Bitcoin mining legal
Retrieved 23 February Banco Central do Brasil. Retrieved 17 November Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia. Retrieved 20 October Banco Central del Ecuador. Retrieved 22 October International Finance Centre Development Agency. National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic. Retrieved 20 December Retrieved 16 September Retrieved 13 February Retrieved 6 July Retrieved 21 August Retrieved 17 July Retrieved 17 June Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. Retrieved 16 December We're Not Giving Up Yet".
Retrieved 19 December Retrieved 8 November Archived from the original on 9 February Retrieved 6 October Retrieved 10 January Retrieved 18 January Archived from the original on Bitcoin is not Currency in Japanese ".
Retrieved 28 April Retrieved 26 February Archived from the original on 21 September Retrieved 21 September Retrieved 9 July Retrieved 17 April The central bank does not regulate it but the public is advised not to speculate on it ".
Retrieved 15 October Retrieved 19 June Retrieved 5 February Retrieved 2 March Retrieved 11 January Retrieved 7 May Retrieved 27 December Retrieved 29 October Retrieved 1 November Retrieved 25 August Retrieved 19 March Retrieved 14 December Retrieved 8 August Bitcoin nie jest nielegalny".
Retrieved 18 December Retrieved 28 January Retrieved 31 July Retrieved 3 February Retrieved 24 March Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. Retrieved 16 April Retrieved 28 November Archived from the original on 20 September Retrieved 20 September Make quick and easy purchases with Bitcoin".
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This page was last edited on 5 July , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Illegal As of [update] bitcoin was legal in Algeria, but per the Huffington Post , "Algeria is going to ban bitcoin in the new Finance law of article of the law " [13] According to the "Journal Officiel" 28 December Legal As of 17 January , The Central Bank of Nigeria CBN has passed a circular to inform all Nigerian banks that bank transactions in bitcoin and other virtual currencies have been banned in Nigeria.
Legal In September the Bank of Namibia issued a position paper on virtual currencies entitled [24] wherein it declared cryptocurrency exchanges are not allowed and cryptocurrency cannot be accepted as payment for goods and services. Legal The Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe is sceptical about bitcoin and has not officially permitted its use. Legal Bitcoin is legal in Mexico as of Legal News reports indicate that bitcoins are being used in the country.
Legal The Costa Rican Central Bank announced that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are not consider currencies, and are not backed by the government nor laws. Legal The Bank of Jamaica BoJ , the national Central Bank, has publicly declared that it must create opportunities for the exploitation of technologies including cryptocurrencies.
Legal Bitcoins may be considered money, but not legal currency. Illegal The Central Bank of Bolivia issued a resolution banning bitcoin and any other currency not regulated by a country or economic zone in Legal Not regulated, according to a statement by the Central Bank of Brazil concerning cryptocurrencies, but is discouraged because of operational risks.
Legal There is no regulation on the use of bitcoins. Legal A 26 March by Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia states that the use of bitcoin is not regulated. Illegal The Ecuadorian government has issued a ban on bitcoin and other digital currencies. Legal Bitcoin is considered a commodity, [49] not a security or currency under the laws of the Kyrgyz Republic and may be legally mined, bought, sold and traded on a local commodity exchange.
Legal The use of bitcoins is not regulated in Cyprus. Legal As of , the Israel Tax Authorities issued a statement saying that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would not fall under the legal definition of currency, and neither of that of a financial security, but of a taxable asset.
Legal Bitcoin is not banned by any governmental party in Saudi Arabia. Legal The government of Lebanon has issued a warning discouraging the use of bitcoin and other similar systems.
Legal Bitcoin is not regulated as it is not considered to be electronic money according to the law. Illegal In September , Bangladesh Bank said that "anybody caught using the virtual currency could be jailed under the country's strict anti-money laundering laws". Legal While private parties can hold and trade bitcoins in China, regulation prohibits financial firms like banks from doing the same.
China On 5 December , People's Bank of China PBOC made its first step in regulating bitcoin by prohibiting financial institutions from handling bitcoin transactions. Legal On 8 January , the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury addressed bitcoin in the Legislative Council stating that "Hong Kong at present has no legislation directly regulating bitcoins and other virtual currencies of [a] similar kind. Legal While not illegal in the country, Korean authorities will prosecute illegal activity involving bitcoin [97] and have indicted at least one individual for purchasing drugs with bitcoin.
