Bitcoin adaption in Turkey

[bitterguy28]

Recently I found a vlog from Turkey where we can see that there are places in Turkey where people can exchange bitcoin and crypto from the shops. just like we can exchange foreign currency with the exchangers. people in Turkey can exchange these from physical shops and it shows that bitcoin is widely accepted in Turkey.

Being living in the neighbours of Turkey, in the same Asian region, it hurts when I see that our government here wants to declare the use of crypto as illegal and does not think crypto is a good thing. Sometimes I think we need to migrate to a crypto friendly country.

we are in luck because our country does not have any banning issue in bitcoin but we do have also ATM's here and local exchangers , but we still have no adoption at all , we did not even has government stand towards crypto but we are allowed to use exchange and even allow to use crypto in gambling sites.
Turkey is a growing country so if this is allowable to use crypto and exchange ? they are lucky being one so let them enjoy what has given to them.

It's great to see Bitcoin gaining traction in Turkey! However, given the political situation, considering migration to a more freedom-oriented country does cross my mind.

let go of the political situation and the orientation , because the most important part is the allowing of the use , that is what we are looking from all countries around the world.

[mindrust]

Turkiye is treating crypto like any other asset. The Turkish Gov. isn't recognizing crypto as a currency and starting from the next year, crypto profits will be taxed. You can buy and sell other currencies with the Turkish Lira all you want and pay zero income tax but that won't happen with btc since the gov thinks it is not a currency. I believe USA also tax crypto profits so I am not sure if the Turkish Gov are really doing the wrong thing here. However, since they don't treat crypto as a currency, that also means the merchants can't accept crypto for their goods&services and that kills a major use case for using crypto. Here lies the big difference between the US and Turkiye. In USA mercs can accept crypto as payment, right?

[Lucius]

I do not live in Turkey so could not know the ground reality but this vlog and this post by EFS are contradicting ones. If somehow we believe that governments does not favor the bitcoin adoption and it is illegal to use bitcoin in Turkey, then how come these bitcoin and crypto exchangers are able to open up public exchangers?
~snip~

It's strange that you don't understand that Türkiye has banned Bitcoin as a payment currency, which means that it cannot legally be used to pay for goods and services, but at the same time you can buy and sell it for fiat. The same law exists in Thailand, and this is only an indication that some countries want to ban exactly what Bitcoin represents in its idea. For me personally, any country that has such bans is extremely hostile to Bitcoin.

Turkey is very cryptocurrency friendly and it has good Crypto Adoption Index according to The 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index: Central & Southern Asia Are Leading the Way in Grassroots Crypto Adoption.
~snip~

I have already written that I do not agree with such statements, and all these indexes and analyzes are completely useless if countries like Türkiye or Thailand are ranked so high, while at the same time you can go to prison or pay a fine if you sell or buy something for Bitcoin.

[Agbe]

There is no much different from the decentralized exchange platforms online. And instead of going there to waste your time if you are not close to the shop, you pay transport and also might be stressful so I will prefer the use of online exchange platforms to do my exchange. But they have online platform it will be better to use their website and the physical office can be a customers complain center. Bitcoin is not a Physical Currency so it is not good to do exchange in a physical office. And that is not adoption of bitcoin in Turkey but before that ship boldly written that at the front the shop then the government is aware even though they have not officially adopted it. If Turkey adopt bitcoin as a legal tender in the country then news will broadcast it and everyone will hear. But for now it is not.

[BIT-BENDER]

Being living in the neighbours of Turkey, in the same Asian region, it hurts when I see that our government here wants to declare the use of crypto as illegal and does not think crypto is a good thing. Sometimes I think we need to migrate to a crypto friendly country.

It's hard for a government to completely eliminate Crypto-currency from a country. I am from a country that the government aren't friendly or permissive to Crypto-currency and they have made strong approaches against crypto-currency enthusiast but still we are amongst the top countries why crypto-currency is growing rapidly, so many parts of Crypto-currency is decentralized, and if you explore the decentralized nature of crypto-currency you should have no problem with any government actions against Crypto.

[FatFork]

While I agree with you at the same time I can also understand the frustration of the OP: maybe you live in a first world country run by an actual democracy, so you have all the rights to protest against your government and your politicians but unfortunately in many other places in the world is not like that, it could even cost your life.

Sure, the grass might be greener on the other side, but let's not forget, someone had to do the planting and watering – it didn't just magically happen!

