Topic: Banning Bitcoin is Like Banning the Internet, Says Russia’s Finance Minister - page 4. (Read 862 times)

There isn’t any difference between banning Bitcoin and staying away from it, unless what you mean by them staying away, is that you’re actually referring to their government staying away and allowing people to make use of it.

The decision they have made now is best for them, they chosen to legalize Bitcoin and start to regulate it in their country, that would be far much better for them. If they chose to ban it, then that would have been quite a loss for them; just like their financial minister have said, if they ban bitcoin, it’s just like them banning the internet; if you should ban the internet entirely, then where exactly would you belong?

If they can't ban bitcoin, then its better to stay away from bitcoin. Just like China did. But i think its even more impossible as bitcoin has become mainstream already in all parts of the world. Its either they chose to adopt this new technology with bitcoin, or being left out when it comes to countries who are eyeing on adopting blockchain technology. However, there is no final stand on whether Russia will ban bitcoin or not, but banning bitcoin for sure will only make their economy worse from the high inflation that has become inevitable.

It really beats dictators hallow when they're incapacitated in controlling the masses. This is what Bitcoin offers. They aren't ever going to be happy for that. But there's nothing they can do to change the situation. If it were possible they would've done that and crippled Bitcoin long time ago. Russian should go ask China what she gained by banning Bitcoin; nothing! Again, anything that affects the internet will be like taking humanity decades back. Just imagine a world without telephones first before imagining a world without the internet. Bitcoin has come to stay. The earlier they know that, the better for their peace of mind.

As usual, polemical games and polemical statements. This is not only about Russia; this is the problem of the world. Every country's central bank head always gives a negative response because of the stock market because they have control over the stock market and in crypto they have nothing. Although I have a positive attitude toward Russia because of their technological prowess. And they always make some sort of announcement about bitcoin and crypto, no matter how positive or negative the country is. They always keep bitcoin in the news. And I believe, as a tech expert, they will again make bitcoin legal and available in their country because they have that much courage to do that.

prohibiting the use, owning bitcoin is actually not as easy as forbidding citizens to stop playing the internet, if the internet simply disconnects the internet/telephone network that provides internet installation,
different from decentralized bitcoin so it is difficult to limit it where no one knows the people who own bitcoins, except for people / individuals who talk to people around

So, they have experience when it comes to it:

Russia 'successfully tests' its unplugged internet
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50902496

Shutting down the internet is not that hard if you really want to, just cut a few cables and there it goes, on a phone call to the ISP and everything goes dark, good luck trying o get 150 million poeple to use a few satellite connections of having goTenna network span all over Russia. For a single country to stop the internet is impossible, for a country to stop the internet for its citizens, then it's pretty simple we have numerous examples in the past from all over the world.


 

I have seen numerous posts from people all based on Russia and bitcoins on the forum lately. Basically they know they cannot ban bitcoins because people always find a way to use it according to their own needs.

- They can't control it
- They have their own needs that they have to put through first, they have to actually secure a position in case the banks collapse admist sanctions
- Cryptocurrencies are the new step in the world's revolution and the IT sector is literally not going too far without them.

Wait till they announce their own digital currency.

I don't believe that I am the only one who understood what the Russian finance minister meant by "banning Bitcoin is Like banning the Internet". Obviously, to me, it means as much as "its impossible to ban Bitcoin just like it is as impossible to ban Bitcoin". So anyone talking about banning Bitcoin is just proclaiming something that they cannot follow up on and never had the ability to ban it in the first place.

Its all just a bunch of talk.

Thats just my take on it.

But I am glad that someone as important as Russia's finance minister is backing Bitcoin

It's a great point and I think it's the total and hard truth. But aren't Russia and China among those who try their best to ban the internet? Of course not entirely but both countries frequently use censorship and for example in Kazakhstan Russian elements were there jamming wifi signals and all that.

So they know they can't ban the internet but they try anyway. Who says they won't try with Bitcoin?

I think this comparison between Bitcoin and the Internet isn't very good. The Internet is considered to be largely centralized, and blackouts in Kazakhstan recently showed how it's actually very possible to block the Internet (so, with enough political will, I think it's possible to make it stay banned), not to mention the North Korea where the vast majority have zero access to the Internet. I guess comparing Bitcoin to torrents is more precise. But, that being said, Bitcoin is effectively out if Bitcoin is banned. In any case, it's a weird comparison because it probably meant that both can't be effectively banned, but it's not true (not for authoritarian regimes anyway). Speaking of Bitcoin, there are other ways of making it effectively banned: make a huge punishment for using it, and the majority will abandon it.

They wont succeed in banning Bitcoin, but they can make it more difficult for their citizens to access Bitcoin-related services and platforms. I am talking about exchanges, casinos, and even the Bitcointalk forum, a site that is still banned in Russia I think. But there is always TOR, there are SOCKS, and VPN to bypass those restrictions.

