Bitcoin Remain Illegal in 7 Countries - Are Governments Afraid of Losing Control

[ColdLava40]

Except for these seven countries, other countries seem to be moving forward to regulation to make it secure for their citizens. Do you think banning Bitcoin is a solution for money laundering and other allegations, or should countries move towards a regulation to keep up with the times?

They are simply just trying to give the public reasons not to legalize Bitcoin.

Bitcoin barley consumes half what other sectors consumes in the country. They say money laundering. A big wow to them.. when the government sees an opportunity for the people they call it names so it looks bad. We know who the real money launders are.

Just because some key features of Bitcoin allows these criminals to carry out their evil activities under the radar, doesn't make it completely bad. I mean there's no system that hasn't been explored by them and Bitcoin will not be the last.

Well for me I just believe every government knows what they are doing and the answer here is simple anything that isn't under the government is a threat to them. Because they believe they are the supreme leaders which they are but that doesn't change the fact that we have the right and freedom to how we want to make use of our money financially.

They believe financial freedom is only subjected to the elites, just one circle of people. If they see a young man progressing they question the source of his wealth but even with enough evidence of their corrupt practices they still go free. Government= asshol**.

I believe all these are just excuse so they sound cool.

[Rashlyowl]

Countries and governments don't ban cash, fiat currencies, gold, jewelries because of money laundering so why did they want to ban Bitcoin with a reason of money laundering?

The ban is not convincingly reasonable at all, at least I think like this because if it is an actual reason, governments must ban cash, fiat currencies, gold, jewelries that have longer history than Bitcoin and have been used for money laundering a long time before Bitcoin appearance.

Are you sure you know everything in this world bros? I have said that they must have a strong reason behind the ban, maybe they don't want to tell it directly to the public, a simple way to make the public understand the ban is by saying that BTC can be a way to launder money. Then they make the regulations, in the end we only know what is on the surface. I'm sure that eventually the countries that made the ban will come to their senses, we just have to wait & see when that happens.

[serjent05]

Most of these countries ban Bitcoin to prevent money laundering and some countries like China accusing it for high energy consumption from mining. I believe all these allegations are just shit. They don't have proper knowledge about Bitcoin or how it could keep its role in the global economy. Though countries are changing rules constantly, but I am not sure when they will make Bitcoin legal. There are a lot of ways for money laundering; still, people could do it through Bitcoin on the black market since it's decentralised. Means they just don't like Bitcoin because they can't control it.

I believe it stays as is because they are too busy to tackle another study that can turn their decision.  We know that it is not easy for the government to just implement rules and bans, they have to study it and initiate lots of meeting and for the government there are far more important matters to attend to than revoking restrictions on Bitcoin. And since the restriction does not affect their economy negatively, I think they just left it as that.

Except for these seven countries, other countries seem to be moving forward to regulation to make it secure for their citizens. Do you think banning Bitcoin is a solution for money laundering and other allegations, or should countries move towards a regulation to keep up with the times?

Banning Bitcoin is not a solution for money laundering.  If we look deeply into the Bitcoin system structure, it is actually a good tool to prevent money laundering due to its transparent blockchain.  Now whether the government should implement regulations on Bitcoin, I think it is normal because the government still has the responsibility to make sure that any technology or inventions will not affect their citizen negatively, especially their authority.

[Zlantann]

Except for these seven countries, other countries seem to be moving forward to regulation to make it secure for their citizens. Do you think banning Bitcoin is a solution for money laundering and other allegations, or should countries move towards a regulation to keep up with the times?

The banning of Bitcoin in some countries in not just about money laundering or environmental concern.

Apart from China, most of these nations have one thing in common: Islam is the state religion. Some of these nations have not gotten a clear understanding of cryptocurrency. The use of Bitcoin is a subject of debate among some Islamic scholars. Some of them see it as permissible and another school of thought believes it is forbidden.

A more liberal government in these countries might lead to more friendly laws on cryptos.

[mcdouglasx]

Money laundering has always existed, and I don't see a justifiable excuse for a government to prohibit the use of Bitcoin for this reason alone. I believe the energy implications are more important. Ideally, it shouldn't be banned entirely, but rather mining should be controlled through taxes and permits. This would eliminate illegal mining. Furthermore, if they can control their own currency, users can be required to justify their funds when exchanging Bitcoin for fiat currency. I believe each country can protect itself in its own way without condemning Bitcoin as if it were a tool of evil.

[Z-tight]

If it were in my hands, BTC would be legal everywhere, but the truth is that 7 countries (where it's illegal to certain extent) isn't too big a number, especially if you take to consideration the challenges the network faced to get to where it is now.

However, since so many individuals and also nations have changed their mind about BTC over the years, there is also a possibility BTC becomes legal to use in some of these countries sometime. I'm sure a lot of people in these countries still use it secretly, but then they would be able to use it without the fear of penalty.

