Russia Bans Bitcoin 207
mask.of.sanity writes "Russia has banned digital currency Bitcoin under existing laws and dubbed use of the crypto-currency as 'suspicious'. The Central Bank of Russia considers Bitcoin as a form of 'money substitute' or 'money surrogate' (statement in Russian) which is restricted under Russian law. However, unlike use of restricted foreign currencies, Bitcoin has been outright banned. The US Library of Congress has issued a report examining the regulatory approaches national financial authorities have taken to the currency."
Re:I love the new Beta! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Putin and Beta (Score:1, Interesting)
Well, guess I'd better use my mods points before they're worthless, huh? Anyway, Russia banning Bitcoin should remind all the Obama-haters and Putin-lovers that Russia still somewhat on the authoritarian side. I've never gotten the mindset that just because Putin likes to stick his finger in the American Empire's eye, that he's a strong supporter for human rights, liberty, etc. I will say that America probably has surpassed Russia in lack of real liberty in recent years (yeah, they'll throw you in jail for exercising free speech, but we're drowning in laws that we often don't know we're breaking until we get arrested and our lives ruined; they have an incarceration rate that is half of ours, etc), but that just means we're worse, not that they're better.
This is pure tripe if not spoor.
Bitcoin can fail on it's own. Even here in the USA, the people who know something about money were warning the mouth-open drooling masses that it is inherently deflationary, supports only non-reversible transactions, suffers from "3rd party spending" (where a 3rd party spends the coin without the first party's knowledge, etc. Sure current currency has issues, but not such a combination of issues that leave the holder of cash in a "screwed consumer" role.
Of course, the US has decided to blindly disregard all of this; because, there's a gold rush mentality around Bitcoin. Everyone wants to get in, hoping to make a mint, and get out before they're the one holding the bag. The media just plays along, fanning the flames of people's greed.
Russia banning it does not need extra reasons that rely on personal attacks, or other smear tactics. There is already a good reason to ban them, lots of people will put real cash into something that they were told is currency, yet it acts very much unlike currency.
Re:Yay, another Bitcoin story! (Score:3, Interesting)
It's only an increase if you convert it to something useful, like real currency before the market crashes. Which it will. Bitcoin wasn't "designed" to do anything useful. It's a science fair experiment. As with many other prototypes, it got rolled into production without any thought whatsoever, and it is causing chaos. I wish the experiment well. Perhaps the lessons learned after the inevitable crash and burn will inform the next digital currency, which may actually succeed.
Re:Gay? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that russians have banned bitcoin, Western press and media will rush to praise this currency and write statements about how russians want to destroy the western and are intolerants.
Western governments might have to admit they want to do as evil as the russians have done regarding Bitcoin or let people escape their monetary control with the propaganda of the "freedom and liberty in the western "