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

[Fortify]

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 a lot of different reasons that politicians and law makers give for banning cryptocurrencies, but you'll almost always find it happening within authoritarian style systems of government. That is because, as you described, it is outside their area of control and they aim to have complete visibility of their citizens. If your people have an ability to use a parallel financial system then the government in those countries lose the ability to apply pressure in the form of monetary penalties and even freezing the finances of their opponents. That is why countries like Russia and China are relatively against the adoption of crypto, because is stops them from being able to bully people to conform to what they want.

[Leviathan.007]

This is an old discussion about bitcoin and other cryptocurencies especially here in this forum. Whenever the governments try to take advantage of people and track their activities or collect their information to get taxes from them they won't say that directly, they will say we do that for your own good to protect to from the criminal activities and that's the same in most of the countries. even bore bitcoin and cryptocurrencies there were many criminals out there and they were using other payment methods, so bitcoin is just a tool and can be used for anything, while the governments mostly try to show the dark side of it.

[BlackBaron]

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

News of the ban that is planned and carried out by certain countries, I do not bother about it, as long as they do not block and prohibit exchanges in each country, I'm even more sure of the ban announcement, more convinced that Bitcoin will be better in the future.

I just take it positive, what is the purpose of the state banning Bitcoin, if they have no purpose, forbid there is a purpose to buy by them, so that Bitcoin goes down even more.

[darkv0rt3x]

We all know that bitcoin/crypto being used for criminal activities is only minuscule. Countries just ban Bitcoin because they know they can't control it; simple as that.

This is kind of my stance too.
But now we start seeing other arguments such as the mining operations consuming too much energy. This is another crappy argument as we see from several studies and statistics that the financial system uses way much more energy than Bitcoin. And as the time goes on, renewable energies will be cheaper, so eventually they will become profitable to mine bitcoin.

The argument that Bitcoin is used for illegal/criminal activities is just a joke. Tell me which currency is not used for criminal activities?? Or tell me the volume of fiat money involved in criminal activities and the volume of Bitcoin involved in criminal activities. This must be a joke! lol

[GiftedMAN]

How many drug lords or dons use crypto? How many corrupt officials take crypto bribes. How any warlords by weapons through crypto... I havent read about any in newspaper. But yes governments are  launching their own digital currencies, to compete with bitcoin. To me it seems more like a case of insecurities by the government, rather than crime preventive measures.

The answer is none. Drug lords make use of Fiat currency, they don't even accept transfers because of the risk involved in transferring huge amounts of money from one account to another, it has never been mentioned anywhere in the world that bribery and corruption that is at the highest level today Is carried out with bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. The main reason why the governments are setting up other digital currencies is that they will have control over everyone that is a user of their digital currency and they will also have the access to monitor and regulate whatever thing they plan to do via their digital currency while in bitcoin they have no access to regulate or control the transaction of bitcoiners.

[Luzin]

The argument that Bitcoin is used for illegal/criminal activities is just a joke. Tell me which currency is not used for criminal activities?? Or tell me the volume of fiat money involved in criminal activities and the volume of Bitcoin involved in criminal activities. This must be a joke! lol

The real problem is that the government and the world can't control, so they are frightened by the flow of crypto funds. The crypto decentralization system cannot be controlled by anyone and it is against the government. The problem of misappropriation of crypto funds, I think it is only a small part of the problem. The government is trying to raise as a tool opponents of digital money policy. Although I believe that currently there are still some peculiarities such as transaction fees, dense networks, scalability. In addition, instability may make people disadvantaged or benefited. But that's not a good reason in my opinion.

[ChrisPop]

I've followed the train of thought in this thread. If Bitcoin reaches national reserve status in more open-minded countries the polarization with the ones who have banned it will be massive. I'd say that Bitcoin is certainly not an asset that you want your country to miss out on. Not with the macro implications that come with its development as a store of value.

