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Bitcoin Government

Russia Bans Bitcoin 207

Posted by samzenpus from the no-coins-for-you dept.
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."
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Russia Bans Bitcoin More

Russia Bans Bitcoin

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  • Which, of course, really means... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:05AM (#46184925)

    ...if they catch you running an illegal operation using Bitcoins, the necessary bribe to the authorities just got bigger.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by coinreturn ( 617535 )

      ...if they catch you running an illegal operation using Bitcoins, the necessary bribe to the authorities just got bigger.

      And be sure to pay it with bitcoin.

    • To put it more succinctly: in Soviet Russia, money spends YOU!

    • There's a lot of laws on the books that are just there to trump up charges on people breaking the law. Regardless of what country you are in. I remember a few years back some people robbed a jewelry store, and were charged with (among other things) "wearing a mask while committing a crime". Laws like this are in place to create longer jail sentences for those involved.

      • Well, to be honest, this is not a Left or Right problem, this is a problem with not understanding what crime actually is. Wearing a mask, during a crime is not a crime, or even an extension of crime. They added a penalty because it makes it harder to identify the criminals. Boo fucking hoo.

        But people want to punish the evildoers .... so we get crappy laws that make crimes that aren't crimes.

  • Here we are now (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jones_supa ( 887896 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:13AM (#46184977)
    The introduction of Beta is like a nuclear power plant disaster where the site is currently a ghost town with no real discussion anymore but lamenting souls crying out the pain.

    • Wasn't that a Twilight Zone episode? Maybe Rod Serling will come in at the end with a little narration to tie it all together for us.

    • The introduction of Beta is like a nuclear power plant disaster where the site is currently a ghost town with no real discussion anymore but lamenting souls crying out the pain.

      Really, I'm pretty sure the former residents of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima would beg to differ and point out that the beta is nothing like nuclear power plant disaster.

      • Really, I'm pretty sure the former residents of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima would beg to differ and point out that the beta is nothing like nuclear power plant disaster.

        Save your outrage for sometime in which it is appropriate. Shaking your fist here won't change the fact that Dice has effectively nuked slashdot.

        • Really, I'm pretty sure the former residents of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima would beg to differ and point out that the beta is nothing like nuclear power plant disaster.

          Save your outrage for sometime in which it is appropriate. Shaking your fist here won't change the fact that Dice has effectively nuked slashdot.

          I'm not outraged. While I see some issues with the beta, and have reported them, personally, I'm ambivalent to it. Basically with classic or beta, I can get the information I am looking for.

          I think it's kind of like KDE 4, Gnome 3 or even Unity. People don't like change and they are quick to condemn it (although in fairness the developers of KDE 4.0 said it wasn't production ready). But for all of the hoopla over them, people sure seem to be using them. Change is inevitable and the whole "F*ck Beta" approa

          • Change is inevitable and the whole "F*ck Beta" approach is juvenile and ultimately counter productive.

            Change is inevitable. So is death. And in this case the change for the worst seems to be bringing the death of the community.

            Also, I don't think that "counter productive" applies here. This looks suspiciously like a change driven by ulterior reasons; perhaps Slashdot Beta is some Business Genius's personal pet project, perhaps someone at Dice wants to shutdown Slashdot for political reasons, whatever. But

  • Fuck Bitcoin (Score:3, Funny)

    by dvh.tosomja ( 1235032 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:14AM (#46184987)

    I mean, err, Fuck Beta

  • Gay? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Big Hairy Ian ( 1155547 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:15AM (#46184993)
    Russia declares BitCoin Gay!! Who's going to pull out of the Olympics over this one?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rotovator ( 837725 )

      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 "

    • I'm going to pull out of Beta, if you know what I mean.

  • Putin and Beta (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Akratist ( 1080775 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:24AM (#46185043)
    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 isn't a Beta post (Score:5, Funny)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:27AM (#46185077)

    In the '80s Reagan banned Soviet Russia

  • of the beta. The only thing the two of them have ever agreed on....

  • That is an insult (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:30AM (#46185097) Journal

    The Central Bank of Russia considers Bitcoin as a form of 'money substitute'

    That is an insult. Regular money can be made "at will" by banks and the fact that it is only handed to society for usury ("interest") and some real-value things (like houses) as security, makes it drain any society at no cost to the banks themselves. The funny thing is that all banks can create money, but private persons are criminals when they do exactly the same.

