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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

#131

Post by Karsteski »

lxgr wrote: post #80
geniium wrote: post #40

So because of the Lira loosing it's value, they probably noticed a lot of people trying to get away and save themselves by buying some crypto. They are printing too much money for the rich and not helping/saving anyone and want to block all from getting away. That's probably not gonna work. Banning something has proven to never work in history.

> Banning something has proven to never work in history. By definition there are lots of banned things in every legal system, and I'd argue many of them for very good reasons. What's usually ineffective is banning something without providing a viable alternative.

What are some examples of banned items that have good reasons to be banned, in your opinion? (excluding explosives)

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#132

Post by dirktheman »

tim333 wrote: post #62
vbezhenar wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first thing would be to ban free exchange of foreign currencies. But that would be hard to do in the tourist country.

Lots of 3rd world countries allow tourists to change hard currency to local money but not the other way around. It seldom works very well though in terms of bringing prosperity to the country.

Yes, it usually ends up with a shadow economy where everybody just uses foreign currency for all things that don't concern the government.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#133

Post by lottin »

threatofrain wrote: post #82
zoshi wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lightning and sidechains can handle thousands of TPS. Monero has adaptive block sizes, and is estimated to be able to perform 1500-2000TPS. Privacy is a feature, not a bug. I don't want people knowing how much money I have.

If money is opaque then it also cannot be taxed or seized by judicial process. IMO this moves further towards an aristocratic society as possession goes from 90% → 100% to the law.

It depends, for instance the way the government collects income tax, even today, is by telling your employer no to pay you but to pay them. The fact that they are unable to seize the money once it's already in your possession doesn't make any difference. And of course the still have the ability to seize your physical assets and to put you in jail.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#134

Post by roenxi »

m12k wrote: post #41
dangerlibrary wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, "the majority of coins belong to unknown entities (supposedly of criminal origin)" is only a small rephrasing away from a description of Erdogan's government / political party [0]. And they are scarier for Turkish citizens than BTC, since he also aggressively punishes dissent and is a de-facto dictator [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_corruption_scandal_in_Tur... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w…

Sure, but the fact that Turkey is becoming increasingly corrupt isn't really a good argument why it would be a good idea to take away the ability of all central banks to perform monetary policy to stabilize the economy.

When has economic stability ever been a good strategy? Rapid improvement is very unstable.

Furthermore, stability and monetary policy seems to involve handouts to wealthy people. While I can certainly benefit from that, I don't see why handouts for wealthy people are a good idea. It looks like a bad idea. People seem to be getting angrier about it as time passes too.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#135

Post by BrandoElFollito »

patates wrote: post #128
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

I was not trying to be controversial, sorry.

I was rather trying to show the mixture of "why bother, just let them go" and "there are real people out there" that was expressed several times (and that was feeling as well).

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#136

Post by Tenoke »

submeta wrote: post #53

It hasnt‘t to be banned officially to be banned effectively. - Here in Germany buying and owning crypto currencies is not illegal. But try to transfer only 20k Euros from your bank account to Kraken.com to buy some crypto assets. Then you might get a letter from your bank telling you they just cancelled your bank account, without telling you why. And they will refuse to explain anything. - Trying to get background in…

I haven't made a single transfer of that size but have made many smaller transfers over the last years from Germany and have never had a problem.

If anything I feel like investing in crypto is indirectly incentivized in Germany given that you basically don't owe tax on profits if you buy and hold for over a year without doing anything else.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#137

Post by [deleted] »

imtringued wrote: post #130
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 gover…

[deleted]

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#138

Post by sureklix »

A regulatory move in the same direction from the US wouldn't be that surprising, by the end of this year.

Also an overlooked detail in the article: "Last week, Turkish authorities demanded user information from crypto trading platforms." Your BTC can be an asset that can be seized as part of a confiscation procedure –also in Turkish law... Seriously, not your keys not your money. DEX is under-appreciated in this ecosystem.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#139

Post by tim333 »

dirktheman wrote: post #132
tim333 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of 3rd world countries allow tourists to change hard currency to local money but not the other way around. It seldom works very well though in terms of bringing prosperity to the country.

Yes, it usually ends up with a shadow economy where everybody just uses foreign currency for all things that don't concern the government.

It also puts off and foreign investors, makes it hard for local businesses to import stuff they need. And leads to corruption if you can only change local to foreign if you get a permit from the ministry run by the presidents nephew etc.

Re: Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments

#140

Post by duman »

imtringued wrote: post #130
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 gover…

As a Turkish citizen I can say that the real inflation is much higher than 17% but they are trying to make it look lower by changing the formula constantly so they don't have to raise government employee's salaries so much. I would say the real inflation is closer to 50%.
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