I don't want to turn this into some big political discussion, but I'm old enough to remember that we haven't always had democracy here.  We had to fight and bleed for our freedom just over 30 years back.  Not saying that everyone has to go through the same, but if the powers that be are messed up, it's on the people to change that. The people got the real power, they just gotta realize it and take it.

I know it ain't always so simple and protests are risky.  But freedom ain't free and sitting quiet means youre part of the problem.  At some point enough good folks gotta stand together and say No more.

[HideYourKeys]

When the fiat currency devaluation becomes apparent to people, normies start to realize that they have to find alternatives. Bitcoin or metals are a good alternative, and I bet we will see an increasing demand of those goods in the coming years

[karabiber]

Cryptocurrency use is very common in Turkey. Because people prefer cryptocurrencies against the weakness of the local currency. As a result, cryptocurrency exchange offices are opening just like currency exchange offices. The rapid spread of cryptocurrency exchanges facilitates the adoption of cryptocurrencies in Turkey. There is no crypto law or licensing for crypto asset service providers in Turkey yet, but Crypto Asset Service Provider firms must comply with the financial rules set by Turkey. I am not sure if cryptocurrency exchange offices enforce KYC requirements on their clients, maybe many of them are illegal. Turkey will soon introduce a tax on cryptos and this will have negative consequences for cryptocurrency exchange businesses. They will be registered with mandatory licensing.

[Y3shot]

Bitcoin is international, adoption is slow however still pretty visible and I am sure, every country is using Bitcoin and Crypto as of now and 2024-25 will be the greatest years for Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies because of the price target it's getting ready for. Something huge will be happening in the next 2 years and that news will make it Bitcoin cross $100k per Bitcoin.

I suspect it will have something to do with Apple or Google.

I think almost every country faced the restrictions of making use of bitcoin,  and every country still have a wonderful day that bitcoin will be accepted.  People who are in country that they can not make use of bitcoin,  I'll just advice them to just get ready for bitcoin because a day is coming when the government will accept it as currency,  and those who have already be anticipating to use bitcoin, it won't be as a surprise to them or a pressure for them to learn bitcoin for them to benefit bitcoin very well.  Bitcoin will reach every region no matter how strict the government may be.

[Casdinyard]

Time to move to Turkiye I guess lol.

Kidding aside, I don't blame your country for having a cloudy vision of what bitcoin is, hence the banning and the illegalization. For one, smear campaigns have run their course outside the crypto industry, and with the advent of retards like SBF ruining the reputation of crypto for their personal gain, there's a lot of reasons why your country would hate on bitcoin and crypto. Could it also be possible that they are pushing for something that could lead to the legalization of bitcoin in your country anyway? That happened in the Philippines you know. I think you really just need time and patience, some of these countries are still wrapping their heads around the concept of crypto, and from a legal standpoint many cryptocurrencies are a little hard to figure out, give it time my friend, pretty sure things will fall into place just as how it did with Turkiye.

[Stalker22]

A lot of places have had to deal with limitations on crypto, but people are still hopeful that one day Bitcoin will be more accepted everywhere.  For folks in countries where it is not embraced yet, Bitcoin can still give you some freedom. and  Governments might try to control it but they cannot ever fully do that since Bitcoin is decentralized.  So even if your country doesnt approve trading crypto through brokers or whatever, you will always be able to use private wallets and do peer-to-peer trading.

[BitDane]

Being living in the neighbours of Turkey, in the same Asian region, it hurts when I see that our government here wants to declare the use of crypto as illegal and does not think crypto is a good thing. Sometimes I think we need to migrate to a crypto friendly country.

It is not surprising to see government take a hostile step towards cryptocurrency.  We all know that they wanted to control the flows of finance in their jurisdiction, I just wished that those government that had not yet banned Bitcoin will have an open mind and understand and acknowledge the benefits people get from using Bitcoin.  And for those that already banned Bitcoin, I hope they can make some consideration.  Sometime government goes under the disguise of protecting their citizen in order to persuade people that they are doing such things for the people but the truth is that, they are doing it for their own benefit of controlling the activities of their citizen.

I am glad that I am living in a Bitcoin friendly country, so if you are looking for a country that is Bitcoin friendly and have cheaper cost of commodities in reference to your country's cost, you can try moving to the Philippines  .  People are friendly here and we have the Bitcoin Island where most of stalls are accepting Bitcoin.

[EFS]

Recently I found a vlog from Turkey where we can see that there are places in Turkey where people can exchange bitcoin and crypto from the shops. just like we can exchange foreign currency with the exchangers. people in Turkey can exchange these from physical shops and it shows that bitcoin is widely accepted in Turkey.