    Bitcoins do not come with built-in usury and cannot be made infinitely. Bitcoins do not have built-in discrimination about who can abuse who. Bitcoins are more than a money substitute: Bitcoins make sense. Our current money system does not.

    • Re:That is an insult (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dcnjoe60 ( 682885 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:55AM (#46185283)

      The Central Bank of Russia considers Bitcoin as a form of 'money substitute'

      That is an insult. Regular money can be made "at will" by banks and the fact that it is only handed to society for usury ("interest") and some real-value things (like houses) as security, makes it drain any society at no cost to the banks themselves. The funny thing is that all banks can create money, but private persons are criminals when they do exactly the same.

      Bitcoins do not come with built-in usury and cannot be made infinitely. Bitcoins do not have built-in discrimination about who can abuse who. Bitcoins are more than a money substitute: Bitcoins make sense. Our current money system does not.

      Money is whatever people use to pay for the exchange of goods and services. In prison, cigarettes are money. When the Europeans first set foot in North America, they gave the natives various trinkets in exchange for goods. The Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan for about $24US worth of beads. Money is whatever people say is money.

      • We've had sad experience though in some people pulling scams or abusing employees with fake types af money. So we've made laws about what can and can't be used as tender to protect ourselves from these wrongs.

        • We've had sad experience though in some people pulling scams or abusing employees with fake types af money. So we've made laws about what can and can't be used as tender to protect ourselves from these wrongs.

          Which turned out to be a mistake, because the use of fake-money scams has never been even approximated by anybody other than governments.

          You do know that the Federal Reserve created a minimum of $17 Trillion new Dollars during "the crisis", right? That's the entire productive value of three hundred mi

    • Bitcoins are more than a money substitute: Bitcoins make sense.

      Ah yes, a currency based on wasting electricity makes sense. What color is the sky on your planet, the planet in which you need more emissions to thicken your atmosphere? Because here on Earth, Bitcoin is fucking offensive and stupid.

      • Ah yes, a currency based on wasting electricity makes sense.

        What sort of currency does not require energy to create? Include all individuals required in ancillary roles for any given currency in your answer.

      • > Ah yes, a currency based on wasting electricity makes sense.

        So those precious metals deep underground just magically appeared on the surface?
        Those printing presses, dyes, ink, and paper just magically transported themselves from the outside trees, other plants, and/or animals??

        Methinks you need to re-think what you are railing against.

        As I explained before, there are 3 levels to understand what money IS:

        - the exchange of physical things aka barter,
        - a token the exchange of a common unit (physical or di

      • It's not a question of whether Bitcoin costs something; it's whether the inefficiencies associated with Bitcoin (the electricity and hardware costs to sustain the network) are more or less than the inefficiencies associated with other currencies.

  • Beta (Score:3)

    by meta-monkey ( 321000 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:31AM (#46185103) Journal

    They've also banned /. beta. Not everything His Shirtlessness does is terrible.

  • What would Ronald Raegan do? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nightbrood ( 6060 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:47AM (#46185221)

    I believe he would say, "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this beta."

    #IamSlashdot

  • Positive effect of Beta (Score:5, Funny)

    by jbeaupre ( 752124 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @08:53AM (#46185249)

    There is a serious benefit of Beta you are all ignoring. Productivity around the world is increasing due to people preferring to work instead of reading Slashdot.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anonymous Coward

      actually my work is suffering, because I cant stop reading all the beta comments

    • If Beta stays and "classic" goes away, the Nerds That Matter will have so much free time practical cold fusion will be a reality within a week.

  • If you can't get "Close and don't show me again" right, then you shouldn't be coding a whole new Slashdot. I see that fucking notice every time I come here and click "DON'T SHOW ME AGAIN" each time. Oh, yeah: FUCK BETA.

  • Excellent -- slows the US down (Score:3)

    by redelm ( 54142 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @09:13AM (#46185455) Homepage

    Russia banning Bitcoin will have relatively little effect on the use of Bitcoin there since enforcement is highly selective and not dependant on established law.

    OTOH if Russia bans it, the US (and its hangers-on) will have to think twice about banning Bitcoin. Heaven forbid the old foe gets it right, and first. Absent strong motivation, the US does not want to be seen as supporting Russia, particularly not ideologically on some matter of principle.