[Supreme Donvic]

The question I usually ask those who say bitcoin is being used to commit a lot of crime is that before the existence of Bitcoin we are people not doing money laundering? People started doing money laundering a long time ago in different ways and so bitcoin is not the reason why people started doing money laundering it has been in existence before the creation of Bitcoin, these are just excuses they are giving the main reason why some government are against Bitcoin is because bitcoin gives total financial freedom to people and the government don't have control over Bitcoin and because of that they don't want their citizens to be engaged or to use Bitcoin because they know if they start using Bitcoin they will not have control over their finance anymore and they are afraid to lose financial control in their country.
This is just the reason why some countries have decided not to support or allow Bitcoin in their country they just want to have total control of their citizens and their finance.

[Bitcoin Smith]

~
Except for these seven countries, other countries seem to be moving forward to regulation to make it secure for their citizens.

Not really, for example in India bitcoin is legal for a while now and they categorized it under digital assets but they don't want their people to use cryptocurrencies because they know giving such freedom to the people is not good for the government so there is heavy 30% capital gains alsong with 1% TDS that is a way to discourage people to use crypto even as asset while they don't want to miss out the tax revenue in that process.

[dezoel]

Money laundering is the excuse, but they just do not want their people to have that freedom. They need something constant and aligned with their government's ideology.
They also fear for the impact of Bitcoin adoption on their currency. This is mostly true for China. They know that even a small drop in price will affect the value of the currency. This is what they try to avoid. I remember that many more countries banned Bitcoin back then, but little by little they saw that they were making a mistake and they relaxed the rules against Bitcoin a bit. I believe more of these countries will relax their rules in time, including China. It's just a matter of time.

That is true, money laundering is happening all around the world without crypto as well, even before crypto existed, there were money laundering schemes all over the world, and yet for some reason they are acting like crypto is the only way to do it, when we all know that is not the case.

This is why the best way to move forward would be realizing that these places just do not want crypto to be free, and they do not want it to happen, that is why they are doing what they are doing, for no other reason.

[Marykeller]

One good thing about all of these, we won't continue to have 7 countries restricting Bitcoin. Time will come the number will reduce.

If we remember, when Bitcoin came on board(was created), I am sure we have many countries that ban Bitcoin because of the reasons of money laundering, high energy consumption, plus other allegations known to them. But today the stories have all changed, many countries have accepted Bitcoin to be legal in the country, leaving just a few(7). Those remaining 7 countries will someday remove the restriction placed on Bitcoin, that's what I believe. It's just a matter of time, it will happen. We will have from 7 countries to 6,5,4...to 1 country as the only restricting Bitcoin globally.

[Joy- maker]

Despite the global Bitcoin adoption in seven countries, Bitcoin still remains banned officially. These seven countries are China, Algeria, Egypt, Bangladesh, Morocco, Iraq, and Qatar. During scrolling news, I found it on Cointelegraph Twitter that seven handful countries' Bitcoin remained banned. Here is the picture of the details.


"Image from Cointelegraph Twitter"

Most of these countries ban Bitcoin to prevent money laundering and some countries like China accusing it for high energy consumption from mining. I believe all these allegations are just shit. They don't have proper knowledge about Bitcoin or how it could keep its role in the global economy. Though countries are changing rules constantly, but I am not sure when they will make Bitcoin legal. There are a lot of ways for money laundering; still, people could do it through Bitcoin on the black market since it's decentralised. Means they just don't like Bitcoin because they can't control it.

Except for these seven countries, other countries seem to be moving forward to regulation to make it secure for their citizens. Do you think banning Bitcoin is a solution for money laundering and other allegations, or should countries move towards a regulation to keep up with the times?

I am not supersized that bitcoin is still banned in these seven countries. And according to how i see things from my own perspective, these seven countries didn't banned bitcoin to prevent money laundering, because there are other ways people can do money laundering. All i know is that these seven countries like to be in charge, so anything that they can't control they hardly make that thing a legal tender. So, bitcoin being a digital currency that is decentralized has even worsting the case. before bitcoin becomes legal tender in these countries, especially on countries like china, iraq and qatar it will take many years.

[AmoreJaz]

Money laundering has always existed, and I don't see a justifiable excuse for a government to prohibit the use of Bitcoin for this reason alone. I believe the energy implications are more important. Ideally, it shouldn't be banned entirely, but rather mining should be controlled through taxes and permits. This would eliminate illegal mining. Furthermore, if they can control their own currency, users can be required to justify their funds when exchanging Bitcoin for fiat currency. I believe each country can protect itself in its own way without condemning Bitcoin as if it were a tool of evil.

They may have their reasons, but for sure some 9f its citizens already found a way how to get around it. Because like it or not, there are many ways now how to acquire crypto even with the restriction from the government. Later on, these governments will realize that they should have accepted the crypto market in their financial sector.

[X-ray]

Do you think banning Bitcoin is a solution for money laundering and other allegations, or should countries move towards a regulation to keep up with the times?

Nah, the money laundering excuse is just an empty excuse. Cash is more prevalent for money laundering because it leaves no trace. Bitcoin is transparent and anyone could lookup for a transaction with simple blockchain explorer.

These countries just don't want to understand and prefer to keep their economy fully controlled even if it's not a better direction for them to take.

