Topic: Belarus wants to ban bitcoin P2P transactions (Read 512 times)

In Russia, these restrictions have existed for a long time, but the key point is that this is not a law, but recommendations, and each bank interprets them at will. Those who are engaged in p2p transfers in Russia are constantly faced with this.There are many banks in Russia, unlike Belarus, and it is more difficult to control all this.
https://dzen.ru/a/YT4bltQQnnlEunhH?  (RU)
https://www.cbr.ru/StaticHtml/File/117540/20210906_16-mr.pdf   (RU original)

This will be tto strict because I don't think the government has record of those who are business men and those who are not. This will be too harsh for people that are doing business and transacting money frequently andnit could affect everyone even those that are not P2P traders.

If the government will have to monitor each account to check if they are involved in P2P trades, this will be difficult to analyze unless in a developed country where things are regulated and government have everyone portfolio on whether they are employed or not. If we look at the developing countries where things are nit organized and that can of practise is enforce for the bank to check for a limit amount of transactions to be carry out and if it pass the exact amount, a particular amount of tax will be enforced, it can cause chaos and serious agitation.

The government can very easily ban p2p trading and transfers if it forces banks to act as tax agents. For example, transfers between accounts of individuals who are not entrepreneurs are not more than 500 euros per month. Anything above this amount is subject to a 10-30% tax, which is withheld immediately. If these are transfers between close relatives, then they are not taken into account and it is easy to track them or add an additional field to the transfer.

It is very hard for the government to stop p2p trading even though the rules are very strict, people are still going to find ways to go to trade there Bitcoin and other crypto assets. I still don't know why the government of some countries just choose to cripple crypto trading and investment which is absolutely absurd to me.

Even there is a firewall that restricts residents from using a particular site or trading online, people can always diversify other methods they can use to trade in the cryptocurrency market and get what they want irrespective of the devices of the government. I will rather relocate from that region if I noticed that the government will never support the existence of cryptocurrency in a particular region. Russia and Balarus has almost the same law and bind the two countries working together like one.

I can also confirm that most of this cryptocurrency regulations and bans are just on paper. In real life it is not easy to implement. You read of laws that compels crypto owners to declare their crypto, you read the ones that prohibit crypto owners to transact with local banks. I am sure people in such countries still have ways to maneuver and survive.

Regarding Op, true p2p cannot be stopped by the government. The way that the government will achieve that is to disconnect her citizens from WWW.

Google translate but you will get the point:
The Russian authorities and operators once again checked the performance of Russian sites in the context of the country's disconnection from the international Internet.
https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/05/07/2023/64a569439a7947106d06262b


People will use it by default.
Again, I lived in a totalitarian dictatorship that had re-education camps, you know why it stopped?
They run out of "convicts", literally in 10 years after ww2, they killed almost everyone so it wasn't needed anymore.

As I said in numerous posts here, all those bans are easily enforceable, all that it matters is how much the government wants to do it, it is hell-bent on banning it will just execute some as traitors and destabilizers of the regime and you can bet your ass nobody will go on doing it or it will be a "ban" like the one in Nigeria and India where they can't even make their minds on who bans what and enforcement is non-existent.

Remember what happened to Elwar? What matters is how much you piss the government, cross the line and..


Good, now, how do you get your $ after sending the BTC without the government knowing?

Lol, we can argue about that, it's just saying that you are using crypto with criminal intent?

It's not like that, it's the control that crypto is giving to the people, to the population that government wanted a blanket ban or new regulations. But so far we haven't seen any countries that is successful on that campaign, not even USA.

P2P might be a risk, but as crypto enthusiasts, I think we know how and when we should protect ourselves against those P2P scammers and other criminals.

Are you sure about that? In Belarus, giving your bank card to other people is prohibited. If you receive a transfer in Belarusian rubles to a card, then it is not taxed and there are practically no drop cards. It is in Russia and Ukraine that the business of cashing money from bank cards is very developed. In Europe, it is difficult to get a bank card, but in Russia, banks will send you a card by mail, courier or issue it in the office in 1 hour.

Well they have their reason and it's due to High Crypto Crime Rate Linked To P2P Transactions. This is an issue which can be counter by imposing new regulations on the trade , however this should reduce p2p crime in my view

Clearly, based on your statement, it appears that exchanges are not to blame, but rather the project teams and new startups. It is essential to implement stricter regulations for new startups and establish guidelines for future projects. The country is targeting the wrong individuals in its pursuit.

