61–70 of 107 posts
Thailand might be more sensitive to currency issues than other countries.
They were told to float their currency on the international market and it backfired horribly in the 1990's.
I can see why they would want to be worried about currency manipulations again.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Receiving via an offline wallet... You mean effectively a savings account that is inbound only? Sure, no traffic needs to come to you then. I'm sure there are ways to secure the traffic. As it stands, however, running your own node, mining, and sending BTC is pretty detectable.
Of course. The important thing here is that the receive-only scheme provides a way around two of the six points mentioned by dreen above: selling goods/services for Bitcoin and receiving Bitcoin from anyone outside the country. Actually, from that list it looks like running a node and mining would not be illegal. And if you're mining with a pool, make sure the payout is added as part of the generation transaction, no…
In terms of bitcoin crossing borders and for the purposes of international commerce - where is a bitcoin?
If someone in the US pays someone in thailand you would (or I would) immediately think a cross border transaction has taken place. But Bitcoins only really exist on the blockchain, right? You don't somehow store them on your own machine, only the means of accessing them (keys in your wallet). And the block chain is everywhere. A transaction is a mathematical change of ownership from one key to another, a wallet merely a collection of keys and previous transaction records (the latter probably able to be rebuilt from the blockchain anyway)...
So did any bitcoin cross a border?
It will be interesting to see how actively they enforce this new ruling. Given that paedo-tourists are effectively given a free pass in Thailand I find it odd that Bitcoin would work it's way to the top of the agenda.
The title's misleading: Bitcoin was never sanctioned in the first place - the laws presumably whitelist, rather than blacklist. I don't think the political will exists, in either case - the political jockeying that currently stands in for the entire totality of both policy and political discourse doesn't leave much space for a quiet and novel campaign like this - I suspect, in fact, that the only thing that has falle…
Normally, everything not expressely illegal should be allowed - and not the other way around.
The key factor to the success of any currency is liquidity. You are only willing to put money in if you can take money out. If the government of Thailand says it is illegal to transfer money in or out - that will effect liquidity in Thailand. How will this be enforced? First, banks and reputable institutions doing business in Thailand will not be allowed to trade with companies involved in bitcoin exchange. Of course…
To the point of your edit, you see identical behavior on Gold investor boards in the typical sites (Motley Food, Seeking Alpha, et al). Everything is good news for gold. If "A" is good for gold, so is "!A". This money flowing in to ETF, inventory levels, chart technicals... almost anything. In the event that something is difficult to justify immediately as good news, it is the product of a malicious conspiracy (marke…
Given all the financial scandals and outright fraud that have been revealed over the years, you still feel that legitimate concerns of gold investors are nothing more than wild conspiracy theories?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To the point of your edit, you see identical behavior on Gold investor boards in the typical sites (Motley Food, Seeking Alpha, et al). Everything is good news for gold. If "A" is good for gold, so is "!A". This money flowing in to ETF, inventory levels, chart technicals... almost anything. In the event that something is difficult to justify immediately as good news, it is the product of a malicious conspiracy (marke…
Why do you make fun of gold investors? Given all the financial scandals and outright fraud that have been revealed over the years, you still feel that legitimate concerns of gold investors are nothing more than wild conspiracy theories?
No problem. Start an Okpay exchanger in Thailand and ppl can use it to buy coins. Thailand is already so corrupt laws are basically meaningless there. If you get caught somehow trading coins then just bribe the cop $100 and walk away.
The key factor to the success of any currency is liquidity. You are only willing to put money in if you can take money out. If the government of Thailand says it is illegal to transfer money in or out - that will effect liquidity in Thailand. How will this be enforced? First, banks and reputable institutions doing business in Thailand will not be allowed to trade with companies involved in bitcoin exchange. Of course…
I have a different explanation. Like many corrupt Asian governments (and I have lived in Asia for 10y+) they usually abide to this principle: if you discover some new way to make money, we either have to make money too out of it and without doing anything, or you have to stop. So in this case my theory is that they looked at it and like most computer illiterate governments they thought to stop it until they understan…
Thailand's "Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department" has advised that, quoting from the OP: "the following Bitcoin activities are illegal in Thailand: buying Bitcoins; selling Bitcoins; buying any goods or services in exchange for Bitcoins; selling any goods or services for Bitcoins; sending Bitcoins to anyone located outside of Thailand; receiving Bitcoins from anyone located outside of Thailand." We c…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
There are already many limitations on currency, this can last as long as the others.
This is actually arguably good news for Bitcoin. The government of Thailand sees it as a feasible way to bypass currency controls.