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Bitcoin Government The Almighty Buck

South Korea Plans To Ban Cryptocurrency Trading 78

South Korea's government said on Thursday it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil as the nation's police and tax authorities raided local exchanges on alleged tax evasion. Reuters reports: The clampdown in South Korea, a crucial source of global demand for cryptocurrency, came as policymakers around the world struggled to regulate an asset whose value has skyrocketed over the last year. Justice minister Park Sang-ki said the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual currency on domestic exchanges. Once a bill is drafted, legislation for an outright ban of virtual coin trading will require a majority vote of the total 297 members of the National Assembly, a process that could take months or even years. The local price of bitcoin plunged as much as 21 percent in midday trade to 18.3 million won (12,730.35 pounds) after the minister's comments. It still trades at around a 30 percent premium compared to other countries.
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South Korea Plans To Ban Cryptocurrency Trading

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 11, 2018 @07:18PM (#55911975)

    South Korea is proposing to ban cryptocurrency trading, but that's far from certain. On CNBC early this morning, they speculated that this was unlikely to occur and that China had enacted similar measures previously before reversing course. They suggested that there would be more regulation of exchanges, much like what already happens in the US where Coinbase and others collect personal information on their customers. Another possible regulation is imposing trading curbs or halting trading when there are significant declines, much like what happens with stock exchanges. Stories like this increase the uncertainty around cryptocurrency and are likely holding the prices down somewhat until there is a resolution on these issues. It's difficult to ban the blockchain technology altogether, so it seems more likely that they will opt for regulating exchanges.

  • by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Thursday January 11, 2018 @07:23PM (#55911989) Journal
    South Korea banning trading, China already banned the exchange of cryptocurrencies [forbes.com] and crypto mining operations [wsj.com], and Japan is still considering banning ICOs [ccn.com]. Tough row to hoe for crypto folks in Asia!
  • by TheSimkin ( 639033 ) on Thursday January 11, 2018 @07:30PM (#55912017)
    • by Nikkos ( 544004 )

      Actually, that article is in response to last months actions against BTC exchanges in South Korea. Today's article is something new.

      That being said, banning bitcoin to prevent gambling is like banning hand-lotion to prevent jerking off...

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Well, technically there is a way to actively kill bitcoin and it's ilk basically get it banned world wide and it works like this. You create an energy backed cryptocurrency. This cryptocurrency is issued by energy corporations and is basically backed by kWh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]. So whether they are oil, coal, gas, nuclear, wind, solar, tidal, hydroelectric, they all are enabled to sell energy futures, they future supply of kWh of energy as that krypto currency, not just any energy but a priorit

        • You create an energy backed cryptocurrency. This cryptocurrency is issued by energy corporations and is basically backed by kWh

          A few decades ago, when I was reading that kind of stuff, I came to the conclusion that Marx, Ricardo and Adam Smith were wrong in regard the the Labour Theory of Value and that the Physiocrats, whom Marx mercilessly castigated, were in fact correct. It is not labour on the factory floor that creates 'value,' it's the fact that the amount of labour required to generate a certain

    • If you had submitted it ...

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      8 hours? That article is dated December 12.
    • It's amazing that you falsify a news article published on the 11th of January about something that happened recently using an article published on the 12th of December.

      Do you have a time machine?

  • That's nothing! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Thursday January 11, 2018 @07:37PM (#55912045)
  • They're probably 1% of all Cryptocurrency transactions. Everyone hears about the ban. Crypto loses like 10% of its value as a whole. Now that's logic, everyone. Literally everyone who owns a currency in Korea could dump it into the market in a sell order overnight and it wouldn't have lost this much value. This is what happens when stupid day trader wannabes pat themselves on the back for being mister big smart investor and reacting appropriately to news.
    • The volatility is a serious problem. Variation of 10% in a day is not uncommon. A sudden plummet in reaction to this news is pretty typical.

      The value is so speculative. It rather reminds me of this parable about wisdom of crowds [ft.com]. People speculate it has value because everyone else is.
  • by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Thursday January 11, 2018 @08:59PM (#55912401)
    The fact that cryptocurrencies are talked about in terms of "real money" (what's real?) means people know they are lying to themselves about their value. "Real money" today is already measured against a CPI. Until cryptocurrencies are measured against a CPI directly, and not through a proxy measure, it is a pointless currency.
    • The measurement is not the problem. Trading is.

      Cryptocurrencies won't be measured against CPI until you can buy and sell products with them in a wide spread manner. While you're restricted to internal trading or trading against real currencies then the only way measure its value is against real currency.

Those who do things in a noble spirit of self-sacrifice are to be avoided at all costs. -- N. Alexander.

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