According to my information, the owners of the exchangers have a registered business, although they do not pay all taxes. Exchangers still fall into fraudulent schemes, and they have to communicate with the police, so they have documents for entrepreneurial activity. This is big business, and fighting it will result in exchangers working through couriers or hiding through Internet security sites, but they won't go out of business.

 
I genuinely don't wish to appear rebellious or disregard the law, but is it truly possible for authorities to effectively prevent peer-to-peer exchanges, especially those conducted with exchanges located outside the country? Moreover, considering that traders can easily keep their cryptocurrency transactions separate from traditional bank deposits, it seems challenging to regulate such activities effectively.

In Belarus, laws work the same way as in Russia. Laws exist, but people don't try hard to follow them. In Poland, this has been banned for a long time, and when opening an account, banks are forced to sign additional papers that the bank's client will not use his account for cryptocurrency transactions. But even there people find ways out and loopholes in the system.

Doesn't Russia fill the budget hole? Belarus licks their ass with so much talent and power, I think Russia will not leave them without a big reward. At least they send some billion euros in Dagestan and Chechnya, they pretty much live on Moscow's budget. Logically, Belarus should get way more.

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Belarus and Alexander Lukashenko are an Eastern European patented model of North Korea and Kim Jong Un. I wanna bold this!

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I think it will be one hell of a problem to make a p2p deposit on Belarus Hi-Tech Park cause you'll have to explain where you get your money from and in case they don't like you or the money is big in value, you may end up in their prisons. Btw wonder, will their exchange have crypto withdraw option?

It's so meaningless to ban p2p transactions, it's like to ban doing pushups at home. I can't understand how such a dumb people manage to get in government.

Although what the government has said is nothing different from the truth, meeting and exchanging is a bit risky as you do not know who is who and the next move or plans of your counter part so one needs to be very careful when dealing or engaging in such transactions. On the other hand the government is trying to protect each and everyone member of Belarusian involved in crypto for their own safety.

I feel since the citizens  of Belarus do not want to pay tax for crypto transaction hence their indulgence in p2p transactions and there is nothing the government can do about it as long as they can not trace money movement and knowing where it is coming with the reasons such money was paid for so i think it is a waste of time the government thinks of man hunting her citizens.

Anyone who tries to go full-on crybaby and destroy your (fiat) platforms, can easily be mitigated by hiring an attorney and disputing the termination with the banks or whoever was responsible with a mediator.

Banks have nothing to gain by sticking with the reports of scammers, so they will undo all the damage in order to avoid potentially millions of dollars-worth of litigation.

You can't practically ban P2P protocols. You can try to regulate them in an extent but you can't completely prohibit the use of bitcoin, unless you prohibit the access to the Internet. Therefore, you can only block access if you ban yourself from the WWW.

Your survival instincts must also take into account your survival apart from your well-being. I'm pretty sure people would use it if needed.

It is potentially big problem if you have trades with scammers.

If you have trades with good trade partners, trades will be completed smoothly, no problem for both sides and I believe your trade partners will not report you to banks immorally like that.

Oppositely if you have trades with bad trade partners. Because they are scammers, if they fail to scam you and if you win disputes, their accounts get banned, they will react in some weird immoral ways. One of such immoral ways is reporting you to banks and governments. It is one of risks but it is barely seen and sometimes, if your bank account is terminated, frozen, you will not know exact reasons.

Belarusians can broadcast their transactions using a full node, or with any pushtx-style webpage while connected over a VPN or Tor, to obfuscate the location where the transactions were made. And there's no way for authorities to reliably track the location of the user with this method because all that remains in APIs are a bunch of node IP addresses and (at worst) client IP addresses that have visited a particular webpage, if they decide to take their internet surveillance that far.

Not that I think they will, as this seems to be a very incompetent government as far as technology is concerned.

What the government of Belarus can ban is the false p2p that is being done on centralized exchanges. The real p2p which does not require a third party, rather than signing signatures cannot be banned by the government.

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Meanwhile, what I perceived that the Government of Belarus want to do is control all the crypto transactions happening in the country in one strong and centralized exchange controlled by them. I think this is not healthy for the cryptocurrency industry.

