Topic: Pakistan taking a U-turn - page 2. (Read 456 times)

What happened so radically in Pakistan that the government decided to reconsider its attitude towards cryptocurrency? Maybe the sanctions had such an impact? This is the first thing that comes to mind. It is impossible to trade the way it was before. So they found a way out of the situation.

What other country comes to mind? The Russian Federation. For a very long time, the attitude towards crypto was not the best. Constant laws that limited this activity. The decision to change the attitude came after an incredible number of sanctions were introduced against this country and there was no other solution left on how to use crypto for cross-border transfers.

China does not have such problems. Therefore, you should not expect the situation to change for the better in the near future.

What to do in this case? If we take El Salvador as an example, adopting Bitcoin alone did not make the country rich. It may help slightly or moderately, depending on the investment, but the first beneficiaries of the regulation are the investors.

I don't expect countries with high population density to take more action anytime soon.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are evolving and growing over time. A country cannot remain steadfast in its stance to ban Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in their country - if they see it continuing to grow and more and more adopters in their country, then they will inevitably have to be able to adjust their regulations to the conditions in society that want Bitcoin and cryptocurrency to be legalized. Moreover, the government can also get taxes from trading, and there are many other benefits that they can get from legalizing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, so there is no harm in them legalizing it and it can actually help build their economy.

According to the proposals, state banks would also be allowed to process digital payment services, facilitating blockchain-based transactions including the buying, selling, and trading of cryptocurrencies.

It is all proposal right now. Nothing set in stone but Pakistan recently had a change of leadership which makes me think that Pakistan may really be going to a different direction. The fact alone that they are venturing out into CBDCs could mean that they are already interested and studying cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. They appointed a new minister of state for finance and revenue this year. Their previous one was very much against crypto so I think it makes sense to assume they are on the path of adopting cryptocurrencies now with the new minister.

I'm aware that the media isn't friendly with Pakistans and other countries but I don't take these guys words serious. If human right is protected in some of the regions where there is huge numbers of human suffocation. Unless there is something they are gaining from this legalization, I wouldn't trust and don't be caught unaware that the west will look away, wouldn't say anything now and then say something about terrorism, and money laundering.

If this true then I will say a good liberation is going on without any fight but I have every reason to say that terrorism will be a major problem about this and the IMF wouldn't agree to this. They will probably seize to give them loans and will ask world bank to stop the funding and other governance body that provide financial support to them. I will wait first what US will do about the legalization process.

Get ready for more terrorists to join the crypto network then! Please understand the background -

- Pakistan is under a huge debt from IMF and World Bank
- These international organisations have forced Pakistan government to increase the tax rates and to cut down the government expenditure
- It is becoming very difficult for the government to directly support the terrorism organisations through the usual route as they are being monitored
- Pakistan government needs to find a way to support the terrorists groups in their country.

That's all! That's where cryptos are coming in.

I think we should not misinterpret the original news. If I am not wrong, Pakistan has not allowed or made virtual currencies (already in existence) legal, but they made some amendments to allow the Central Bank of Pakistan to issue digital currency that Pak citizens can use.  I don't know which technology they will be using, but it will be a centralized digital currency issued by SBP. I really don't understand what virtual currency they will be issuing soon I mean we already using PKR as digital currency on many finance apps, are they planning to introduce CBDs?

Well, whatever they are planning, I am sure they are not going to legalize cryptocurrencies anytime soon, but yeah, this is a first step toward digitalization, and maybe with time they think of legalizing crypto. I also hope the same that they legalize it. But unfortunately, they haven't yet. (Source)

Pakistan, like any country (government) banned the use of bitcoin for fear of losing control over the money supply, and therefore the population. All these tales about illegal activities are just sweet nonsense to scare off the uninitiated from getting acquainted with cryptocurrencies.

Not only supporters of cryptocurrencies are not protected by the government, but also users of the traditional monetary system. Tell me how the government will protect its citizens from bankrupt banks (and loss of depositors' money) or from inflation (which no country in the world is able to contain).

That's not what they saw. What they saw was that cryptocurrencies (CBDC) could be used to exert even greater control over the population. You are mistaken in thinking that the reason for their leniency is their desire to make bitcoin accessible to their citizens.

Are you saying that Bitcoin and Ethereum are now legal tender in Pakistan? I don't believe it.

Their government only proposed amendments. This doesn't mean that they accepted them. And there is not a word about legalizing bitcoin, but about another CBDC.

I am 100% sure that no country will legalize bitcoin as a means of payment (except 3rd world countries like El Salvador) and the maximum that governments will allow is the use of bitcoin as an investment instrument.