Legal Bitcoin ATMs are banned here [7]: Taiwan On 6 December , Perng Fai-nan said that bitcoin is only used in certain communities. Illegal On 19 June , the National Bank of Cambodia NBC , the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia and the General-Commissariat of National Police stated that "the propagation, circulation, buying, selling, trading and settlement of cryptocurrencies without obtaining license from competent authorities are illegal activities" and "shall be penalized in accordance with applicable laws.
Malaysia On 4 October , BNM announced that The decision on whether cryptocurrencies should be banned in Malaysia will be taken by them before the end of the year.
Legal In December , the Monetary Authority of Singapore reportedly stated that "[w]hether or not businesses accept bitcoins in exchange for their goods and services is a commercial decision in which MAS does not intervene. Singapore On 22 September , the Monetary Authority of Singapore MAS warned users of the risks associated with using bitcoin stating "If bitcoin ceases to operate, there may not be an identifiable party responsible for refunding their monies or for them to seek recourse" [] and in December stated "Whether or not businesses accept Bitcoins in exchange for their goods and services is a commercial decision in which MAS does not intervene" [] In January , the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore issued a series of tax guidelines according to which bitcoin transactions may be treated as a barter exchange if it is used as a payment method for real goods and services.
Regulatory approach on Initial Coin Offering ICO [] As of February the Thai central bank has prohibited financial institutions in the country from five key cryptocurrency activities []. Legal Bitcoin is legal. Legal On 6 December , the Croatian National Bank reportedly conducted a discussion on the circulation of digital currencies and concluded that bitcoin is not illegal in Croatia. Legal Bitcoin trading does not require authorization by the Czech National Bank and the Czech National Bank cannot grant such an authorization Legal On 19 August , the German Finance Ministry announced that bitcoin is now essentially a "unit of account" and can be used for the purpose of tax and trading in the country, meaning that purchases made with it must pay VAT as with Euro transactions.
Although not considered to be an official form of currency, earnings are subject to tax law. On 6 December , the Croatian National Bank reportedly conducted a discussion on the circulation of digital currencies and concluded that bitcoin is not illegal in Croatia. Bitcoin trading does not require authorization by the Czech National Bank and the Czech National Bank cannot grant such an authorization On 19 August , the German Finance Ministry announced that bitcoin is now essentially a "unit of account" and can be used for the purpose of tax and trading in the country, meaning that purchases made with it must pay VAT as with Euro transactions.
It is not classified as a foreign currency or e—money but stands as "private money" which can be used in "multilateral clearing circles", according to the ministry. The use of bitcoin in Poland is not regulated by a legal act at present. They added that trading virtual currencies in Poland does not violate national or EU law, however, having virtual "currencies", involves many risks: Financial institutions should be cautious about engaging and cooperating with virtual currency "trading" entities.
As of March , an official statement of the Romanian National Bank mentioned that "using digital currencies as payment has certain risks for the financial system".
In October , the National Fiscal Administration Agency ANAF declared that there is a lack of a legislative framework around bitcoin, and therefore, it is unable to create a tax regulation framework for it as well implying no taxation.
The National Bank of Slovakia NBS , stated [] that bitcoin does not have the legal attributes of a currency, and therefore does not fall under national control. At the same time NBS points out that any legal person or natural person in the Slovak Republic shall not issue any notes or any other coins. Unlawful manufacturing of banknotes and coins and putting them into circulation is punishable by law.
In this context, NBS points out that virtual currencies have not a physical counterpart in the form of legal tender and participation in such a scheme virtual currency is at your own risk. Exchanges or purchases of virtual currencies represent the business risk of investors and investors' money are not protected.
For any compensation of losses caused by such exchanges or purchases there is no legal entitlement. On 23 December the Slovenian Ministry of Finance made an announcement [] stating that bitcoin is neither a currency nor an asset. Bitcoin businesses in Switzerland are subject to anti-money laundering regulations and in some instances may need to obtain a banking license.
In response to the parliament postulates, the Swiss Federal Council issued a report on virtual currencies in June In , Zug added bitcoin as a means of paying city fees, in a test and an attempt to advance Zug as a region that is advancing future technologies. The use of bitcoins is not regulated in Ukraine. As of [update] , FSA says that doing business with bitcoin does not fall under its regulatory authority and therefore FSA does not prevent anyone from opening such businesses.
In Estonia, the use of bitcoins is not regulated or otherwise controlled by the government. The Estonian Ministry of Finance have concluded that there is no legal obstacles to use bitcoin-like crypto currencies as payment method. Traders must therefore identify the buyer when establishing business relationship or if the buyer acquires more than 1, euros of the currency in a month. The Finnish Tax Administration has issued instructions for the taxation of virtual currencies, including the bitcoin.