Exactly, it's like they want to ban Bitcoin.
P2P transactions for me come in a lot of ways, these P2P exchanges what we see on most exchanges are the basics. Because for me, P2P really involves no 3rd party or some middleman, it will direct to buyer and seller which you can't really ban because you can't control these people.

Well, you can simply avoid centralized exchanges, there are a lot of ways to buy Bitcoin without them and keep it in a non-custodial wallet. I'm using OWNR wallet, but there are at least dozens of other fine alternatives.

The only crime of those people was that they were just servicing too many people, P2P transactions are fine but since governments want to know even the color of our underwear then they cannot allow for such a thing to continue.

But it does not matter if they allow it or not, this is going to continue as those that are looking to keep some sort of privacy in this world are not going to give up so easily, especially now that centralized exchanges follow the policies of governments incredibly closely and you cannot use one without identifying yourself.

I think that's an over-generalization and the fact is that not all P2P transactions involve criminal activity, because many users engage in legitimate and legal exchanges for various purposes and I think that the Prohibition can be seen as unduly limiting the privacy rights and individual rights of many people.

If a particular platform is banned, I think individuals can still find alternative ways/options to trade directly with each other, making it difficult for the authorities to enforce the ban effectively.


Instead, policymakers there should focus on implementing regulations and measures to curb objectionable activity while allowing legitimate and legal use cases to develop.

That's right, there is nothing that can stop P2P trading. These peer-to-peer transactions are difficult to track or control. While governments consider this an illegal phenomenon that must be stopped, we see it as a great advantage that Bitcoin has given us.

In my country, for example, there are no legitimate exchanges to exchange bitcoins into fiat, so the only way available to us is P2P. The government does not want such transactions and pursues them, but they will never be able to stop them.

Belarus is under heavy sanctions due to their support of Russia in their war with Ukraine. Many people in Belarus will want to find alternatives to circumvent sanctions and that would weaken the belarusian rouble. Saying that it is about preventing illicit activity is not really credible because criminals prefer to use fiat but politicians use that excuse all the time when they want to hinder Bitcoin adoption.

Do I miss any update about cryptocurrency adoption in Russia since their invasion to Ukraine?

Russia announced their plan for Digital Rubble in 2019. The progress is good as I know and they are in Pilot phase for their Digital Rubble. I remembered I read that in Russia, there are national conflicts on regulations cryptocurrency but I don't names of those authorities, Central bank and one more authority.

Russia Cryptocurrency Laws

Nowadays, there are more and more ways to hide transactions from wallet to exchange, whatever kind, people can still hide it so it's not tracked by the government. I think it's become a mission impossible if they continue it because people can use Mixer. Actually, if the government wants to control society, a good way is to create a centralization exchange where the government can control it anytime and everywhere if find shady transactions.

Yes totally right in my home country Indonesia Crypto is considered like a commodity and there is a government that ruled them and the benefit for the government is they collect taxes from the company's profit and from the traders

and the bright side is no ban on Bitcoin. Win-win solution like this that we need to another country:D. But yeah P2P will not ever be gone

Yeah i agree with you, Z-tight. The definition of P2P (Peer to Peer) transaction is a transaction that made by a person to another one through an intermediary. that is what Wikipedia said. So, it must not to meet face to face between both party. since serjent05 thought that P2P should do a meeting face to face party, maybe he think that P2P is Person to Person, so maybe he also think that people in belarus will get risk if they do bitcoin transaction by meeting face to face.

In a country where the population is less than 10 million it isn't a big thing to stop P2P and other services that are connected with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Most of the time it is the people who make the government to take a stand against crypto. Here also it is the fraudulent activity of a particular person had made the government pass the new order which states no more P2P crypto trades.

to be honest, news of this kind coming from a country like Belarus does not surprise me because we all know or at least I suppose we all know that Belarus is a country controlled by Russia and we all know Russia's position in relation to cryptocurrencies, especially in this wartime I have heard news of people who were arrested in Russia for using bitcoin, they are being accused of sending bitcoin to Ukrainians who are fighting, and see that for these people to be arrested is because the Russian government is monitoring all its people

so measures like those of Belarus go against what Russia tells them to do so that Belarus has 100% control of its people, this is the price you pay for living in countries that are under the dictatorship regime like this country and there is nothing that can be done to change it, at least in a peaceful way there is no way to change it. unfortunately. now this does not affect the price and does not harm bitcoin, the market is much bigger and does not depend on these regimes to maintain itself, which is why news like this fortunately does not change anything for bitcoin

In person trade is not the only form of p2p transaction, any transaction that doesn't involve a third party or a middleman is a p2p transaction, if you trade on Bisq or if i send you BTC right now and you send me fiat or any other commodity that i request in exchange, that's a p2p transaction. There is nothing dangerous or risky about it, if you don't like it in the form of in person trade, then use the other forms.

