Topic: Canadian Government Decides -- Bitcoin is Hands Off -- No Real Regulation - page 2. (Read 2212 times)

When they should decide to cut off your power and/or internet, your hard earned money will most definitely be HANDS OFF.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but here are a few factoids about Canada:

1. The Canadian Senate is not an elected body. Members are appointed by the actual government. Appointments are historically patronage gigs for old party loyalists. The present prime minister (the actual head of government) campaigned on replacing the senate with an elected body but, once in office, continued the practice of appointing hacks to the senate instead. One such appointment is in full scandal mode right now: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/topic/Tag/Mike%20Duffy%20trial

2. Senate reports are sometimes used as trial balloons by a government. If well received, the actual government decision-makers (in the House of Commons) might make it their policy. Otherwise it can be ignored as "just a Senate report", which is the norm.

3. Canadian winters are as varied as the country, which is larger than the US (sorry about that). I have even lived in a Canadian area, admittedly a small one, with a true Mediterranean climate - people grow figs outdoors, protected only by bird netting. I'm not saying where in the country it is though - just in case.       

4. Canada has no "states". The Canadian equivalents are provinces and territories. You are right (upthread) that these governments may or may not come up with their own BTC policies - I hope nothing like Lawsky's caper in New York, but - perhaps ominously - the Senate committee made a field trip to New York as part of their "investigation", according to Canadian media. I imagine it was probably just an excuse for shopping and nightlife, but you never know.

tl/dr The Canadian Senate is not the voice of the Canadian Government. Canadian government policy re BTC is not yet announced. This might hint at good news to come or it might not. Watch and wait.

That's great news. Hope this would happen in various parts of countries too, the way this digital coin innovated is entirely in legitimate way. Ironically, this legitimate ideas never get digested by many governmental authorities, as everyone knows that all government sectors has few corrupt people everywhere in this world.

Heh, guess the perks of living here go beyond health care for once. This is some nice news 

Maybe its time to move to the great white north, where the beers are cold, the girls are warm, and the bitcoin is welcome.

Whoop! Time to move to Canada! I wonder what it'll take to set up a business there.

This is huge, canada got really smart goverment.
Kudos to them.

That's pretty cool of Canada, nice to see a government try & look to the future & not penalise those who try to be innovative by handicapping them with ridiculous regulations. Can't believe they sent out the message via the blockchain though, think I might move to Canada & start a new life there ........ Well maybe not in their winter, it's awful

wow. this is really a great news for bitcoin. i think we are going to see many improvements in bitcoin world in the future and may of them are going to be from Canada.
and i loved their cheeky play of embedding the message in blockchain from their 1Canada... address

Well, there is no point on wasting time and money trying to regulate something that is currently only used by a few.
Let it get bigger and therefor worth your while, and then regulate it.
By then, you will have more chances of success because there is a large portion already using it and work with/for it.
Sure, some companies (like Xapo for example) might choose to relocate if they don't like the regulation,
but we should not forget that they will still have the normal Buitcoin user which will not relocate and will continue to use and get taxed on Bitcoin.

"Regardless, it appears as though the Canada’s federal government is ramping up to take a global lead with Bitcoin by letting it flourish before trying to control it."

so this is their plan in their end, this is why many Gov are not hindering bitcoin, they want it to become big first, before trying to get their hands on it

I think you unfortunately have to be a legal immigrant in this day and age.  You can get a SIN# (same as SSN#) as an illegal immigrant, but it's going to start with a 9, which banks will no longer allow without additional documentation.  Aside from that, 2 pieces of ID, a utility bill, and you have a bank account.

EDIT:  You have TD Bank in the US, correct?  Contact them, and say you want to open a Canadian account.  Should be easy.

Man's got a point... buses ain't cheap... Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much.

How easy/hard is it for a US citizen to open a Canadian bank account?
 

The article makes an interesting observation about the powers of different states.

In February, Quebec updated its financial policies to require operators of Bitcoin exchanges—where people can buy Bitcoin for regular money—and ATMs to obtain a license.

I do hope the state governments sync their policies with those of the center.

You open the exchange. Jesus Christ, do I have to do everything? I'm already renting the bus!

except it'll be pain in the butt buying bitcoins here because the canadian exchanges are pretty much dead, so you'd have to exchange your canadian dollars to us dollars and then use some foreign bitcoin exchange.

Let's all move to Canada. I'll rent a bus.

Finally a government with its head in the proper place (not up its ass).  All of these regulations in the usa, which are bought by big banks to kill competition, are just absurd.  Why not choose some other random currency to make strange rules about?  Why not the Indonesian rupiah?  I am sure that one has some sort of insidious underground purpose.

Today we are not going to blame Canada, we are going to thank them

Ha!  Take that, stupid wallstreet banks.  Can't bribe them all I guess.  Lets hope that this sets the precedent for other nations to follow in the future, although I doubt that it will happen in the usa, ever.

AFAIK yes.