[Kakmakr]

It is about control..... they can easily control the supply and value of Fiat currencies and they do not want any competition to that monopoly. Governments are using the value of Fiat currencies to control people... (Inflation is used to determine salary increases)

So, why would countries bother about criminal activities, if most of those activities are done through Fiat institutions ..like Banks and also cash transactions? They are just looking for an excuse to ban their competition. 

[bitzizzix]

It's all very simple, because they can't tax and they're jealous that people are breaking free from the shackles of financial institutions, and becoming their own bank.
in fact many reasons for banning it including concerns about their national currency being corrupted and countries using their currency as a tool of economic power that allows them to control their people.
with cryptocurrency or bitcoin, governments lose that ability because they no longer have that control and people can now send and receive money globally without the control of governments or third party financial institutions like banks.

[TheUltraElite]

Most countries are giving excuses and  reason for banning Bitcoin is because it can easily be used to fund crimes.

Conservative sentiment is the point here. It has be cleared that fiat has been used for the same too. What I feel is that governments know that tax evasion is a problem that they cannot control if money is sent via bitcoin more than fiat pathways. For them being not able to tax a person is a loss and therefore they discourage people from using crypto or put in problematic clauses to stop them or like some countries, banned their use altogether.

But bitcoin cannot be stopped by these methods - for that you would need a stop on internet and electricity. Therefore these bans and all should not be the point of discussion, rather how to make people aware and spreading the word about bitcoin and its uses should be focused on.

[Issa56]

I believe they don't really have anything to say against it that's why they are giving that reason, they can't regulate bitcoin and that's just why they keep on banning bitcoin, if we want to talk about the crime aspect, I believe most of the crimes people do use bitcoin to commit are also committed by fiat currency, even before bitcoin was created all of those crimes where created so why don't they ban fiat currency. They complained that bitcoin is used for illegal possession of weapons, money laundering and many more illegal activities, but I can tell you that most of those activities are also done using fiat currency, so they just want to ban bitcoin because they don't have control over it that's why they are giving all those excuses. Most countries don't just have choice than to leave bitcoin because even if the continue to ban it their citizens will still look for ways to buy and trade bitcoin.

[posi]

There was a time before bitcoin was created when criminals used fiat for nefarious purposes, so why didn't the government ban fiat back then? When you look at this, it can be seen how badly the government is trying to deceive you. They do not accept bitcoin simply because of its decentralization and government power will be weakened if bitcoin is widely used.

Fiat is the pet of the government, all their power is concentrated in fiat so if anything threatens fiat, they will see it as their enemy.

[DVlog]

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

Let them do whatever they can. It is not the first time countries tried to restrict the use of BTC among their people by discouraging them with various actions. This is the beauty of decentralization. You can see it, you can feel it, you can use it but you can not control it. It's like the wave of the river. If you try to stop it in one way it will find another way because its only destination is to move forward.

We are in a fast-evolving world and crypto is evolving into something totally different than the world has ever seen. I am not afraid of new innovations. I like it and I want to explore it.

[virasisog]

The government will always look for loopholes in Bitcoin simply because they can't regulate it. Criminal activities will always exist in all types of currencies. Even fiat or other forms of transactions so it's too unfair if they will only ban Bitcoin. They hate anything that they can't control and they can't tax so they will definitely ban it instead of ruling over fiat which they can always regulate.

[JoyMarsha]

Countries that are banning crypto all because it is used to fund crimes are all hypocrites. If they are thoroughly investigated, you would find out one way or the other, that they are silently converting their assets into bitcoin, gold and diamonds. So that their assets can not be traced. 

It's very skeptical for any country to ban bitcoin because of the reason you mentioned. To me, it's just a big fallacy just to paint crypto bad. Whereby fiat has been used to run or fund crime for ages without no one projecting for the ban of fiat.

