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Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

reuters.com

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Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#121

Post by throwawaylololo »

neilwilson wrote: post #68
maeln wrote: post #2

For context: Turkey has been facing an several year long financial crisis with the Turkish Lira plummeting in value. Erdoğan has done nothing good to solve the crisis and is just firing the central bank administrator one after the other. The central bank has brought so much lira with its foreign currency reserve to try to maintain the price that it is almost running dry of any foreign currency, making the future look…

"The central bank has brought so much lira with its foreign currency reserve to try to maintain the price that it is almost running dry of any foreign currency, making the future look even bleaker." All it needs to do is stop doing that and make it clear to the market that it will no longer do that. That removes the patsy from the market and the currency will find its level. What you have to do is make lira scarce. A…

> All it needs to do is stop doing that and make it clear to the market that it will no longer do that.

I think that after the sack of the previous governor by Erdogan, it is clear to investors who is really running the Central Bank and what he think. For many investors the only way to make it clear that it will no longer do that is a change not in the CB, but in the Presidency.

> What you have to do is make lira scarce. And you do that by putting taxes up, stop paying interest on lira savings [...]

I disagree with this part. To make lira scarce you have to make it so people are willing to buy lira. If you stop paying interest on lira savings people will sell their liras and buy dollars (this is exactly what happened in the past years).

On the other side if the interest rates are higher people and foreign investors will be more eager to change their dollars for lira, helping the exchange rate. Also higher rates means less people will take credit, reducing the amount of lira circulating. This was exactly was happening with the previous governor.

More importantly, people will buy lira only if they trust the Turkish state and consequently the lira. Just imagine, simply by firing the previous governor (which was considered a competent person), Erdogan caused the Turkish Lira to lose about 10-15% of its value in a single night. I think that the situation will not improve much unless there are serious economic and institutional reforms, but I don't see them coming while Erdogan is still ruling the country.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#122

Post by csomar »

Four weeks ago: https://www.ft.com/content/86bef727-66dd-45cf-8ca6-85e846a27...

Two weeks ago: https://www.dailysabah.com/business/finance/turkey-demands-u...

Two days ago: https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-gold/turkey-tightens-regulation...

This has nothing to do with Crypto, or Istanbul not understanding how Crypto markets work. Citizens of Turkey could exchange their Liras freely (cash) on the many small exchanges that exist.

If I was there, I would know that these days are over; and capital/exchange controls are just a few days (weeks at most) of being implemented.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#123

Post by fidelramos »

Graffur wrote: post #118
fidelramos wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin Cash exists to continue the original scaling plan for Bitcoin: increasing the maximum block size. I watched the Bitcoin scaling debate back in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and every attempt was made to increase BTC's maximum block size without a hard fork, but every move was blocked by Bitcoin Core's developers. "Diluting the Bitcoin brand" was never a goal, but at some point the fork was the only way to scale. About…

Like it or not, nobody wants POW. IMO it's worth it for bitcoin but a new crypto is not going to get traction with POW. Other coins have low fees and privacy. Neither are unique selling points. Why not use Algo instead of bitcoin cash? https://algorand.foundation/the-algo/algo-basics

I'm not a BCH maximalist, I just want the world to benefit from sound Electronic Peer-to-Peer cash, and BCH works for that today, and is a good candidate for the future. I would use Algorand if it worked, was decentralized (haven't checked the project yet) and was accepted at shops.

I disagree with your comment about PoW because hashrate moves between coins. It's not impossible for hashrate to move from BTC to BCH in the future, especially if BCH adoption continues to rise.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#124

Post by iamben »

zoshi wrote: post #117
iamben wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but most people don't keep cash in a box under the bed - they keep it in a bank. This means my elderly mother's house doesn't get broken in to on a regular basis by people trying to take her life savings. Furthermore, her cash in a bank is protected by the government, and there are safeguards in place to help protect her from people trying to scam anything she has saved away from her. There are also mechanisms i…

Taxation and financial privacy are not mutually exclusive. Taxation and cryptocurrency are not mutually exclusive. Cryptocurrency and banking are not mutually exclusive.

At no point did I say any of those things.