Russia will have to decide where their interests lie and what is more profitable. Doing the best they can to ban mining, staking, trading, investing, etc., or taxing such activities and keep filling those tax registers. China opted to mine certain aspects, let's see what route Russia will take. Both nations are certainly not leaders when it comes to freedom of choice.

If that is the case then there will come a time in the future where bitcoins will be used like how we use the internet today but in the finance industry where people use it as money and you can actually buy anything using BTC. looks like we have a solid supporter here, hope that they won't change their decision regarding bitcoins and continue to support it until everyone recognized it as one of the official currencies of the world. right now, only the governments are against or stay neutral with bitcoins, they're citizens that already know it is mostly using it.

There are lot of things going on in Russia at the moment like the central banks and parliament house are not in cooperation with each other so nothing at the moment is clear.

The Russian crypto market contributes about $200 billion and is around 12% share of the market so who's at the loss?


They drafted a Bill for crypto regulations as per finance minister against the will of central banks and then they are issuing various statements like this one :


So the situation is not exactly clear as to what their intentions are or the bill will have what kind of action like ban or regulation? So let's wait for it to happen.

Speaking about internet and bitcoin then government can legally shut it down and then only options left in case of btc is TOR and other services which will allow you to secretly operate but that's not good.It cannot be stopped as the mechanism is built that way which the government fears but sooner or later they will realise this mistake.

But this is what will happen if they go negative around bitcoin and put a Bill to ban it :

1) The market will go once again red which is common and there will be new FUD around the market

2) The panic sellers would contribute their best so we can say that it will go to around $33-$32k

3)The prices will boom once everything is settled down in the long run and btc holders who understands it knows this fact.

4) This will become another china topic and then no talks would be there for it.

The Bitcoin is future even they accept it or not.

This would be one of the best news we can find now while the market is experiencing dumps.

banning bitcoin is like banning internet is a strong word to release from a reputable person in Russian government .

While russia is really trying to bring Bitcoin into more positive traits in their country, news like this will be a good views for bitcoin supporters .

To grow bigger, Bitcoin and crypto market need to have more and better regulations. Having our own banks and financial freedom does not mean the crypto market and its ecosystem should be left as free space.

People must be protected by regulations, laws, etc. There are always pros and cons of regulations but I believe that in the world, we must have law and regulations in any industry. Fortunately, with Bitcoin, governments can not brutefore our own wallets. They can not free our wallets like what they can do very easily with bank accounts.

It must be remembered that in Russia until recently they called not only to ban the circulation of cryptocurrency and its use as a means of payment, but also to establish criminal liability for such violations. The corresponding bill was in their State Duma. If such liability were introduced, it would significantly reduce the circle of people who continued to use cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency would be driven into the shadows, so the state has huge leverage over cryptocurrency.
But, of course, the state is not able to make people completely abandon the use of cryptocurrency. Therefore, the cryptocurrency is developing and its influence on financial markets continues to grow.

Couldn't agree more, it is highly ridiculous to think of banning btc, the federal government should stop thinking about banning and and look for better ways to incorporate it into the economy, after several failed attempt it is pointless to keep trying, we are in the digital era where many things are done digitally, technological advancement is taking over and btc is part of that advancement.

That's probably true! In this advanced computing age, it's very very hard to ban anything that runs over the internet. Because it is quite easy to find a workaround and for the enforcement agencies, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. So what the Finance Minister of Russia is saying, makes complete sense! This way the Russian government will be able to generate tax revenue. But if they ban it, the activities will remain as it is, but they will loose on the tax revenue.

The central banks around the world, are against bitcoin. Because a mediator-free system is an existential threat to the centralized financial bodies. So not only Russia, but other central banks are also vocal about banning the entire crypto ecosystem. It's good that at least a progressive person is leading the finance ministry in Russia.

When it comes to attempts to ban the Internet, supposedly protection from external threats is meant, which in reality is aimed at censorship.

Btw, since 2019, a bill has come into force in Russia, which should eventually make the Russian Internet space similar to the Chinese one. I'm not sure at what stage the implementation of this project is, but after digging around in the bill's document on the Internet, I found that: The restrictions apply primarily to Telecom Operators who must switch to Russian-made equipment, equipment that provides for deep traffic filtering (such that it can distinguish a Telegram traffic package from Facebook, but without seeing the contents of the package).

It's the same with bitcoin... any government is always trying to extract as much money (in the form of taxation) from the population as possible with as much control as possible. And the possible regulation that everyone is so actively discussing is actually aimed at obtaining new levers of pressure on that layer of the Russian population to whom the banking system is alien, (that layer of the population that has cryptocurrency wallets).

That's what China did they wanted to ban bitcoin but the ban could fail if they didn't ban the internet before banning bitcoin, I saw, many news about Russia trying to ban bitcoin a few weeks ago but just a few days after that I saw some articles about Russia trying to legalize bitcoin, so considering the usage of bitcoin by Russian people that's very much expecting to see Russia trying to ban bitcoin, in the worst case they may try to somehow try to adopt for taking tax and tracing he transactions.