The government we have these days doesn't want its citizens to be financially independent, they prefer us to be middle-class citizens that can be easily controlled by the laws that will favour only them and their families

[theCommittalist]

Law enforcement officers have to be paid & as state agents their wage comes out of the public pocket, so citizens are taxed to fund the state project or told to go into some mythical wilderness where no state operates. This is why the principle of democracy is so important, as it gives the citizens a chance to engage constructively with the processes whereby they are expected or coerced to fund the state project, involving laws & their enforcement.

Bitcoin challenges the status of the USD as default currency for the world. It also challenges the associated hackneyed notions of 'international rules based order' or 'international law' because being instant, online & decentralised it holds a mirror up to the imperfections of its functional fiat precursor.

[darkv0rt3x]

The argument that Bitcoin is used for illegal/criminal activities is just a joke. Tell me which currency is not used for criminal activities?? Or tell me the volume of fiat money involved in criminal activities and the volume of Bitcoin involved in criminal activities. This must be a joke! lol

The real problem is that the government and the world can't control, so they are frightened by the flow of crypto funds. The crypto decentralization system cannot be controlled by anyone and it is against the government. The problem of misappropriation of crypto funds, I think it is only a small part of the problem. The government is trying to raise as a tool opponents of digital money policy. Although I believe that currently there are still some peculiarities such as transaction fees, dense networks, scalability. In addition, instability may make people disadvantaged or benefited. But that's not a good reason in my opinion.

Sure, but my point is that those scumbs talk about crypto (and they include Bitcoin here, I do not) as if criminal aactivities were only performed with crypto. This is sand thrown into the eyes of the less aware people. People that knows very little about crypto (and Bitcoin mostly). And they take it as true without even thinking of what is actually going on with all fiat currencies which moves billions in crime, mostly polititians (governments, states) and big enterprises financial crime. It's absurd the statement that crypto is used mostly for crime!

[n0ne]

The argument that Bitcoin is used for illegal/criminal activities is just a joke. Tell me which currency is not used for criminal activities?? Or tell me the volume of fiat money involved in criminal activities and the volume of Bitcoin involved in criminal activities. This must be a joke! lol

The real problem is that the government and the world can't control, so they are frightened by the flow of crypto funds. The crypto decentralization system cannot be controlled by anyone and it is against the government. The problem of misappropriation of crypto funds, I think it is only a small part of the problem. The government is trying to raise as a tool opponents of digital money policy. Although I believe that currently there are still some peculiarities such as transaction fees, dense networks, scalability. In addition, instability may make people disadvantaged or benefited. But that's not a good reason in my opinion.

Sure, but my point is that those scumbs talk about crypto (and they include Bitcoin here, I do not) as if criminal aactivities were only performed with crypto. This is sand thrown into the eyes of the less aware people. People that knows very little about crypto (and Bitcoin mostly). And they take it as true without even thinking of what is actually going on with all fiat currencies which moves billions in crime, mostly polititians (governments, states) and big enterprises financial crime. It's absurd the statement that crypto is used mostly for crime!

This is common with the cryptocurrency market. Some people can't be made to understand what is cryptocurrency or something else. When they themselves start knowing about it, they'll progress and some unwanted clash. Now things were different and people know the truth happening with bitcoin. So, for some people to have the real meaning is not easy and until then holding is the right choice.

[len01]

actually, things like this have been discussed many times and the answer is still the same, the state prohibits bitcoin for fear of laundering money and funding crimes.
on the other hand, countries that prohibit bitcoin for fear that bitcoin is used for transactions and cause the country's original currency has no value anymore.
but there are some countries that legalize bitcoin as a transaction tool or as an investment tool. like in my country actually bitcoin is not legalized for transaction tools but is allowed for investment tools

[Kasabus]

We all know that bitcoin/crypto being used for criminal activities is only minuscule. Countries just ban Bitcoin because they know they can't control it; simple as that.

Yes. They can't benefit bitcoin since its out of their control, so might as well ban it. Countries' government would not only consider their people's interest but also their own and personal desires. If they can't earn big from it, then its better for bitcoin not to exit anymore. But not all countries have tried to ban bitcoin, some are still left undecided whether to accept it or not.