Obviously true sir. Most times what the government see and try to prevent is what people do not see. For the aspect of security, this is very risky and moreover, a deadly exposure of one to danger. Going out for a p2p transaction does not guarantee ones safety neither does it guarantees ones assurance of successfully p2p trading success but rather insecurity and possible theft or kidnap. I still believe banning p2p would be very difficult for the government to do because they are not everywhere to monitor what every one in Belarus is doing.  So it is a waste of time doing such.

We cannot deny that trading P2P certainly pose a risk for both party since meeting face to face may trigger a crime if the other party intend to swindle the other party.  In a huge transaction, this might result in a bloodbath.  This is also one reason why I prefer selling my BTC in an online exchange to avoid this kind of incident.  

In terms of the government suggesting the use of centralized exchange and the plan to ban P2p may also have something to do with the taxation.  But whatever the motive behind the government of Belarus wanting to ban P2P can only be seen after the government had successfully passed a law of banning P2P transactions.

Forcing people to transact Bitcoin via a centralised manner will not solve the root causes. If they try to reduce the crime rate, the decision they made is hardly would be significant. If we consider the motive of the criminals, surely they won't attempt to do it. Moreover, they are many things they would be able to handle in order to achieve their goals, which is as the authority stated as cashing out, convert, and transfer the illegitimate funds.

Certainly, due to the nature of bitcoin and those people's motives, the act of cashing out, converting, and transferring is still doable.

I believe all these rantings by the Belarusian government is as a result of the tax they are not benefiting from the p2p transactions. Belarusian citizens are very  smart all these while bypassing their CEX using only p2p to execute their crypto deals which is a good one. The government are just after their own cut of the transaction cake so that nothing passes them hence their move to ban the p2p platform but i am very sure it would be difficult for them to do so because they have to device to detect crypto p2p trades as anyone can transact any amount in accordance to Belarusian country monetary policy. Just as cryptovator has said the  "decision seems completely unrealistic".

Of course, countries not partaking of the crypto currency technology is going to be way behind both technically and technologically.
It is quite understandable about the Belarusian situation because seeing they are close to Russia, crime is likely going to sponsored by making payments via crypto, mostly now when the war is around their borders.
By restrictions on the P2P, it will help expose refugees, because with the use of a centralized exchange, the authorities would be able to know those who are not its citizens.
Let's see how this scenario plays out in the long run.

This decision seems completely unrealistic. I am uncertain whether the authorities in Belarus possess sufficient knowledge about Bitcoin. It is possible that they may only intend to ban platforms that facilitate peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading. However, it is important to note that they cannot entirely prevent peer-to-peer trading, as there are no foolproof measures to prevent it. Even in my own country, Bitcoin is deemed illegal, yet numerous individuals, including myself, engage in peer-to-peer buying and selling of Bitcoin. Ultimately, it remains the decision of individual users.

In addition to knowing everything, they may also want to collect taxes. Isn't that what most governments wanted to do all along? They also know that P2P cannot be blocked. Let's say there are 100 people and they heard the news. If 90 out of 100 people do what they are told, it means both auditing and tax. The remaining 10 people can transfer as they wish. I think that's the point.

Yes, on the bright side, there is no ban on Bitcoin.

Which means you do not know what the meaning of P2P is. Peer-to-peer exchanges means to be able to exchange bitcoin without no third party like centralized exchanges involved. If it is P2P, then we are talking about decentralized exchanges like Bisq and exchanging the coins directly with another person, like on this forum. If centralized authorities are involved, like centralized exchanges and the regulators, it is no more P2P. So what you meant is not P2P.

Belarus is more of less a Russian proxy state, one of the only states still loyal to Russia post Soviet Union. So this news of restricting Bitcoin trading is far from surprising, as we've seen Russia flip flop between legalising and criminalising Bitcoin. My point is what Belarus to doing to restrict Bitcoin trading or usage is far from relevant, just like when Russia clamped down on it not so long ago.