    • If the US can't tax it, they'll ban it. Right now the IRS goes after every source of personal income, whether it was earned in the US or in any other sovereign nation. Think about that. You're a US Citizen living outside the US. Any income generated by you is subject to US taxation even though you may have not earned the money in the US and you're not living there. So if Bitcoin can't be tracked and taxed, ultimately the US govt. will ban its use because it goes contrary to their money-sucking dreams.

      • Say I mine for silver as a business in a big plot of land, zoned to make it legal. I mine tons of ricks and those rocks have lots of silver in them. I let the rocks stay as rocks as long as i want. Can I be taxed by the IRS on the amount of silver in the rocks that sit in a pile? The silver amount hasn't been realized. They are a pile of rocks (raw material). They have no value until i separate the silver. The silver can be stored in a closet. It has no value until it is realized as a form of currency

        • bitcoin is an exchange mecanism (Score:4, Informative)

          by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @03:15PM (#46189269) Homepage

          Indeed, bitcoin is a protocol used to push around numerical value (which are counted is bitcoins, BTC).
          Your IRS or any other tax service shouldn't tax bitcoin, just the same way that they don't tax your paypal account (as is litteraly putting a tax on the e-mail address itself) nor (for a more extreme metaphore) put a tax on your credit cards (litteraly taxing the actual bit of plastic with a "Visa" or "Master card" logo on them).

          Bitcoin protocol is a mean to exchange value (except that you don't directly push around any official currency, but instead you push BTC around and convert to/from BTC using exchanges, payment processors, etc.)
          This is exactly the same as paypal is a service used to do online payment, and as a credit card is a mean to do payment.

          At the end of the day, a merchant using BTC as mean of payment, will exchange them to a local currencies (USD, EUR, whatever is here around) usually in a completely automatic manner (using a payment processor such as coinbase, bitpay, etc.)
            So at the end of the day, a merchant will make revenue in local currency (USD, EUR) and that what the merchant has to declare as a revenue:
          the flow of USD/EUR/etc. going to the merchant's bank account. The tax service shouldn't give a fuck is that money was conveyed using paper money at a cash register, or using commercial centralised payment methods like PayPal or MasterCard, or a distributed crypto-currency as bitcoin.
          What matter is at the end of the day, a merchant made XXXX USD/EUR and has to pay taxes, social charges, inssurances, etc. from this amount.

          Also, to the poster above: please stop spreading the disinformation that bitcoin can't be tracked. In fact, the whole security principle of bitcoin lies on the exact opposite: every single transaction is broadcasted to the whole network, so every single node is able to verify it.

          The closest thing the bitcoin protocol has is "pseudonymity". Identity of parties in a transaction aren't directly disclosed in the clear:
          - it's not 'Mr XXX, living at adress AAA' has sent bitcoins to 'Ms. YYYY living at BBBB'"
          - it's more like 'account [public key 1]' has sent bitcoins to 'account [public key 2]'
          On the other hand, if Ms. YYYY happens to be a merchant, she has the name and address of Mr. XXX and can map it to a public address. Government have enough ressouces to do such mapping on a large scale and completely remove any anonymity.
          But you're shielded from your neighbours accidentally discovering that you spent money at a sex-shop.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tftp ( 111690 )

          Here is my view on it. I am not a CPA, so do not take this to IRS.

          Goods cannot be taxed before they are sold. Your rocks with silver are safe. You may have them registered as inventory, or as raw product, or anything in between, but until your business sells them for MONEY you do not owe tax.

          That would be the same case with BTC. However recently the US Government acknowledged that BTC is MONEY. This means that once you receive a Bitcoin in your possession, you may owe tax on the profits (if there are a

        • Usually, income taxes in the US are on actual dollars made, and producing or acquiring something with the intent to sell it in the future is not taxable. If you start using some other sort of currency to buy and sell stuff, then that does become taxable. If you sell some good or service for BTC and convert it into cash, that cash is taxable, but not necessarily the BTC. The IRS will get its cut when you convert the BTC to cash. If you sell something for BTC and then buy something with that BTC, then th

  • It's a kleptocracy (Score:3)

    by MarkvW ( 1037596 ) on Friday February 07, 2014 @10:26AM (#46186185)

    Banning Bitcoin will make it much easier for the kleptocrats in control to take their cut.

  • No profit.

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