Being living in the neighbours of Turkey, in the same Asian region, it hurts when I see that our government here wants to declare the use of crypto as illegal and does not think crypto is a good thing. Sometimes I think we need to migrate to a crypto friendly country.

You can buy or sell Bitcoin in most of the countries, Türkiye is not special about that. You still can't use Bitcoin or other crypto-currencies for shopping. These exchanges you see on the video are no different than traditional currency exchanges. You give your BTC instead of USD/EUR etc. and you get TRY.
I wouldn't call Türkiye crypto friendly country.

[ThemePen]

I can feel your disappointment. Because we are from same country. It is disheartening to see neighbor countries are accepting crypto while our own government considers it illegal. I also desire to migrate to a crypto friendly country where we can freely engage freely in this technology.

Well, not today but I think our government will accept the importance of Blockchain technology and I hope our government make some good decisions and will regulate the cryptocurrencies in our country. So let's see when they will do this?

[Fundamentals Of]

As much as we're all disappointed, I think there's this kind of doubt or lack of support for Bitcoin in many countries, even in those countries where people freely use Bitcoin. We have read all over the news how lawmakers in certain countries are lobbying policies that are considered anti-Bitcoin. There are also those countries where Bitcoin is declared haram. There are even countries where Bitcoin is banned. In other countries, tax and other regulations are strict against Bitcoin. But all these I believe are just challenges of a currency that is truly free.

[yhiaali3]

I also hope to immigrate to a country that is friendly to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, not Turkey specifically, but any country where working in such things is easier and provides a suitable environment for crypto.

In any case, I think that the Turkish government is still far from accepting Bitcoin officially. I think they have some laws regulating such matters, but like all central governments, the last thing they will think about is accepting Bitcoin officially.

In my country, these things are not allowed and all those who work with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies work in secret, so I hope that one day I will see such manifestations in my country.

[Fiatless]

Turkey is very cryptocurrency friendly and it has good Crypto Adoption Index according to The 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index: Central & Southern Asia Are Leading the Way in Grassroots Crypto Adoption.

Most of these indexes published by many of these research organizations like chainanalysis might be lopsided or faulty because they use data from exchanges and web traffic which cannot be reliable means of data collection and analysis. However, I do not doubt that Turkey might have a high population of crypto users because of inflation and depreciation of the Lira. As of 2018 one Lira was equal to 4.5 dollars but today it is $28.5. So it's normal for citizens to seek other means of protecting their money from loss of value.

However, the main indicator to check the friendliness of a country towards cryptocurrency is government policies. If the government bans or restricts its use most people will never want to get involved in it because of the fear of persecution or even imprisonment. Unfavorable government policies will limit the investment and development of the sector.

[Lucius]

Time to move to Turkiye I guess lol.
Kidding aside, I don't blame your country for having a cloudy vision of what bitcoin is, hence the banning and the illegalization.
~snip~

Before you move to some promised "crypto country", I would advise you to learn to read with understanding, because then you might understand what someone wrote. OP is not from Türkiye at all, and I think that is more than clear.

Being living in the neighbours of Turkey, in the same Asian region, it hurts when I see that our government here wants to declare the use of crypto as illegal and does not think crypto is a good thing. Sometimes I think we need to migrate to a crypto friendly country.

It's fascinating to see how people react to the word "adaptation" and consider a country desirable because it has a physical crypto exchange, without even asking what the fee is for buying/selling cryptocurrencies in such exchanges. If they paid 5% or more fees, they would quickly stop liking that adaptation.

[CoinFoxs]

Bitcoin can exchange in turkey through different exchangers and ATMs due to the popularity of bitcoin in turkey but the turkish government is not completely regulated bitcoin as digital currency.

[ZAINmalik75]

Bitcoin can exchange in turkey through different exchangers and ATMs due to the popularity of bitcoin in turkey but the turkish government is not completely regulated bitcoin as digital currency.

Turkey is one of the emerging countries which need to work on this technology because this can bring good fortune with huge investments as well which they needed in current era as we have many in developed countries in European Union.

Currently, restrictions and limits are having some problems for the common peoples but still they are doing impressive job and their current adoption is also on good run hopefully they will keep work on for the improvement of rules which will give more independence to peoples for joining this community specially as we are having good development in gaming industry things like these can bring good changes.

It's time for merchandise to bring this as payment system because this can bring more awareness, and surely, they will feel good after having this all with fairness and improvement in many other fields as well.