I do not interpret this news as they are banning it, as you mentioned they are asking p2p providers to get verification from their centralized authorities which will decrease the scam rate and will increase the adoption of crypto. No doubt, many will go against this new law because governments will definitely do it to change taxes if they had not implied it before.

And many users must not like that. I think it is a good step instead of taking a step to ban it completely they are benefiting the crypto users and themselves too. Such actions are not made by every country like mine because our country had totally banned crypto while many influencers had given them the idea of imposing tax instead of banning it. Because people will still find a way to do crypto-related activities so why not just make it legal and also benefit from it too. Even now the IMF has also made statements in favor of Crypto and said countries will be left behind which will not use this technology.

I think that anyone interested in Bitcoin for anything other than pure speculation knows what nonsense it is to consider it as centralized.

It's not really possible to prohibit people from holding BTC in their own wallet, and doing P2P transactions, fortunately. For the others, those who just see it as a speculative product, it probably wouldn't make any difference, because they're probably the ones who keep their BTC in CEX wallets whether required by law or not

People are more or less all aware of the existence of TOR, VPNs, and software associated to Bitcoin (Electrum, for example), so they don't have to depend on CEX if they wish.

There's not so bad about that.
I love Belarusian exchanges, such as free2ex and currency.com (sometimes called "dzengi"). On both exchanges, you need to approach KYC, but it's nothing terrible, both are reliable and time-tested. And through each of them I was withdrawing money by P2P, but through an ordinary exchange withdrawal of fiat on card. It's certainly not that good and takes some time. At the same time, once the exchange rejected my withdrawal, and did not notify me about it. But in all other cases, everything went smoothly.
Therefore, Belarusians have nothing to fear if P2P transactions will be forbidden.

This is interesting, imagine the government have ban P2P transactions, it means the Belarusian will not use non custodial wallet to hold their coins. The Belarusian will depends completely on the centralized exchange to hold their coins and if something bad happen toward the exchange, the Belarusian will don't know how to become your own bank and how Bitcoin can be really safe if it's not stored to a digital site.

They might think Bitcoin is centralized due to this law.

By law anything can be banned or legalized. But will that really change the reality? Probably no! Yes, a certain percentage of the population may change their mind to follow the law, but largely P2P transactions cannot be eradicated.

Also Belarus is a communist country like China and Russia. So these countries are usually quite strict when it comes to financial matters. They can have any law, but that won't change the reality.

This is interesting- so it implies that Belarus has a local exchange where it can easily convert BTC to their local currency? If that is the case, it will definitely be a hassle to remove this kind of convenience, in which my local currency (Philippines) also offers.

If this is the case, there are still exchanges that offer p2p without having to show the transactions. Like most have mentioned, detecting p2p transactions are somehow impossible given the nature of BTC transactions.

Well even if this prohibition is implemented, I doubt that the citizens of Belarus would be affected too much- at most it is only the ease and convenience of conversion BTC - local currency is affected.

So what stops criminals from using physical fiats or cash considering they are used in p2p manner physically?
 The truth is that most transactions in fiat currencies are criminal ... like transactions for junk foods, synthetic products, low quality schools etc. Why would you allow people to buy things that kill slowly, or even pay for immoral educations?
Anyway, certain things are overlooked because we know they are done in ignorance. However, judging others while you are deep in thesame evil could qualify as hypocrisy. The right thing to do is to fix your own issues first to be clean enough and in your right mind to judge others properly.

Bitcoin isn't for criminals. It's transparent enough for exposing crimes , more transparent than fiats, People need to take advantage of the transparency feature and collaborate to expose those using it for immoral activities.
 I would advice the government to create blacklisting platforms where Belarusians can report crime transactions and get rewarded. Once the crime addresses are identified, they should be blacklisted with proofs of crimes committed attached to the addresses, then publicized for all to know and avoid them. Responsible exchanges and others are expected to avoid the addresses.


Not a good idea to force the free/innocent people to use centralized platforms that normally should be for slaves/criminals.

Wow!! Nice explanation. Thanks. I was thinking of a different dimensions. I was thinking that, the individual p2p transaction is also visible to the government for them to track you down but from your explanation, it is based on exchange platforms which is true of what you said.  What surprised me is your last paragraph, I have not thought to that area and if anyone does that, it is very bad. Revealing your trading colleagues information to the government so they can persecute the person. That is a very wicked ack from the highest order.

