Topic: On legality of Bitcoin - legal till banned or banned till legal - page 2. (Read 364 times)

Find the criminal code of your country and check if crypto currency is criminalised.

I do agree with your opinion that mostly people are doubt about bitcoin whether or not it is legal or illegal, and yes it influenced by which country you are from, since some countries are allow it, and some of others banned it. Reading can help, gain knowledge about the constitution in your country is a good start to be done firstly before you explore everything about crypto.
And talking about law, I don't really know much about it, what can be considered as crime, which one is not, I don't really get it. I think I need to find a lot more about law towards bitcoin as the currency.

Here I will clarify 2 legal issues.
1. Violation of the law is not absolutely equal to crime. crime is violating the criminal law, violating other laws is only illegal, but not crime.
2. The law is a complex system, it is not only the law articles, but also includes certain precedents.

Now let me talk about the legality of Bitcoin.
1. In some countries, although they ban bitcoin, such as China, in fact, people in their country holding/trading bitcoin is not illegal, on the contrary, trading bitcoin is also protected by law.
Why is there such a contradiction, it is very simple, because their financial laws clearly indicate that bitcoin is not recognized as "currency" and that bitcoin is prohibited as a settlement method，but their civil law also stipulates that virtual assets should be treated as property.  So when someone trades Bitcoin to be cheated, who can apply civil law to protect rights. The same case in many countries where their law does not recognize bitcoin as “currency,” but generally recognizes the value of “virtual goods”.

2. There is a basic principle in criminal law: The crime must be express clearly in article , which means that if the transaction/holding of bitcoin is not clearly defined a crime act in the criminal law, then it is not a crime.
There is also a basic principle in civil law: If not prohibited by civil law is free act, which means that if the civil law does not explicitly prohibit transaction/holding of bitcoin, then you are free to do it.
Judging from the combination of criminal law and civil law, no country currently writes bitcoin as a criminal act in criminal law, and no country prohibits bitcoin transactions in civil law. So in my opinion, The act for transaction/holding bitcoin is “worldwide legality”.

3. The law has a clear jurisdictional jurisdiction, which may be the Personal jurisdiction, territorial jurisdiction, and jurisdiction of acts. Usually, you can choose the one that is most beneficial to you.  So, as long as your country’s bitcoin is legal, you don’t need to consider what other countries’ laws are, because you can choose the laws that apply to your country. At this point, you don't have to fear the laws of other countries.

4. From the point of view of legal evidence, Bitcoin also cannot be banned because his anonymity and dispersion determine that Bitcoin cannot be clearly identified as “belonging” to someone. You only control it by private key. It has no mark with your name/ID，no ownership registration with your name/ID, so even if a country rule that holding bitcoin is a criminal act, they cannot lock your holding bitcoin act from the evidence.

Most likely, more and more laws can only approve the status of Bitcoin instead of denying it.

Yes, the two principles you indicated are the fundamental civil and criminal codes of most states.

Indeed, the principle of free enterprise, which states that any transactions are assumed to be lawful, if they are not subject to direct prohibiting norms and if these transactions or other actions do not contradict the generally accepted rules of behavior in society. In other words - what is not forbidden is allowed.

Also, as a general rule, only a guilty unlawful act or omission, which is expressly provided for in the criminal code as a crime, can be considered a crime. Any illegal action or inaction is not considered if it is not provided for in the criminal code as a crime and, as a general rule, the determination of the crime of such actions is not retroactive, that is, it does not extend over time to the same actions that were committed before the recognition of such actions criminal.

It seems to me there is much fear whether Bitcoin is legal or not in many places around the world. It isnunderstandable as most countries do not yet have systemic legislation on crypto assets, going as far as not even being able to legally define crypto currencies.

The answer to the question if Bitcoin is legal in such circumstances will depend on where one is from and the legal principles enshrined in their legal systems. In English common law system there is a principle that everything that is not expressly forbidden, is allowed. Try to find out if this is a principle where you are from. It has been adopted in many other countries as well.

Your starting point can be your consistution. If there is a general principle of freedom enacted in your constitution, it is a good start.

The next important principle in many legal systems is that there can be no crime nor criminal reprecusions if there was no previous law prohibiting certain acts as criminal (precisely), in latin: Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali, also: lege certa. This principle should be widely accepted around the world. Again, check your constitution. This principle guarantees that at the very least one will not be criminally persecuted for acquiring, holding or selling crypto assets if there was no law criminalising these actions at the time when they were executed.

I hope this will help the beginning of one's search if they are troubled by these questions.