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Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

bitcoin.co.th

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Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#81

Post by loqi »

jerguismi wrote: post #37
tpatke wrote: post #15

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…

Bad news probably for mainstream market adoption, but I don't agree that negative legislation necessarily removes incentives to buy bitcoins/drives the Bitcoin value down. Black market status has increased the price/value of certain goods, such as drugs. Especially in countries with highly inflatonary currencies, or countries with strong currency controls, the black market demand for Bitcoin could be huge.

My understanding is that drugs are expensive mostly because of the risks involved in drug trafficking. I doubt you'll see the same kind of risk premiums in a bitcoin market.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#82

Post by northwest »

stonemetal wrote: post #56
northwest wrote: post #23

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it applies to any nation that the government always retains the monopoly of "issuing" a currency. EDIT: ...which probably means that sooner or later, bitcoin will probably be outlawed everywhere.

They haven't outlawed chuck e cheese coins, or any other arcade that uses its own currency instead of dollars. Why would bit coin be any different?

As far as I remember, the country sets a limit for this. Once a "pseudo" currency reaches that amount (in circulation), it is required to be "authorized" (or not) by the country.

Now that was before bicoin existed. So, probably the laws will soon be re-written to take that into account.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#83

Post by EthanHeilman »

Nursie wrote: post #46
cs702 wrote: post #42

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…

They may indeed go underground. That means that legitimate businesses will have a hard time dealing with them if they deal with them at all. Make no mistake, even if governments can't stop people trading bitcoin, they can stop it becoming mainstream in the way many BTC enthusiasts seem to want.

I'm not sure it is in their long term strategic interest to push bitcoin underground since that will make bitcoin far harder to tax (declining tax revenues -> increasing taxes and decreasing State power -> more people hiding income = the Greek Syndrome).

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#84

Post by baddox »

tpatke wrote: post #15

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…

Liquidity is obviously a good thing for a currency, and on the surface this is obviously a bad thing (at least for Bitcoin users in Thailand), but it's definitely not the key factor to the success of Bitcoin. In fact, a lot of the driving force behind the Bitcoin community is counter-economics (e.g. black markets) and the desire for an alternative to government currencies. In that context, governments outlawing Bitcoin may very well be a positive thing for Bitcoin, because it could be perceived as vindication of the need for currencies which are free from governments.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#85

Post by anigbrowl »

cs702 wrote: post #42

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…

The difference between your examples is the reserve currency status of the dollar. Bitcoin doesn't enjoy this status. If there was an Edict banning Thais from owning or dealing in Icelandic Kronur (say because some Icelander had insulted the monarchy, which Thais are notoriously touchy about) then it would probably last extremely well. Banning the australian dollar (a larger currency, from an economy geographically closer to Thailand) is harder to guess; you probably couldn't ban it completely but it might remain hard-to-find.

Putting BTC and the USD on the same plane for comparison is likely to result in errors.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#86

Post by oleganza »

AndyKelley wrote: post #32
eksith wrote: post #5

Riddle me this. How does banning bits in any way shape or form, prevent their transmission and storage?

Child porn is bits too. People seem to be okay with making those bits illegal.

Unfortunately, making child porn illegal is a waste of time if the goal is to protect children from abuse. In reality, though, "protecting children" is a banner under which people grab more abusive power. In my view, everyone who is actively fighting with tertiary effects of a social problem is either stupid or plain evil.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#87

Post by scotty79 »

cs702 wrote: post #42

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…

Especially receiving bitcoin would be hard to detect. You can receive bitcoins without owning a computer. Wallet on pendrive or in encoded attachment to some email on your email account is enough.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#88

Post by erikpukinskis »

Bitcoin is a tool. It is useful for some things, and it is not useful for others.

Any country who prohibits, like any country who prohibits any tool, it is putting their residents at a disadvantage. By definition. In those situations where the nail is a Bitcoin, Thai people will have no hammer, but a wrench with which to bang the nail in.

The beauty of Bitcoin is it only needs to thrive in one of the 200+ countries in the world for it to achieve Proof of Concept status. And once it does that, other countries will follow, and eventually any countries who prohibit it will need to allow it to stay competitive.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#89

Post by znowi »

Bitcoin is more than a virtual currency or miners running rigs. It's the first self-sufficient, decentralized, monetary system that renders 3rd party entities like banks obsolete.

At the very least it's an intriguing concept in relation to sociology, economy, and new forms of governance. It's a paradigm shift, and as such, it will meet a lot of misunderstanding and opposition. Particularly from those whose power is at stake - banks and governments.

As once, the idea of equality and democracy shook the kingdoms during the Enlightenment, the idea of Bitcoin, if you look closely, is not far from it.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#90

Post by strlen »

rorrr2 wrote: post #24
kordless wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really surprising someone is using an ad hominem argument again?

That's not an ad hominem attack. Ad hominem is "You're an idiot, therefore what you said is incorrect".

What I find is that people consider "saying anything offensive" to be an ad-hominem attack, but completely omit very common forms of ad-hominem attacks such as attacks on supposed ideology or bringing or other views and arguing that their views are contradictory -- or arguing against another viewpoint that they hold -- in an attempt to refute their views.

To use a real example I recently saw: "Russ Feingold said the Patriot Act violates the 4th amendment, voted against it, and says we should repeal it; however, Feingold sponsored the McCain-Feingold act -- parts of which were found to have violated the first amendment -- so his argument against the Patriot Act is invalid because he and other liberals also violate the constitution". This is an example of not only an ad-hominem, but also false equivalence, and to-quoque -- but yet I see these arguments commonly asserted and unchallenged.

For the record I do think the grand-parent comment does not constitute a particularly strong argument to me: there's no proof that Thailand fails to punish paedophiles any more than any other country (keep in mind these kind of crimes are grossly under-reported) and even if that is indeed the case, there's no proof that the same dynamic would mean laws against bitcoin would not be enforced.

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