!Dea

[DdmrDdmr]

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Since you mention bitrefill as an example, let’s take a brief look at their terms of service:

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Some Products sold are geographically limited to certain countries. In these cases, if you are attempting to purchase from a country that is not allowed by a Product’s terms and conditions, such a purchase will not be possible.
if you circumvent our geoblocking systems to acquire a Product that is not available in your country, you are violating these Terms and Conditions and we may suspend or remove your account. We are also not liable for any redemption issues you may find, and we will not provide a refund in those cases.
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If it is illegal or prohibited in the Customer’s country of origin to access or use Bitrefill, or to buy or use any of the Products, then the Customer shall not do so and in doing so is breaching these Terms.
Those who choose to access Bitrefill access it on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with all local laws and regulations.

It does not explicitly mention countries where bitcoin is banned, but banning bitcoin in a country could have a second derivate on crypto TX related sites.
Nevertheless, If we go to the site and currently set as our country one of those that are more restrictive towards BTC such as Algeria, China, Bolivia and Columbia, the site does list items and allow us to purchase them (I’ve tried a few with the VPN set to the country to match the selected country on the platform too).

There seems to be a chance of perhaps "doing something" using this method (at least in some instances), although I believe that the product offer is likely going to be more delimited in those countries. We do have to bear in mind that Bitrefill does allow for purchases to be paid with a regular fiat card, so it is not strictly a crypto-only purchasing site (which may give it some extra wiggle-room).

[UserU]

This would mean that you live in a very undemocratic country where the ban on cryptocurrencies would not be the biggest problem for you. In that case, I would seriously consider moving to another country with a higher level of democracy and human rights. Even if there is a ban, people will always manage to get around it, you just have to be creative.

I always wondered, how are those authorities gonna take action against coin holders? Go knock on every door and ask for the wallet?

I high doubt that they'd bother with such trivial matter.

Ban from trading on CEX? Most probably. From holding or storing on websites? Nah

[Lucius]

I always wondered, how are those authorities gonna take action against coin holders? Go knock on every door and ask for the wallet?

If the trading and possession of cryptocurrencies was legal in a country, and then a law prohibiting it came into force - theoretically the authorities could request data from all relevant CEXs to determine who still trades or owns cryptocurrencies. Even if a person keeps Bitcoin in a non-custodial wallet and bought it via CEX, there is a link to that same crypto wallet.

Of course, no one will go door to door, but as far as I remember there are other methods to try to find out such information. If my memory serves me well, the IRS (US) asked on the tax return forms that every taxpayer declares whether he owns cryptocurrencies, and if you don't tell the truth and in the future they find out that you lied, you certainly won't have a good time.

In other words, the authorities have the tools to find out a lot, especially since very few people take care to protect their privacy.

[Davidvictorson]

Peer to peer using localbitcoin or something same is the best way to do transcation when the county ban you

I do believe that it would be challenging for anyone intending to conduct business utilizing cryptocurrency to openly acknowledge to using or even holding a wallet in a nation where the ban is as tight as one's bank account getting frozen by the authorities if caught. Of course, it would depend on how much trust there is between the two parties.