Countries have banned Bitcoin; Do you believe is because of criminal activities

[2stout]

No, it is not banned because of criminal activities; this is just a convenient excuse with traction because it sounds good.  Truth is, most criminal, illicit activities are carried out in fiat, but do you see this rush to ban fiat?  This ban is all about power and control over people.

[CryptocurencyKing]

Well, that have been the popular excuse by the government to have embarked on banning bitcoin but we know it goes beyond that. Bitcoin is decentralized and that's a direct enemy to centralization for which is what the government really stands for. Government is all about control and when they get to realise that this is a system that have elude them and in many ways shares most of the governmental power with the people, they develop a phobia and looks for reasons to hang on to ban bitcoin.

Unfortunately, it's never going to happen as bitcoin is a system that works with the people's freewill. Humans are nature are like water, they are always in constant search for a way out and that's always going to be the reaction towards every attempt to restrict bitcoins use by individuals.

[cheezcarls]

Mostly likely they outright banned Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies because they don't have control and custody of our transaction as it has the capability of sending big amounts without borders or middlemen to approve or reject it. Even if these countries have banned Bitcoin and criminalize those who owned it, there are still some who are finding ways to trade it anonymously and just converting it via P2P process.

Governments can only regulate these cryptos, but they cannot control how much we send or receive.

[edgycorner]

No, it is not banned because of criminal activities; this is just a convenient excuse with traction because it sounds good.  Truth is, most criminal, illicit activities are carried out in fiat, but do you see this rush to ban fiat?  This ban is all about power and control over people.

But fiat is traceable and can be tracked.

Whereas cryptos are very anonymous to an extent. And if someone uses privacy coins like Monero, then it's almost impossible. IRS is paying like a million to blockchain analyst firms to help them crack monero but they will fail  
https://modernconsensus.com/regulation/irs-bets-1m-monero-transactions-are-traceable/

This is why governments want to ban crypto.(and also all the ICO scams)

[goldkingcoiner]

Most countries are giving excuses and  reason for banning Bitcoin is because it can easily be used to fund crimes.
But I think they are afraid of losing control of their citizens' financial activities because they believe being the ones regulating financial activities makes them powerful.
What are your thoughts

The only thing they are doing is cutting Bitcoin off from their own fiat. What does this do, really? People can still use Bitcoin. They can buy and sell things with it or keep it in their wallets. They can do anything they want and the governments are 100% powerless against it.

So what is happening? The governments are panicking. They are trying to do something which has been tried by the most restrictive countries (like China) and it will fail and continue to fail. They absolutely cannot stop the people from owning and transacting with Bitcoin.

The more they try, the more obvious this fact becomes. And the faster it will drive the adoption of Bitcoin.

Let the bankers sweat and the regulators cry. Bitcoin won't die.

[Stalker22]

I do not really believe that they have banned it because of criminals. People have started paying a lot of attention to Bitcoin but because of our financial system, some countries are afraid that if they do not stop that trend, it would affect their economy. They think that their banks will go bankrupt, so, they have banned Bitcoin. It is a very sensitive issue because they say that they are doing that for the sake of their people. They say that they are trying to protect their people from the frauds and the evils in the cryptocurrency world. But the way I look at it, there is more to it than meets the eye.

[abel1337]

Most countries are giving excuses and  reason for banning Bitcoin is because it can easily be used to fund crimes.
But I think they are afraid of losing control of their citizens' financial activities because they believe being the ones regulating financial activities makes them powerful.
What are your thoughts

There are many reason why countries considering or starting to ban bitcoin. It's a common and easy reason to tell that bitcoin can be use for criminal activities due to it's nature like decentralized and anonymity. But one reason I think that is not being mention by governments is they can't milk and collect taxes on bitcoin that much since they don't have control in it. Most of the reasons of government is valid but it's just being the front on the real reason why they are banning bitcoin.

[BitcoinPanther]

Countries banned bitcoin because they don't want to tackle something that they don't fully grasp, either the understanding or the control.  The government always wanted to exercise their authority and if they see that they can't have authority over things then they tend to ban it.  It is not because of criminal activities that they banned Bitcoin, if it is, they should have banned fiat currencies since there is more criminal activities in it.  It is because they are having a hard time controlling or regulating cryptocurrencies.

[2stout]

No, it is not banned because of criminal activities; this is just a convenient excuse with traction because it sounds good.  Truth is, most criminal, illicit activities are carried out in fiat, but do you see this rush to ban fiat?  This ban is all about power and control over people.

But fiat is traceable and can be tracked.

Whereas cryptos are very anonymous to an extent. And if someone uses privacy coins like Monero, then it's almost impossible. IRS is paying like a million to blockchain analyst firms to help them crack monero but they will fail  
https://modernconsensus.com/regulation/irs-bets-1m-monero-transactions-are-traceable/

This is why governments want to ban crypto.(and also all the ICO scams)

Agree fiat is trackable and traceable but that's what money laundering is for, hence why it is illegal.  Yeah, the ICO scams don't help either but just another convenient excuse for the powers that be.  The reason why I say this is because these didn't seem matter until it seemed bitcoin could legitimately upset power structures, then there became a renewed interest (propaganda) about criminal activities, scams, etc.  Not to say these don't need to be addressed but no need for the powers that be to try and insult our intelligence.

