Afghans turn to cryptocurrencies amid US sanctions

[virasog]

A report from the BBC told that the Afghanistan government and Taliban's are using bitcoin and crypto as they have no option left after US Sanctions.
Same we see that Russians are also using bitcoins to prevent themselves from the bad effects of US sanctions.

Afghans turn to cryptocurrencies amid US sanctions

Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

[evilgreed]

               With the sanctions happening plus the economical problems, it's no surprise for Afghanistan to resort into other alternatives, even more so in the case of Russians which has even more sanctions compared to Afghanistan. People who think that crypto currency is a saving grace from above are increasing specially those who have the mindset of a gambler or those that barely understands this industry. Now, will it be good for bitcoin and altcoins? Short term, yes. Mid term, no. Long term yes.

[slackovic]

I don't think that this kind of things can be seen as bad for Bitcoin or crypto in general. You can't say that fire is bad if you use it in the wrong way (like when someone starts a forest fire). Just like that, no one can't say that crypto is bad because it can be used to avoid sanctions. Besides, "it takes two to tango". In another words, it takes someone who will accept Bitcoin from a sanctioned country and in my opinion that individual is doing the wrong thing.

[kaya11]

A report from the BBC told that the Afghanistan government and Taliban's are using bitcoin and crypto as they have no option left after US Sanctions.
Same we see that Russians are also using bitcoins to prevent themselves from the bad effects of US sanctions.

Afghans turn to cryptocurrencies amid US sanctions

Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

Yes it has good side on it, awareness for the whole world that crypto is not owned by anyone and can be used by anyone, any state that has sanctions due to conflicts. The only problem is are they ready? It is a new technology for them, they need to educate their people about crypto currencies, it is from a scratch but better than nothing.

[romeitaly]

They're still going to need a huge overhaul of their financial system since they're going to need to make sure that they're not entirely dependent to USD but that's going to be tough given how even North Korea needs foreign currency like USD to make sure their country still function. Hopefully they will be able to live normally, a lot of innocent Afghans are being sandwiched to this Taliban occupation.

[pooya87]

This sounds like fake news to me. The article is also mostly bashing Afghanistan's economy rather than talking about cryptocurrencies despite what it looks like (not that the economy is any good but still).

"After the Taliban takeover, crypto spread like wildfire over Afghanistan," he said. "There is almost no other way to receive money".

The second part is nonsense. The banking system in Afghanistan has some issues but it is still working and people are using the local currency and can receive money. They just can't do it internationally and they face pretty much the same exact challenges as before.
Keep in mind that the sanctions mostly coming from US started a very long time ago, I believe back in 2001. SWIFT wasn't really working with them that much either, and it doesn't really affect regular people's lives anyway!

Bitcoin adoption has also been growing for a couple of years not just recently after the great US escape of 2021. The escape and the subsequent (additional) sanctions just contributed a little to the adoption, so the first part is also not accurate.

Mr Hotak and his friends use Binance's P2P crypto exchange, which allows them to buy and sell their coins directly with other users on the platform.

I couldn't find anything in Binance rules that changed regarding Afghanistan, they are treating them the same as before. The fact that the article is trying to imply that he had to flee the country to continue using Binance is absurd.

[Yogee]

...Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

It should be. Some people would still argue it's not good because "terrorists" are using it but it's working as intended. No banks or other third party that will stop the transfer of fund and nobody has the authority to dictate who can use bitcoin except miners I guess. It would be really bad if all miners starts blocking unconfirmed transactions.

[buwaytress]

Not the first time Afghans have found a use for Bitcoin. I remember this story about Afghan women earning crypto in an economy that has traditionally been highly exclusive to women -- this was way back in 2014. Not sure what's happened or if any of them WAF girls ever made it to this forum. The website already redirects to a different one that doesn't even seem launched.

With all these developments I see about country X making inroads, I always wonder: why don't we see them here or on other platforms? Nigerians, even Iranians and Syrians I've noticed over the years. Southeast Asians absolutely.

[Franctoshi]

The reason makes a whole lot of sense for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth and in general increasing adoption.
in other sense that it's in accordance to one of the reasons why Bitcoin and other digital asset were created... freedom from a total government control . Everyone wants to  become their own bank ,so here Afghanistan and Russia want to become their bank without no one having to impose sanction on them,  however realizing the usefulness of Bitcoin here and therefore taking the advantage.

[Zlantann]

Every good invention have a negative application. Bitcoin was created to limit or even erode the negative effects of centralization, but it could still serve as a tool to invade legitimate sanctions.

In the case of Afghanistan I fully support their innovations to invade the US sanctions through cryptocurrencies because the US was the creator of the problems the Afghans are facing. The citizens of that country are suffering because of this sanctions, hence cryptocurrencies are doing their duty of helping people that needs assistance.

For Russia, Bitcoin is also doing thier job. Majority of Russians are controlled by the autocratic powers of Putin. They don't enjoy freedom to express their thoughts or beliefs. I am sure, many of them don't support the invasion of Ukraine. But they would suffer for committing no crime. Although, the government might use Bitcoin and others to invade sanctions which is wrong, but the people of Russia needs cryptocurrencies to be able to survive.