Finland [] Rather than a currency or a security, a bitcoin transaction is considered a private contract equivalent to a contract for difference for tax purposes.
Purchases of goods with bitcoin or conversion of bitcoin into legal currency "realizes" the value and any increase in price will be taxable; however, losses are not tax-deductible.
Mined bitcoin is considered earned income. This is because the court classified bitcoins as payment instruments - whereas most countries treat their use as an unregulated method for the exchange of goods, or even as a crime.
According to a opinion, from the Central Bank of Iceland "there is no authorization to purchase foreign currency from financial institutions in Iceland or to transfer foreign currency across borders on the basis of transactions with virtual currency.
For this reason alone, transactions with virtual currency are subject to restrictions in Iceland. On 12 March , the Central Bank amended its rules. With the new rules, wide and general exemptions have been granted from the restrictions of the Foreign Exchange Act No. Bank of Lithuania released a warning on 31 January , that bitcoin is not recognized as legal tender in Lithuania and that bitcoin users should be aware of high risks that come with the usage of it.
The Norwegian Tax Administration stated in December that they don't define bitcoin as money but regard it as an asset. Profits are subjected to wealth tax. In business, use of bitcoin falls under the sales tax regulation. The Norwegian government stated in February that they would not levy VAT on the purchase or sale of bitcoin.
As of November declared, bitcoins are "not illegal" according to the Federal Tax Service of Russia. The decision has been appealed by the Swedish Tax Authority. The Swedish jurisdiction is in general quite favorable for bitcoin businesses and users as compared to other countries within the EU and the rest of the world. The governmental regulatory and supervisory body Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority Finansinspektionen have legitimized the fast growing industry by publicly proclaiming bitcoin and other digital currencies as a means of payment.
There is not a single word in Bulgarian laws about bitcoin. No specific legislation on bitcoins exists in Greece. Italy does not regulate bitcoin use by private individuals. As of [update] , Malta does not have any regulations specifically pertaining to bitcoins. Paying in crypto is not legal in Macedonia and using digital money is discouraged by the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia. Bitcoin operation in our country will be sanctioned.
Bitcoin is basically a speculative currency, which makes investment in it extremely risky. The responsible person in the legal entity or sole proprietor in the territory of The Republic of Macedonia shall carry out, in its own name and on its own account, as well as for another person legal or physical payment or payment into effective foreign currency contrary to the provisions of this Law, shall be sentenced to imprisonment of six months to five years.
In Macedonia so far only one company has announced that it is working with bitcoin, and there is also a failed initiative to start using it in restaurants and cafes.
Bitcoin has no specific legal framework in Portugal. Transactions in bitcoins are subject to the same laws as barter transactions. The Minister of Finance indicated that government intervention with regard to the bitcoin system does not appear necessary at the present time. The French Ministry of Finance issued regulations on 11 July pertaining to the operation of virtual currency professionals, exchanges, and taxation. The Central Bank of Ireland was quoted in the Assembly of Ireland as stating that it does not regulate bitcoins.
The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier has issued a communication in February acknowledging the status of currency to the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
As of [update] , virtual currencies such as bitcoin do not fall within the scope of the Act on Financial Supervision of the Netherlands.
Bitcoin is treated as 'private money'. When bitcoin is exchanged for sterling or for foreign currencies, such as euro or dollar, no VAT will be due on the value of the bitcoins themselves.
However, in all instances, VAT will be due in the normal way from suppliers of any goods or services sold in exchange for bitcoin or other similar cryptocurrency.
Profits and losses on cryptocurrencies are subject to capital gains tax. In December , the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia RBA indicated in an interview about bitcoin legality stating, "There would be nothing to stop people in this country deciding to transact in some other currency in a shop if they wanted to.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand states: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For a broader coverage related to this topic, see Bitcoin. This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
Accessed 25 September Retrieved 25 February Court of Justice of the European Union. Retrieved 6 December Retrieved 23 October Retrieved 5 March Market, economics and regulation" PDF.
European Parliamentary Research Service. Bitcoin regulation or plans therefor in selected countries. Retrieved 18 February Retrieved 8 July Guidance for a risk-based approach. Retrieved 6 March Retrieved 30 October South African Reserve Bank.
