Topic: Which countries have the friendliest bitcoin regulatory environment? - page 2. (Read 3008 times)

Possibly Kenya, and the African countries where they have the M-Pesa service (more about it here: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21574520-safaricom-widens-its-banking-services-payments-savings-and-loans-it ). People exchange money via texting and there are exchanges all other the country to convert it to cash.

Neighboring countries have it, too.

Romania! We already have 2 restaurants and a fashion house accepting Bitcoin, that I personally helped with the integration.

China? https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/2013-06-07-battle-over-bitcoin-china-backs-us-startup-coinbase-and-us-falls-229733

The U.S. government won a victory against tax cheats with offshore bank accounts after Swiss officials agreed Wednesday to let banks release information on the overall holdings of their American clients.

Switzerland moved a step closer to settling past legal issues over suspected tax evasion by Americans using Swiss bank accounts after the country’s cabinet agreed to a plan to allow its banks to deal directly with the Department of Justice. John Letzing reports.

The move is expected to pressure U.S. taxpayers holding secret bank accounts to declare them to the Internal Revenue Service, tax experts said. The Swiss cabinet agreed to the framework, which will be decided by parliament, likely this summer, said the Swiss Federal Department of Finance.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324412604578512783477933910.html

Bahamas.

Finland, followed by Canada. In Finland some companies are already paying out salaries in Bitcoin and some minister/whatnot said that they have no problem with it. In Canada, Bitcoin does not fall under the strict MSB ruling and is considered a commodity like Gold and Silver.

Seasteading?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=208333.0;topicseen

Remember kimdotcom 

Switzerland!

Could be N.Zealand.

I guess i am looking more for a place where bitcoins would be legal within the framework of that country as long as i only do business there. SO i am not talking about setting up shop in Iran and servicing US users, sense like many people said the long arm of US law would just stop me out right, like they did to megaupload.

Bitcoin is simply too new for any locality to be "friendly".  Banks consider Bitcoin to be high "risk" even if the entity/company has absolutely no cases of fraud, customer complaints, etc.

Among least Bitcoin friendly I would put USA, UK, and to a lesser extent Australia.
Among Bitcoin "friendly" I would put Canada.  Probably more accurately is that Canada is Bitcoin neutral.*  

The bigger issue is that most Bitcoin related enterprises (this doesn't mean companies buying or selling goods for Bitcoins) need to interface with the existing financial networks in some fashion.  Banks however are private property and in most countries an account can be denied or closed for any reason or even a lack of reason as long as the Bank doesn't violate some protected class (race, religion, etc).  Banks are highly risk prone (unless it has high rewards) and most startups aren't going to generate meaningful amounts of revenue for any major bank.  Hence the default option is close the account.  The account has unusual activity, no reason to investigate, close it.  The account scores as high risk, don't negotiate contingencies just close it.  The account is involved in business the bank has little knowledge or understanding of, don't ask the owner for information just close it.  To overcome this on a large scale may require chartering a national bank or credit union that is at least Bitcoin neutral.



* Canada at least respects the rule of law.  Canada has stated their EXISTING laws/regulations on MSB and Money Transmitters doesn't cover virtual currencies.  This isn't to say Canada doesn't want to regulate Bitcoin related enterprises or that they won't pass new laws in the future however unlike the US they are honest enough to say "hey look Bitcoin likely should be regulated but current statutes don't give us that authority, to do so we need new ones".  FinCEN on the other hand did a bunch of mental gymnastics (hint: if you need to define 18 new terms which don't exist in current law in your "guidance" in order for current law to "fit" you have just defacto written new law), to force Bitcoin a square peg into the MT round hole because it was the only one which was even sorta close.   This has a whole range of unintended consequences and creates additional vagueness in compliance because some of the MT requirements simply don't even make sense when not dealing with a third party (i.e. MT regs are built around the concept of   PERSON-A ----> Money Transmitter (regulated) ----> PERSON B).

Isn't it funny that nobody answered the question? That says a lot about the BTC ecosystem.
I have been thinking about this but there is no simple solution to this problem.

Issues that make it almost impossible to answer this question:
 
1. laws can be changed anytime, so no country is "safe"
2. All countries will be affected by a drought in tax revenue sooner or later, even those "friendly" to BTC
3. Most countries have extradition agreements, or can be forced to do what the US says, in several ways (military force being the last, and least sophisticated one)

So the results is that realistically, no country is safe for BTC right now.

China? I think there is a misunderstanding about their intentions. Knowing the Chinese culture I don't see any reason to believe they're BTC friendly. They are a culture that always plays things like chess, so they can "change their mind" at anytime, even if they were friendly, as some think.

North Korea? Cuba? Iran? Good luck getting hosting and reliable Internet in some of these, let alone the problems of running a business "from" there. Moreover, if you set up in the "axis of evil" countries, you'll stand out more and the US will go after you first.

African countries? Dictatorship, civil wars...total instability if you want to do business. Rule of law is not worth the paper it is printed on, depending on the country.

South America? They'll go against US interests only as long as the US does not use its ultimate card, which is the military one. Venezuela is a mess. Brazil has important business ties with the US so they can be blackmailed that way. Argentina can only challenge the US so far and is in itself in political turmoil. Uruguay, Chile have never been safe harbour from the US and when the time comes, I don't think they'd hesitate to not risk their rship with the US by complying with its requests. Yeah I know, that's sad news for BTC.uy and any BTC business Jeff Berwick would like to base there, but c'est la vie. If they think their companies, or investor's money is safe there, time will teach them an expensive lesson.

Iceland? Sounds good, but I heard that they just voted back in power people that got them into the mess into the first place, because the wonderful revolutionaries of the "constitution of the people" did not deliver on what they promised. Yeah, I know, wonderful world we live in.

Please note that I am generalizing, and I know it, so please don't bother telling me how great the net access is in Iran, or that Africa is not a country. I know that, I am just trying to make a greater point.

In the end of the day it seems that the only (least bad) option is Russia, but good luck promoting a serious business in the BTC environment based there, and good luck with Putin or the local gangsters asking for "protection money".

Conclusion: best place to based a BTC business in right now is in one of two places: out of this planet, or in the future

North Korea



They often wear Casascius Coins on their clothing.

You're looking for a technologically advanced non-centralized-bank-based economy, otherwise known as nowhere.

Well yea lol...the US and and most of the eurozone were places i figured wouldn't work out right off the bat.

You can cross the UK off the list of Bitcoin friendly places straight away. 

I am talking about a place where bitcoin could atleast be legitimate. Are there any countries like that now or is bitcoin in the grey everywhere? For example does mtgox operate in japan through loops holes and grayness or are they fully complaint?

Like the topic title asks which countries do people think have the most lax or inviting bitcoin related legal frame work, that could be used as a stepping stone for bitcoin businesses.?