[fiulpro]

A report from the BBC told that the Afghanistan government and Taliban's are using bitcoin and crypto as they have no option left after US Sanctions.
Same we see that Russians are also using bitcoins to prevent themselves from the bad effects of US sanctions.

Afghans turn to cryptocurrencies amid US sanctions

Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

- It is ofcourse good if it's used by normal people but if you are considering people using bitcoins for bad things then it's certainly a probelm as well

But bitcoins is trackable which means it's easy to see how it's used and for what purpose as well, that can be a very strong tool.

-Adoption of Bitcoins is very likely to happen on a larger scale since after the war of Ukraine and Russia considering how affected the government and people are by the ongoing sanctions which are still increasing everyday and would till Russia stops

-Adoption can provide an alternate to governmental controlled currencies and fiat making it better for people to have opportunities to control their own assets.

[sunsilk]

What we're seeing with these two countries, despite the US economic sanctions, they still have a choice for them to thrive in other way in finance.

Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

Yes.

They're a country and the bitcoin community and its market is free for everyone. However, the same as with fiat, there are good and bad uses of it. Let's just hope for the sake of everyone and the best of it that they'll thrive together in a positive use of it.

We know what can go wrong as the usual taboo with bitcoin, being used by criminals, terrorists and for illegal purposes. There's the belief on those activities but it's gotten differently on these times and it's becoming more mainstream and its use is classified the same as the fiat money which is for good and bad.

[mk4]

Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

Bitcoin is for you, your friends, and your enemies. That's what a neutral decentralized money platform does — have no biases, hence the freedom.

[hugeblack]

I only see that these news represent limited use cases, and we cannot generalize them to all of Afghanistan, or Russia, and that the newspapers highlight these developments, which may not represent less than 1% of the total trade carried out by Afghanistan.

So it is inaccurate that citizens or governments rely mainly on Bitcoin to evade sanctions or find alternative payment methods for wire transfers, perhaps the volume of exchanges in Western Union is much higher than Bitcoin in that country (I don't know if Western operates in Afghanistan)

As for its impact on Bitcoin, it will not be negative. Bitcoin analysis networks, verify identity, and although the Bitcoin network is decentralized, it is easy to track privacy.

[Sterbens]

As we know, no one can be prohibited from owning Bitcoin, even with the nature of its freedom, it has now become an alternative for a country to advance its infrastructure for the sake of the country's economic interests. No wonder why the country of Afghanistan is using cryptocurrency as an option. Moreover, they are a newly established country after a long war and experienced many economic collapses, of course if they rely on AFN money which is still weak, it will hamper the pace of growth for a long time. Whereas with Bitcoin they are able to multiply economic fulfillment quickly and massively.

[rat03gopoh]

Yup, this can be a reason to save people economically from adversity. The economic effects of conflict sometimes result in more than the government's expectations so that the planned anticipation is not able to overcome it. On the other hand, the adoption of BTC due to evading sanctions will have a bigger downside especially involving several countries. The visible effect now is that BTC has a bad image.

[Fortify]

A report from the BBC told that the Afghanistan government and Taliban's are using bitcoin and crypto as they have no option left after US Sanctions.
Same we see that Russians are also using bitcoins to prevent themselves from the bad effects of US sanctions.

Afghans turn to cryptocurrencies amid US sanctions

Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

I think America needs to reassess previous sanctions and carefully judge whether they are still required. I'm not sure about Afghanistan and Russia definitely needs them, but Iran seem to be unnecessarily cut off - after Trump broke the previous agreement which was heading back to normalized relations. It seems like a flood of cheap Iranian oil could really help the world economy right now and Israel/Iran both need to be forced to the negotiating table to work out compromises. Iran will be getting much richer off selling to China soon either way.

[JohnBitCo]

Do you think the bitcoin adoption of these countries and the reason for adoption is good for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency growth?

It does not matter which country is using bitcoin or which country is adopting bitcoin. The point here is whichever country will use it, the demand of bitcoin will increase and in this way the bitcoin will be more valuable. I understand your point of view that the countries adopting it are the ones which are not liked by the majority of the world but its just a start. I am sure other more developed and more peace loving countries will adopt bitcoin too.

[The Cryptovator]

Bitcoin would be another concern for the US if their sanctions don't work due to Bitcoin. Likely countries that are on US sanctions will use Bitcoin for transferring funds worldwide. It's pretty easy and has no prevention and limitations. Likely that's the reason Bitcoin showing positive movements. Those have no option to deal financially worldwide due to US sanctions, alternatively, they would move to Bitcoin without hassle. On the other hand, China helping Afghanistan which is another concern for the US.
 

[Leviathan.007]

In this case, you may think that's a good point of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies because they can bypass the sanctions from the USA and some other countries but we cannot forget what they do to their people, for some reason I have friends there and they gave me pieces of information about Taliban and Afghanistan government, unfortunately, maybe girls and women are in danger in Afghanistan and USA is trying to put the Taliban under pressure but they are using bitcoin to bypass the sanctions and that's not good at all.