Retrieved 11 June Sandra Appel A security Agreement for Bitcoin: Retrieved 5 September Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Retrieved 1 June Retrieved 22 April Banco Central de Costa Rica. Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. Retrieved 23 February Banco Central do Brasil.
Retrieved 17 November Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia. Retrieved 20 October Banco Central del Ecuador. Retrieved 22 October International Finance Centre Development Agency.
National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic. Retrieved 13 February Retrieved 6 July Retrieved 21 August Retrieved 17 July Retrieved 17 June Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. How close Bitcoin to be Legalized in Iran? Retrieved 16 December We're Not Giving Up Yet". Retrieved 19 December Retrieved 8 November Archived from the original on 9 February Retrieved 6 October Retrieved 10 January Retrieved 18 January Archived from the original on Bitcoin is not Currency in Japanese ".
Retrieved 28 April Retrieved 26 February Archived from the original on 21 September Retrieved 21 September Retrieved 9 July Work is underway to lift current limitations, and future requirements are well known. Since inception, every aspect of the Bitcoin network has been in a continuous process of maturation, optimization, and specialization, and it should be expected to remain that way for some years to come. As traffic grows, more Bitcoin users may use lightweight clients, and full network nodes may become a more specialized service.
For more details, see the Scalability page on the Wiki. To the best of our knowledge, Bitcoin has not been made illegal by legislation in most jurisdictions. However, some jurisdictions such as Argentina and Russia severely restrict or ban foreign currencies. Other jurisdictions such as Thailand may limit the licensing of certain entities such as Bitcoin exchanges. Regulators from various jurisdictions are taking steps to provide individuals and businesses with rules on how to integrate this new technology with the formal, regulated financial system.
Bitcoin is money, and money has always been used both for legal and illegal purposes. Cash, credit cards and current banking systems widely surpass Bitcoin in terms of their use to finance crime. Bitcoin can bring significant innovation in payment systems and the benefits of such innovation are often considered to be far beyond their potential drawbacks.
Bitcoin is designed to be a huge step forward in making money more secure and could also act as a significant protection against many forms of financial crime. For instance, bitcoins are completely impossible to counterfeit. Users are in full control of their payments and cannot receive unapproved charges such as with credit card fraud. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible and immune to fraudulent chargebacks.
Bitcoin allows money to be secured against theft and loss using very strong and useful mechanisms such as backups, encryption, and multiple signatures.
Some concerns have been raised that Bitcoin could be more attractive to criminals because it can be used to make private and irreversible payments.
However, these features already exist with cash and wire transfer, which are widely used and well-established. The use of Bitcoin will undoubtedly be subjected to similar regulations that are already in place inside existing financial systems, and Bitcoin is not likely to prevent criminal investigations from being conducted.
In general, it is common for important breakthroughs to be perceived as being controversial before their benefits are well understood.
The Internet is a good example among many others to illustrate this. The Bitcoin protocol itself cannot be modified without the cooperation of nearly all its users, who choose what software they use. Attempting to assign special rights to a local authority in the rules of the global Bitcoin network is not a practical possibility. Any rich organization could choose to invest in mining hardware to control half of the computing power of the network and become able to block or reverse recent transactions.
However, there is no guarantee that they could retain this power since this requires to invest as much than all other miners in the world. It is however possible to regulate the use of Bitcoin in a similar way to any other instrument. Just like the dollar, Bitcoin can be used for a wide variety of purposes, some of which can be considered legitimate or not as per each jurisdiction's laws. In this regard, Bitcoin is no different than any other tool or resource and can be subjected to different regulations in each country.
Bitcoin use could also be made difficult by restrictive regulations, in which case it is hard to determine what percentage of users would keep using the technology. A government that chooses to ban Bitcoin would prevent domestic businesses and markets from developing, shifting innovation to other countries.
The challenge for regulators, as always, is to develop efficient solutions while not impairing the growth of new emerging markets and businesses. Bitcoin is not a fiat currency with legal tender status in any jurisdiction, but often tax liability accrues regardless of the medium used. There is a wide variety of legislation in many different jurisdictions which could cause income, sales, payroll, capital gains, or some other form of tax liability to arise with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is freeing people to transact on their own terms. Each user can send and receive payments in a similar way to cash but they can also take part in more complex contracts. Multiple signatures allow a transaction to be accepted by the network only if a certain number of a defined group of persons agree to sign the transaction.
This allows innovative dispute mediation services to be developed in the future. Such services could allow a third party to approve or reject a transaction in case of disagreement between the other parties without having control on their money.