The Pakistani Government shot itself on the foot by making such unsubstantiated statement about something they haven't taken any rigorous time to study about, because telling citizens that they will not be protected for using cryptocurrency goes to show that as a government, they didn't do their due diligence about the activities of cryptocurrency before coming out with such statements. The U-TURN they are taking now goes to show that, whatever they thought cryptocurrency was, is not really what they thought it would be and so far, they are at the losing side for coming to the party late. I believe by now as a Government they must have learnt their lessons not to take hasty decisions on new innovation because of petty sentiment and poor research on their own part as a Government.

As it was said - they won't go and push for BTC itself, unfortunately, probably - but rather do their own thing.
But alas, it's far better than bans and things like that, of course.

Why would China push for BTC, when it can pour money into something of its own?
I do think that only smaller countries would try to play around with BTC itself, others would be much more skeptical about it.

The govs will always push for CBDC.
It's essential for them because they can regulate it and control it more.
Not as much as BTC.. Or any other crypto, really, except for stables.

Let us not take it for a surprise, change is always constant. We can all attesting that majority of Bitcoin adoptors today where mostly in doubt about it.

I have actually come to think that who hears about Bitcoin and does not have a second thought about it before investing their funds are mostly those who can possibly be scammed.
Bitcoin is a newly financial technology that has just existed after decades the fiats has existed.

The government has actually tried to make us individually have this negative influence on digital and a decentralized currency like Bitcoin in considerations... They are about the peoples funds but though they (government) are highily greediness feeding fats on the public funds. So alternatively, they fears about the adoption of the system since it is decentralized so they can not get aware with those their authoritative and selfish interests with it.

Now the Pakistan government has woken up earlier which I would not say late because in yead ahead, there would be more countries to adopt legal tendering of Bitcoin without undermining its decentralization anymore.

I am sure that the Pakistan government has since been on research of how they can utilize the use of Bitcoin is if adopted. Then they must have been made understand of how it could verily contribute to their economy and citizens adopting it may somewhere rely a so source of income there.
They did well with the approach i must say.

This may be some kind of precedence that Pakistan is setting, going with the global trend of regulation over outright bans. I feel that we are more likely to see changes rather than backtracking in countries with strict regulations,and then, only when these countries find ways of handling secure digital currencies within their existing frameworks. Then, looking at other countries like China, underground crypto remained popular there, although it never actually moved away from the hardline.

The quotes suggest to me they are planning to roll out a CBDC, not push for Bitcoin & crypto use. I could be wrong but that’s what it looks like. It doesn’t matter any way because as Bitcoin becomes more & more widespread use, they will all have to backtrack.

It's good that they changed the law because it's stupid to abandon Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, which are the innovation of the 21th century. Just imagine, there have been only two types of money before, Coins and Paper, for 21 centuries and then came a brand new type of money, a cryptocurrency. To my mind, it's a sin to ban Bitcoin, it's a crime, really.

By the way, I also think that China will soon take U-turn on Bitcoin because the USA accepting ETFs and is gaining power on it, especially if Trump wins and decides to make his crazy dream realize, that includes trying to getting the rest of Bitcoins mined in the USA. Logically, China should be interested to take some power on Bitcoin from the USA, so they have to change their stance.

My stance on this is that if I were a government official in charge of passing laws, the last thing I would want to do is jump into conclusion about something that is new just because I don't understand. This is why research can never be overemphazied. There are many smart people in the country that can be called upon to study a new technology and give an unbaised report of it based on concrete evidence and not assumptions. It is only through research based on evidence that we advance and make remarkable progress as a society. In many years or months to come there would be countries who would reverse their stance on bitcoin. I hope my country is next.

Lol Pakistan can ban Bitcoin all it wants but the fact is all the guys I know in India and Pakistan trading Bitcoin since 2016/17 are still trading Bitcoin (P2P selling or buying).

Legal tender is a dream most merchants don't need anyway yet. Half the country still runs on cash, only in big cities you can use card, and still its not widely spread.

In effect, no news really. Like you said tho China will be the big deal.

The article content says a different thing compared to what the title carries, and it's a bit misleading. The only improvement I see in here is that they are open to embracing digitisation on their country's currency, creating something they can control both digitally and physically.
 
That's, by the way, in the aspect of government changing from their first decision in regard to technology to more favourable terms is based on who they have in power within the agency and those in power during the time of the current administration.

If there are people who are lovers of innovation, then there should always be a change in some policy regarding that angel; if not a major change, at least a proposal to revisit those old bills can be done.

Personally I don't think that China will lift the BAN soon, it is just not possible to have a control of the money like they want with Bitcoin.
For me the next countries that will embrace Bitcoin will be located in Europe if not the whole EU at once. By embrace I mean that most of them will start having it as a reserve currency.