After the recent arrests in Bolivia of a group promoting the sale and transaction of bitcoin; probably a good time to do a post on Countries that have banned the use of bitcoin.
Countries where Bitcoin is Illegal
1.) Bolivia
Bolivia banned bitcoin (and some other coins) back in 2014. The law can be summed up in there following statement:
"It is illegal to use any kind of currency that is not issued and controlled by a government or an authorized entity."
60 people were arrested by the Bolivian government for "promoting virtual currency investment"
Full article can be found here: https://news.bitcoin.com/bolivia-government-arrests-pyramid-scheme-not-bitcoin/
2.) Ecuador
In July 2014 the Ecuadorian government banned cryptocurrencies and actually went about creating their own digital currency.
However, their digital currencies does not look like it made any headway as the countries banks were not really on board with the technology the government was using.
3.) Bangladesh
Transacting in crytpocurrency is punishable by up to 12 years in prison in Bangladesh! Back in September 2014 the government issue a statement that using crypto would be subject to anti-money laundering laws.
Other Countries With Limited Bans
The above three countries have complete bans on cryptos. However - there are a few countries that have limited bans.
For instance:
- Vietnam - The public can use crypto as they please, but the government banned credit institutions from dealing in it.
- Kyrgyzstan - It is illegal to use bitcoin as a form of payment, but it can be bought and sold willingly.
- Iceland - They don't ban people from mining bitcoin. It seems that currency has be to created/found in country and cannot cross borders.
Source info for this post can be found here:
http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-still-illegal-six-countries/
Regards,
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