has become a necessity for all mankind such as for studying, sending task reports , as a means of communication and others.
Right now I'm just thinking about how we can all benefit from Bitcoin so that we can avoid the economic crisis and not think about ways to ban it.

It must be remembered that in Russia until recently they called not only to ban the circulation of cryptocurrency and its use as a means of payment, but also to establish criminal liability for such violations. The corresponding bill was in their State Duma. If such liability were introduced, it would significantly reduce the circle of people who continued to use cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency would be driven into the shadows, so the state has huge leverage over cryptocurrency.
But, of course, the state is not able to make people completely abandon the use of cryptocurrency. Therefore, the cryptocurrency is developing and its influence on financial markets continues to grow.

[tranthidung]

"You can't ban the internet" is being repeated but you have to realize that the governments didn't abandon banning the internet because they couldn't. They abandoned it because they ended up having a very good level of control over it.

To grow bigger, Bitcoin and crypto market need to have more and better regulations. Having our own banks and financial freedom does not mean the crypto market and its ecosystem should be left as free space.

People must be protected by regulations, laws, etc. There are always pros and cons of regulations but I believe that in the world, we must have law and regulations in any industry. Fortunately, with Bitcoin, governments can not brutefore our own wallets. They can not free our wallets like what they can do very easily with bank accounts.

[peter0425]

It is generally known that the Russian Central Bank’s stance is to ban crypto-assets, cryptocurrencies, arguing that they creates risks, primarily for citizens, and financial institutions, banks, and create an obscure settlement market.

But, Anton Siluanov (Russia’s Financial Minister) believes that banning cryptocurrencies is like banning the internet. He argued that although the risks the Central Bank is raising are understandable, but he once again reiterated that banning the sector is considerably worse than regulating it.
 
There are still debates on this issue and President Putin have encouraged the two financial bodies to find a solution to the deadlock.

https://cryptopotato.com/banning-bitcoin-is-like-banning-the-internet-says-russias-finance-minister/

This would be one of the best news we can find now while the market is experiencing dumps.

banning bitcoin is like banning internet is a strong word to release from a reputable person in Russian government .

While russia is really trying to bring Bitcoin into more positive traits in their country, news like this will be a good views for bitcoin supporters .

[aysg76]

There are lot of things going on in Russia at the moment like the central banks and parliament house are not in cooperation with each other so nothing at the moment is clear.

The Russian crypto market contributes about $200 billion and is around 12% share of the market so who's at the loss?

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview that he hopes the regulations will be passed into law by the end of the year.

They drafted a Bill for crypto regulations as per finance minister against the will of central banks and then they are issuing various statements like this one :

Cryptocurrencies should be not be given legal currency status and treated only as an investment vehicle, the Russian finance ministry said Monday.

So the situation is not exactly clear as to what their intentions are or the bill will have what kind of action like ban or regulation? So let's wait for it to happen.

Speaking about internet and bitcoin then government can legally shut it down and then only options left in case of btc is TOR and other services which will allow you to secretly operate but that's not good.It cannot be stopped as the mechanism is built that way which the government fears but sooner or later they will realise this mistake.

But this is what will happen if they go negative around bitcoin and put a Bill to ban it :

1) The market will go once again red which is common and there will be new FUD around the market

2) The panic sellers would contribute their best so we can say that it will go to around $33-$32k

3)The prices will boom once everything is settled down in the long run and btc holders who understands it knows this fact.

4) This will become another china topic and then no talks would be there for it.

The Bitcoin is future even they accept it or not.

[yazher]

Not only Russia but also other nations failed to ban the Internet. So what do you expect when you say and are witnessing that they are trying to ban Bitcoin like what they tried to ban the Internet?

If that is the case then there will come a time in the future where bitcoins will be used like how we use the internet today but in the finance industry where people use it as money and you can actually buy anything using BTC. looks like we have a solid supporter here, hope that they won't change their decision regarding bitcoins and continue to support it until everyone recognized it as one of the official currencies of the world. right now, only the governments are against or stay neutral with bitcoins, they're citizens that already know it is mostly using it.

[Pmalek]

They wont succeed in banning Bitcoin, but they can make it more difficult for their citizens to access Bitcoin-related services and platforms. I am talking about exchanges, casinos, and even the Bitcointalk forum, a site that is still banned in Russia I think. But there is always TOR, there are SOCKS, and VPN to bypass those restrictions.

Russia will have to decide where their interests lie and what is more profitable. Doing the best they can to ban mining, staking, trading, investing, etc., or taxing such activities and keep filling those tax registers. China opted to mine certain aspects, let's see what route Russia will take. Both nations are certainly not leaders when it comes to freedom of choice.