I consider this as a good opportunity for the more technology friendly world to take advantage and leave these countries behind. Crypto is the future.

[Free Market Capitalist]

Despite the global Bitcoin adoption in seven countries, Bitcoin still remains banned officially. These seven countries are China, Algeria, Egypt, Bangladesh, Morocco, Iraq, and Qatar.

I'm especially surprised by the situation in Bangladesh, since there are a lot of people on the forum who are from there and earn Bitcoin here. I'm not sure how they manage to convert it into their local currency and spend it, since I doubt that the usual methods used elsewhere—like Bitcoin ATMs (which are becoming increasingly rare) or gift cards—work there if you don't want to go through KYC to convert it.

It just goes to show that you can't stem the tide.

[Lucius]

@Free Market Capitalist, I didn't ask some of them how they convert their coins to fiat when they need it, but it is possible that there is a P2P network that operates under the radar, or maybe they use virtual/physical crypto cards, which has more and more on the market at very favorable conditions.

In all of these countries mentioned, people who want to break free from their national frameworks that keep them financially captive are using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This is exactly why Bitcoin exists.

[Ahli38]

Countries and governments don't ban cash, fiat currencies, gold, jewelries because of money laundering so why did they want to ban Bitcoin with a reason of money laundering?

The ban is not convincingly reasonable at all, at least I think like this because if it is an actual reason, governments must ban cash, fiat currencies, gold, jewelries that have longer history than Bitcoin and have been used for money laundering a long time before Bitcoin appearance.

Are you sure you know everything in this world bros? I have said that they must have a strong reason behind the ban, maybe they don't want to tell it directly to the public, a simple way to make the public understand the ban is by saying that BTC can be a way to launder money. Then they make the regulations, in the end we only know what is on the surface. I'm sure that eventually the countries that made the ban will come to their senses, we just have to wait & see when that happens.

(Source)
Yes, that’s right. The ban on Bitcoin isn’t just due to money laundering concerns. But it’s also because they fear Bitcoin could disrupt their control over the flow of money in the market (Source). And it’s also reported that China as one of the countries banning Bitcoin is doing so to preserve its financial system. So I personally believe that governments banning Bitcoin through regulations do so out of fear of cryptocurrencies which are difficult for them to control. And I believe their efforts to ban Bitcoin stem from their fear that the value of their own currencies might decline by leaving them vulnerable to competition. These governments do not want their power to weaken. And they seem willing to control anything to maintain their monopoly.

[tbct_mt2]

Are you sure you know everything in this world bros? I have said that they must have a strong reason behind the ban, maybe they don't want to tell it directly to the public, a simple way to make the public understand the ban is by saying that BTC can be a way to launder money. Then they make the regulations, in the end we only know what is on the surface. I'm sure that eventually the countries that made the ban will come to their senses, we just have to wait & see when that happens.

You can guess about what they want to do and governments never tell their citizens the truth but base on how governments do their jobs, against their citizens, I believe you can guess it right.

Knowing about exact reasons is not too important while knowing the intention of governments for controlling their citizens is more important and it's enough if we're aware of that. Reasons can be changed with time too but governments surely want similar things over time from their citizens, obeying the law, regulations and give them as much money as possible.

They can do that with bank system, with Bitcoin blockchain, with CBDCs, whatever but these things are only tools to use by governments.

[Rashlyowl]

Yes, that’s right. The ban on Bitcoin isn’t just due to money laundering concerns. But it’s also because they fear Bitcoin could disrupt their control over the flow of money in the market (Source). And it’s also reported that China as one of the countries banning Bitcoin is doing so to preserve its financial system. So I personally believe that governments banning Bitcoin through regulations do so out of fear of cryptocurrencies which are difficult for them to control. And I believe their efforts to ban Bitcoin stem from their fear that the value of their own currencies might decline by leaving them vulnerable to competition. These governments do not want their power to weaken. And they seem willing to control anything to maintain their monopoly.

I'm not sure you understand what I'm saying bros @Ahli38, let me be clear once again, the government can tell the public all sorts of plausible reasons to discourage adoption, we never know what they're really thinking. They may have a strong reason behind it & we only know what is on the surface. The country that is happy with dominance is the United States, do you see them restricting BTC?

[HelliumZ]

After nineteen long years, there has been a new change in the government of Bangladesh, which means I think the Bangladesh government will take a positive decision regarding Bitcoin and will definitely introduce Bitcoin as a digital transaction.
However, recently the Prime Minister of Bangladesh has announced that PayPal will come to Bangladesh soon, meaning that if PayPal can be brought to Bangladesh, then a decision will definitely be taken on digital transactions later. However, the past government could not take any positive decision on Bitcoin and it is not possible to say for sure whether the current government will take a positive decision on Bitcoin.

[3kpk3]

All governments around the world were afraid of BTC and other popular cryptocurrencies at some point or another since they were never expected their insane growth over time thanks to which their overall power over the global masses decreased to a certain extent.

Many like India etc realized that there is no point in banning them due to which they switched to regulating them. The countries that you mentioned which still ban them are just pursuing a fruitless endeavor by trying to ban them completely.