Because not all Peer to Peer trading platforms are truly decentralized. They are centralized and require KYC on users. Some Peer to Peer like Remitano will have fiat currency wallet, link your account to your bank.

Do you think your identity will not be passed to governments if those platforms receive official request from police, bank and government?

When you trade Peer to Peer on such platforms, you will have to make bank transfer with information given by that platform. They will have non sense transfer information like random character. Banks can smell weird signals and trace similar transfer in and out your bank account.

Your trade partner can play bad and leak information against you too.

How did the Belarusian Government knows that individuals are doing p2p? Because I thought the p2p is invisible to other people so how come Belarusian government identify the people and suppressed them. Or did they track them through the addresses. I have not really gotten the method they used. Bitcoin is decentralized and that make it not a third party to see what is going on between the two transactors. Please I will need expert explanation on this matter.

Let me point this out NotATether:


A law can be made to prohibit them, and although this is a small country, I would not like other states to copy the idea, because even though P2P transactions cannot be stopped, they can be reduced to marginality. We are in a global trend of reducing the use of cash, mostly voluntarily by the population and the upcoming launch of CBDCs that mean a step further in the total control.

The legislation underway in the European Union is going in the same direction, and this type of legislation is not going helpful for us.


Again, they can.


Of course.

Banning p2p transaction is new to me, is that possible? isn't this p2p with the features of other centralized exchanges to enter money from outside the exchange and transfer money from the exchange to fiat.
But the p2p using decentralized, I'm just not sure if anyone is already using it because I haven't been updated on that, maybe it's possible, but not in terms of ban p2p. If that goes through, poor crypto enthusiasts who will be affected by that.

Prohibiting P2P exchange activities in my opinion will be very difficult, because all of these things are cyber-based, and as far as I know banning cyber-based things will definitely be very difficult. Especially if this is a ban on P2P exchanges. I'm sure that everyone who is used to doing these transactions, will do various ways to be able to continue to do so. So actually the measures taken by the Belarusian government, regarding banning P2P exchanges, I believe will definitely not be effective. Because it will definitely be difficult to regulate or monitor every citizen who makes such P2P exchanges.

And the reasons used by the Belarusian government about banning P2P exchanges, I think are very common in the crypto world. That is about the number of crimes that occurred. In my opinion, there will always be criminal acts in any field, because in every field there will always be good people and bad people, and in the crypto world or regarding P2P exchanges it will be the same. Therefore, you must always be careful because by always being careful, I'm sure you will avoid anyone who wants to commit fraud.

So I think the right step taken by the Belarusian government is not to ban P2P exchanges, but to instill the thought of always being careful with its people who always trade on P2P. By doing it like that I'm sure it will feel wiser.

They cannot stop P2P but they can limit crypto institutions or individuals (centralized) that offer exchange services to customers. One of the reasons for this is that they have many unregistered individuals or crypto firms that act as middlemen between buyers and sellers. It looks like people are avoided registered exchanges because they can be used to trace or track their transactions. In an authoritarian country, anybody can be a target of the government. It could also be that the government is targeting to make money from the registration of these exchanges. A country that is facing sanctions will seek alternative ways to get income. They will not be able to stop P2P transactions between two people because even in China Bitcoin transactions still happens.

They banned unemployment, then inflation, then war, P2P is easy, they don't need to even enforce it, just a wink and it's done! /s


Yeah, except you're not talking about democracy but a state-controlled communist dictatorship in which you can get picked up from your apartment because you put the wrong smiley in a comment! When facing 20 years in a re-education center, do you honestly think people will keep on doing p2p deals when they already know the state controls every bank and every transaction out there?


Yes, it is!
It's called a firing squad and after seeing it in action a few times your survival instincts will actively block you from signing any tx!  
Besides, they don't care about bitcoins going over the border or inside the country, what they care is about the fiat moved, and in Belarus, they can track that easier than you can count pennies in your wallet as nearly all payment solutions are either completely or partly state-owned. And if it's not the state of Belarus that owns it it's either Gazprom or Russia!


A simple mechanism that will trigger an alarm when you initiate a cash transaction to a guy that is not your family member and who has a few other transactions from his bank account at random hours to different people in different towns. Just invite everyone to the police station for an interview and face them with two choices, either tell your whole history since you've been born or go and volunteer to conquer Ukraine.
Remember that when you send Bitcoin to somebody it's because you want to receive cash, not because you want to receive Bitcoins back!