I did say that there is a prevailing undercurrent within the crypto space that government and fiat is bad and wrong and taxing people pretty much amounts to theft. And without some visibility into how much money someone has or is making, ensuring that someone fairly pays taxes becomes a lot harder.

As for the banking part - whilst I understand where you're coming from, cryptocurrency is nowhere near as 'safe' as a regular bank for (probably) 99% of the population. My mum can barely use Amazon...

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#125

Post by imtringued »

fisf wrote: post #7
maeln wrote: post #2

For context: Turkey has been facing an several year long financial crisis with the Turkish Lira plummeting in value. Erdoğan has done nothing good to solve the crisis and is just firing the central bank administrator one after the other. The central bank has brought so much lira with its foreign currency reserve to try to maintain the price that it is almost running dry of any foreign currency, making the future look…

Basically one of the exact reasons why Crypto should exist.

Everyone else just uses dollars.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#126

Post by patates »

tsss wrote: post #25
qwertox wrote: post #22

What are the consequences of being left out? For example, assume that the EU bans crypto, but the US is fine with it. The US will then continue developing solution with and for it, eventually building the next big thing, revolutionizing a market. Wouldn't that then place the EU in a position of a consumer until they can then catch up eventually, if that would even be possible?

Turkey isn't in the EU and hopefully it never will be.

Hopefully the number of separatist statements will die down eventually.

Blanket statements like this verge on being racist. Totally okay if you state your reasons, and I would also agree that Turkey, in its current political and economic climate is far away from EU compatibility. But, when you say "hopefully never", you indicate that there's something categorically wrong with Turkey joining EU and most people would think race or religion.

In short: Please don't do blanket statements.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#127

Post by me551ah »

fisf wrote: post #7
maeln wrote: post #2

For context: Turkey has been facing an several year long financial crisis with the Turkish Lira plummeting in value. Erdoğan has done nothing good to solve the crisis and is just firing the central bank administrator one after the other. The central bank has brought so much lira with its foreign currency reserve to try to maintain the price that it is almost running dry of any foreign currency, making the future look…

Basically one of the exact reasons why Crypto should exist.

You do realize that in a war of Government Vs Crypto, the government will win. Governments can ban crypto but the opposite isn't true.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#128

Post by patates »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #116
CodeGlitch wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> democratic and financially stable country ...glances at Greece

Greece was never stable. It corrupted the auditors to lie about their financial situation and did nothing to improve it. I have both the feeling that we should have just dropped them to not have a weight on us, and I am empathic to the people who lived there (who were avoiding taxes as well, so that may not be the correct feeling I should have)

I'm a mixture of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian, and am now a German citizen. I understand that it's impossible for me to be impartial in such discussions but it may help others in the discussion being more civil if you could say something to the tune of "there needs to be consequences" instead of saying that "we" should have dropped "them" not have a "weight" on "us".

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#129

Post by dirktheman »

zeepzeep wrote: post #35
dandanua wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, let's destroy financial systems of governments and substitute it with a system that has 7 tps cap in which the majority of coins belongs to unknown entities (supposedly of criminal origin).

You don't need an on-chain transaction for most things, as you can just instantly send BTC over Lightning Network, a second layer on the BTC blockchain. There's no speed limit, it's not on the chain, only nodes between you and the node you paying are involved. It's pretty neat.

What's the upside to this then? I mean, over a bank transfer or handing over cash?

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#130

Post by imtringued »

maeln wrote: post #2

For context: Turkey has been facing an several year long financial crisis with the Turkish Lira plummeting in value. Erdoğan has done nothing good to solve the crisis and is just firing the central bank administrator one after the other. The central bank has brought so much lira with its foreign currency reserve to try to maintain the price that it is almost running dry of any foreign currency, making the future look…

The interest rates set by the Turkish central bank are so high I honestly can't even comprehend why anyone would flee the Lira. You lose 17% to inflation but you also get back 19% from interest. The problem isn't the currency. The problem is that nobody wants to invest into a corrupt regime, people are fleeing Turkey, not the Lira. If Turkey was a trustworthy nation the US government could just purchase Turkish government bonds and solve the problem in an instant.
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