[Ebede]

Most countries are giving excuses and  reason for banning Bitcoin is because it can easily be used to fund crimes.
But I think they are afraid of losing control of their citizens' financial activities because they believe being the ones regulating financial activities makes them powerful.
What are your thoughts

No country who is given the good evidence what makes them to ban cryptocurrency  in their country. Most countries who is buying cryptocurrency they have no good reasons why they have banned cryptocurrency in the country so the problem is that government is after cryptocurrency because I don't like the development of cryptocurrency since it is started they feel that cryptocurrency will eliminate the life of Fiat currency in their country and cryptocurrency will be another way we are by some of them will stolen the money of the country

[TelolettOm]

Countries have banned Bitcoin; Do you believe is because of criminal activities

If this is the reason, the countries also should ban fiat because fiat is also used for criminal activities. So, this reason is nonsense.
I am sure that this is because of several things such as:
- governments of the countries cannot regulate and control Bitcoin
- This may relate to the Taxes, many people are being rich because of Bitcoin, but in fact, the government may feel difficult to get taxes from them
- Bitcoin may be considered as the harmful competitor of fiat
- They may be influenced by FUDs

[Sterbens]

What are your thoughts

There is no opinion, because this has become the most common topic and you will definitely find it if you try to search using the same keywords in the search section. As DaveF says, taxes are the key to getting the government to do their part and limiting your wealth from flowing too freely without passing through their homes.

[AakZaki]

Criminal activity or the root of evil can arise from anywhere, not because of bitcoin. This is simply because bitcoin cannot be fully regulated by the government, so some countries strictly prohibit the use or adoption of bitcoin and some other countries provide basic regulations on bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.
In addition, taxes are one of the things that the government is targeting for cryptocurrency users, because every user or large exchange is required to pay taxes, otherwise they will be blocked

[naira]

Does every act of funding crime arise because of Bitcoin?
I don't know where to start with you, because everything has been explained and I think you have found the answer. Because any action can be criminal in the eyes of the government, as long as it does not benefit the state, as long as it is not under state control, threatens state finances, and has a major impact that does not benefit state finances. Can be categorized into criminal types, not only Bitcoin. Do you now understand how this kind of flow works? As long as you live in a country with certain rules and your wealth does not provide benefits to the state treasury, you will be penalized.

[Slow death]

before bitcoin existed people already used fiat to commit crimes, and today there is bitcoin and people did not stop using fiat to commit crimes, why? because someone would create a bank account, to buy bitcoin and then go commit crimes knowing that bitcoin is not 100% anonymous, knowing that there are many exchanges with KYC and worse for scammers to spend their bitcoins in the real world they will again have to sell their bitcoins for fiat and withdraw to the bank. even if that person did this whole process of buying bitcoin in the hands of a person in the same person that person later commits a crime he would need to use some bank if he wants to spend it in the real world

[Vaskiy]

Quite simple, when you make a transaction of $1 million to make an investment what you pay to the government as tax is $180k as tax. This is the taxation in my country. We work hard and make this and pay it to the government. This can avoided when you make the transaction in the form of bitcoin. For this purpose governments always want to ban bitcoin. Another thing if cryptocurrency transaction is identified we're supposed to pay 30% as tax. This is how government is functioning.

[serjent05]

I think countries banned Bitcoin, not because of criminal activities but because they are hateful that they can't tax any P2P transaction of bitcoin.  It is a huge loss for them and thinks that the BTC network is making a fool out of them so they decided to ban it to show their authority.  It is more like power tripping disguised as public concerns, IMHO.

[lovesmayfamilis]

For the benefit of the people, bitcoin is banned in many countries, as announced by the government . To me, this sounds very foolish. If bitcoin attracts people with its freedom from banks, then it is banks that supposedly protect inexperienced people from unforeseen losses.

However, any sane person understands that regulators are afraid of losing their power.

In my country, tax payment projects have been discussed several times, but there is still no clear, logical solution. Thus, the future of bitcoin remains unresolved, since it seems that somewhere its use is considered very profitable, but at the same time, the loss of control over people is a terrible disaster for the government.

[LogitechMouse]

Government = control. They want control of their country and that includes the currency that they are using.
Obviously, governments can't control Bitcoin thus, they are banning it because they don't have any choice. Governments can't regulate it as well for some reasons.

Criminal activities? Maybe but even Fiat currency is being used in criminal activities as well so what's the difference. Another reason is they can't get some tax from it and it will give the country a lesser revenue.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

It's been discussed 100s of times here. But for the most part it seems to come down to taxes. If you can move large amounts of money in whatever form without the government knowing then they don't get their tax revenue. So they try to regulate & control ways of moving money so they do get their cut of it.

Anything else is all smoke an mirrors and excuses.

-Dave

But OP is talking about bans.

States do not ban bitcoin to collect taxes. That's like saying the US has banned heroin to tax for it.

You can move large undeclared amounts whether it is legal or not. The point is that by regulating it, without banning it, you are going to collect a lot of taxes that by banning it you would not collect.

I think it has to do with a bad reaction to an innovation that threatens their centralized power, but those who have regulated it and implemented regulations with taxes and KYC have been smarter.