Guys, this is not the US or Canada or France, when you know, you have things called rights!

I thought banning of peer 2 peer exchanges is more difficult to do than a centralized exchange as traders could have moved their services to more personalized platforms like whatsapp for businesses or say a telegram channel which can still be used to facilitate these exchanges...tbh their efforts are appreciated in combating cyber crime but crypto is to big of a revolution to be stopped by a ban.

Btw I think this is a mammoth task the Belarus authorities have embarked on, besides are these guys saying cybercrime will instantly drop once these channels are closed ?? I don't think so as people will always find alternative ways to exchange and what not.

You are very correct. I wonder what mechanism they are going to put in place to be able tell if a particular set of bitcoin transactions are from P2P users. Just like what happened in Nigeria, when the apex bank banned cryptocurrency and asked all commercial banks to flag accounts associated with crypto-related activities. Nigerians resorted to P2P trading in order to stay off the radar. In my own opinion, I think this is just a bluff. It's another way to tax it's citizens by forcing them to register and trade on a centralized exchange approved by Belarusian government.

Of course, bitcoin transactions can't be banned, but the weak point is the border between crypto and cash. If the authorities want, they will begin to catch violators at the time of the exchange. Of course, summing up under this legislation. On the positive side, such tightening and bans could spur direct payment in currencies for goods or services between people. That's when it will be most interesting, because it is not known how they will be held accountable. Probably not in any way.


There is nothing surprising in this news. This is exactly how the regulation of crypto spheres occurs when it is impossible to control cash flows. The only solution is when people are forced to go to a centralized exchange, where all information about them, transactions will be stored, and of course, taxes will be paid for any activity with crypto currencies.

The so-called 27 citizens providing “illegal crypto exchange services” are nothing but exchangers. After punishing them, scaring the rest of the exchangers, squeezing them out of the market and freeing up space, the next step is to open a government-controlled exchanger. This is the standard scenario.

Perhaps for some time some exchangers will operate in the shadows, like a black market, but the activity will be complicated, fraught with huge risks, and as a result, there will be nothing left but the only centralized exchanger in the country.

You didn't think the holiday would last forever, right.

This is not good for their citizens that currently holding bitcoins that has been using P2P to trade. Others that are planning to invest in bitcoins probably will cancel their plan and choose different investment instead. They might just want to get some tax from those transactions and since it's seems easy to trade that way, they plan to put pressure on whoever trading that way and force them to trade in the exchanges so that they can get some taxes.

I suppose they don't really know how Bitcoin works if they want to ban P2P transactions. And those people are making laws and helping to run the country...

News snippet:
I don't really understand if this is related to preventing p2p transactions, does this mean withdrawing cash? I think local banks will have another job to censor a lot of customers.
I appreciate the government officials eradicating this illegal activity, but the methods they employ will only make people laugh at them.

They can only ban P2P trade where Bitcoin is converted to the local currency or vice versa. Since local fiat is always under the control of the government, it would be easy to track such transactions. Instead of implementing a ban, they should introduce a policy or regulatory framework for these exchanges. A ban would increase illegal activities, which would not be beneficial for them. I have never witnessed a ban helping any government; it has always made their lives more complicated.

Taking this into consideration, Belarus is not the only country involved in making use of a p2p network transaction and thet don't also appear to be the most crime rated region in the world, they have to understand that as at this present moment, bitcoin p2p network is the only and most secured digital form of payment and means of making transactions and we cannot regulate the whole system since it's decentralized, the government cannot control the crime rate with the use of fiat currency, why are they trying to achieve this on bitcoin as long as theirs justification in bitcoin network and it's transactions, i will better add this that they (government) should be the one to introduce more means of getting their citizens engaged in qualitative avenue for economical opportunities that could change their lives for good.

In addition to that, every P2P platform which are under custodial system save History of transaction, time, and amount transacted with whom those was transacted with. Custodial P2P is never to truly safe, it's just another means of privacy protection bridge. Anything can happen and users data can still be released to authorities which will use it against both parties that got them self engaged in the transaction.

I guess they have the idea on how these P2P transaction works and with the heavy sanction that's been placed on Russia with what they've done, most electronic cash transfers have been disabled and they're resorting out to this type of transfers with Bitcoin.

