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Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

bitcoin.co.th

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Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#91

Post by peter303 »

RuggeroAltair wrote: post #35
dreen wrote: post #4

- 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 I think what they mean is that its impossible for a company to do any of the above things legally. Its not possible to enforce this on the individual level.

If someone proposes this kind of law in the US, would it be compatible with the US Constitution? It seems to me hard to enforce in some western countries. How can you enforce people not to buy or sell something, unless you decide it's a scam. Regulations could be enforced, I suppose, the same way short-selling can be 'paused' in situation in which the market is going crazy or volatility is too high. But unless you us…

Sure, Section 8 of the US Constitution:

"To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures"

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#92

Post by pseudonym »

EthanHeilman wrote: post #83
Nursie wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

It doesn't necessarily matter if it's harder to tax. If the only way to exchange Bitcoins for currency is via face-to-face transactions, 90% of what usefulness it has is eliminated. The remaining use, exchange of a virtual currency for virtual goods and services, is only useful with an easy way to get ahold of a sum of said virtual currency to begin with.

Which is to say, with a sufficiently low volume of BTC being passed around, taxing it becomes as important as making sure you tax cash transactions by roadside fruit vendors or lemonade stands.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#93

Post by speeder »

lrem wrote: post #52
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…

This law in the USD version was/is in force in some pretty major parts of the world. It kind of screws up the actual exchange rates - you're paying premium for the illegality. Around the time (80's) I was born you could buy a bottle of vodka for $0.80 in an USD-accepting (high-margin) shop.

I am from Brazil, I remember that in early 1990s here you was the coolest kid in the school if you showed up with a dollar bill (even a 1 USD one).

We had a 2000% inflation, and one of the government attempts to fix it was currency controls. (the fix in the end, was create a new currency that had fixed 1:1 rate with USD, and leave it 1:1 for some years until the 1998 crisis made it necessary to decouple them).

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#95

Post by w3pm »

3am wrote: post #54
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…

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…

For what it's worth, I see identical behavior with stock market enthusiasts as well. Good job numbers? Market goes up. Bad job numbers? Market goes up -- clearly Ben Bernanke must keep printing until employment stabilizes. "A" is good for the stock market and so is "!A." It really is a crazy time we live in. Cognitive dissonance everywhere you look.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#97

Post by dllthomas »

w3pm wrote: post #95
3am wrote: post #54

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…

For what it's worth, I see identical behavior with stock market enthusiasts as well. Good job numbers? Market goes up. Bad job numbers? Market goes up -- clearly Ben Bernanke must keep printing until employment stabilizes. "A" is good for the stock market and so is "!A." It really is a crazy time we live in. Cognitive dissonance everywhere you look.

There's nothing necessarily crazy about what you describe. The markets reaction to news that everyone knows is going to be released (that is, we know job numbers will be published at this time on that day, but not what the numbers will be) won't necessarily track the good-ness or bad-ness of the news, because the market will have moved in advance based on the best estimates of those playing that game, and they might have overshot.

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#99

Post by DigitalSea »

And so it begins. Thailand is a drop in the ocean, once the US and other countries get on-board then the success of Bitcoin is only going to be further propelled. I presume most Bitcoin transactions will go underground and given their anonymous and decentralised nature, good luck enforcing laws like this or even being able to draw conclusive proof of Bitcoin usage to a particular entity (unless you find other proof like receipts, emails or having the Bitcoin client on your computer).

Re: Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

#100

Post by dllthomas »

AndyKelley wrote: post #98
dllthomas wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not.

Me either. I don't believe in information ownership.

I don't see how the issues are linked. Do they simply stem from a common philosophy, or does a disbelief in information ownership somehow entail inability to punish for possession?
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