Just like our friends here said that they can't do anything with it. But, the only thing they can do is to track those platforms for which they've got the record of the users and the transactions being done there.

If the actuality of person to person transaction is being done without any intervention of a platform or any third party, I doubt it that they'll be able to intervene and track any of those.

Once again, the Belarussian government does not shine in its ability to understand the subject it is tackling...

I wonder how they're going to go about it lol, the concept of wanting to ban anything P2P escapes me completely...


This will be one more argument they can cobble together in the event of unfair legal proceedings. But I'm hopeful that people will know and have access to documentation that will enable them to avoid such stupid accusations.

In my humble opinion, it's all about getting people to talk about them, and it's not the first or last time that this government has said something irrational to get a bit of international attention.

I sincerely hope for the people of Belarus to get rid of these idiots. I wish them good luck.

This is only correct for true p2p transactions that happens on decentralized exchanges and face to face trades, but if you use the p2p services of custodial platforms, the exchange knows who you are through your kyc data that you gave them and they will give it to the government if they request for it.

It is not like the government of Belarus wants to totally ban p2p tx's, what they want to do is to force everyone to trade only through exchanges that are registered and approved by them, this is exactly what governments are all about, censorship and control, anyway, what they intend to do is very difficult for them to achieve because it is easy to bypass.

Yeah the real answer is P2P is unstoppable no matter what the government will do.
Maybe Belarus wants the transaction transparency from the exchange by introducing some of KYC to its user.  the gov want every transaction happen on desired Centralized Exchange so they know everything.

Tho who are pro about P2P always find the way in my opinion.

the plus is at least the government don't ban Bitcoin

I am already dreaming about how this is going to happen, because P2P transactions only happen between two people, you give me your 1000$ and I give you Bitcoin worth 1000$, no one will know that the 1000$ i received from Mr John is for Bitcoin, and no one will know that I get Mr Johns Bitcoin wallet address and sent back the money only in Bitcoin...

Oh yes, unless Mr. John writes "payment for Bitcoin" on the transaction description itself, the bank will know that the transaction that Mr. John made at the so-so time was meant for a Bitcoin purchase.

I wish Belarus good luck on this, .

Exactly, but this is only applicable on stand-alone P2P platforms. I mean, decentralized P2P exchanges. I believe those are what you mean.
 
But when it comes to P2P means of buying and selling that's still under any centralized exchanges, they could still be traced and request account banning of their citizens, and they could still file for restrictions for their citizens not to be able to use the P2P option; it's just for the regulatory to write to the exchange. This is the reason why if one wants to remain anonymous, they should avoid the centralized exchanges and go for any P2P option out there.

The idea is not to ban Bitcoin P2P transactions but to deem anyone found participating in such activities a criminal who may be prosecuted and "legally" deprived of their belongings, including cryptocurrency holdings. Authoritarian government merely wants more leverage to control its citizens, which is why it keeps introducing such ridiculous laws that can't be realistically enforced at a large scale, but that can be used against opposition and other "wrong" people. Needless to say, "a high cybercrime rate" is just an excuse to introduce more prohibitions.

And don't forget the important part....And the government can track it so they can get their tax revenue. It's all about the money. Belarus is a small country with a small budget but a lot of expenses so here is another way to generate funds. Leaving out the political good / bad part of it even now they are asking Wagner mercenaries to train the military while building a large military base. That ain't free. All while more and more people are not doing business there because of their ties to Russia. Now, once again do not want to get political about that but the budget hole has to be filled somehow.

-Dave

Bitcoin P2P transactions cannot be banned. There is no mechanism with which to detect that a Bitcoin transaction has been made, let alone detect who has made a transaction[1], since you can broadcast a transaction with a completely different IP address outside of Belarus' authority.

Maybe he wants to ban exchanges or off-ramps or the equivalent.

[1]: Outside of the very obvious and standard blockchain analysis services, but even these require a trail to already have been made that goes through a KYC service.

According to where I read it, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus said thee is high crypto crime rate in P2P crypto transactions while exchange bitcoin with each other. 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/belarus-wants-to-ban-p2p-cryptocurrency-transactions


So if Belarusian wants to sell bitcoin which is an asset to themselves, they have to go through a centralized exchange approved by Belarus Hi-Tech Park (HTP).

Is this not too hash?

There is nothing that can stop P2P trading. It can only be reduced.