As opposed to cash and other payment methods, Bitcoin always leaves a public proof that a transaction did take place, which can potentially be used in a recourse against businesses with fraudulent practices. It is also worth noting that while merchants usually depend on their public reputation to remain in business and pay their employees, they don't have access to the same level of information when dealing with new consumers.
The way Bitcoin works allows both individuals and businesses to be protected against fraudulent chargebacks while giving the choice to the consumer to ask for more protection when they are not willing to trust a particular merchant. New bitcoins are generated by a competitive and decentralized process called "mining".
This process involves that individuals are rewarded by the network for their services. Bitcoin miners are processing transactions and securing the network using specialized hardware and are collecting new bitcoins in exchange. The Bitcoin protocol is designed in such a way that new bitcoins are created at a fixed rate. This makes Bitcoin mining a very competitive business.
When more miners join the network, it becomes increasingly difficult to make a profit and miners must seek efficiency to cut their operating costs. No central authority or developer has any power to control or manipulate the system to increase their profits. Every Bitcoin node in the world will reject anything that does not comply with the rules it expects the system to follow.
Bitcoins are created at a decreasing and predictable rate. The number of new bitcoins created each year is automatically halved over time until bitcoin issuance halts completely with a total of 21 million bitcoins in existence.
At this point, Bitcoin miners will probably be supported exclusively by numerous small transaction fees. Bitcoins have value because they are useful as a form of money.
Bitcoin has the characteristics of money durability, portability, fungibility, scarcity, divisibility, and recognizability based on the properties of mathematics rather than relying on physical properties like gold and silver or trust in central authorities like fiat currencies.
In short, Bitcoin is backed by mathematics. With these attributes, all that is required for a form of money to hold value is trust and adoption. In the case of Bitcoin, this can be measured by its growing base of users, merchants, and startups. As with all currency, bitcoin's value comes only and directly from people willing to accept them as payment. The price of a bitcoin is determined by supply and demand. When demand for bitcoins increases, the price increases, and when demand falls, the price falls.
There is only a limited number of bitcoins in circulation and new bitcoins are created at a predictable and decreasing rate, which means that demand must follow this level of inflation to keep the price stable. Because Bitcoin is still a relatively small market compared to what it could be, it doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus the price of a bitcoin is still very volatile.
History is littered with currencies that failed and are no longer used, such as the German Mark during the Weimar Republic and, more recently, the Zimbabwean dollar. Although previous currency failures were typically due to hyperinflation of a kind that Bitcoin makes impossible, there is always potential for technical failures, competing currencies, political issues and so on. As a basic rule of thumb, no currency should be considered absolutely safe from failures or hard times.
Bitcoin has proven reliable for years since its inception and there is a lot of potential for Bitcoin to continue to grow. However, no one is in a position to predict what the future will be for Bitcoin. A fast rise in price does not constitute a bubble. An artificial over-valuation that will lead to a sudden downward correction constitutes a bubble. Choices based on individual human action by hundreds of thousands of market participants is the cause for bitcoin's price to fluctuate as the market seeks price discovery.
Reasons for changes in sentiment may include a loss of confidence in Bitcoin, a large difference between value and price not based on the fundamentals of the Bitcoin economy, increased press coverage stimulating speculative demand, fear of uncertainty, and old-fashioned irrational exuberance and greed.
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money, or the money paid by subsequent investors, instead of from profit earned by the individuals running the business. Ponzi schemes are designed to collapse at the expense of the last investors when there is not enough new participants. Bitcoin is a free software project with no central authority. Consequently, no one is in a position to make fraudulent representations about investment returns.
Like other major currencies such as gold, United States dollar, euro, yen, etc. This leads to volatility where owners of bitcoins can unpredictably make or lose money. Beyond speculation, Bitcoin is also a payment system with useful and competitive attributes that are being used by thousands of users and businesses.
Some early adopters have large numbers of bitcoins because they took risks and invested time and resources in an unproven technology that was hardly used by anyone and that was much harder to secure properly. Many early adopters spent large numbers of bitcoins quite a few times before they became valuable or bought only small amounts and didn't make huge gains.
There is no guarantee that the price of a bitcoin will increase or drop. This is very similar to investing in an early startup that can either gain value through its usefulness and popularity, or just never break through.
Bitcoin is still in its infancy, and it has been designed with a very long-term view; it is hard to imagine how it could be less biased towards early adopters, and today's users may or may not be the early adopters of tomorrow.
Bitcoin is unique in that only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created. However, this will never be a limitation because transactions can be denominated in smaller sub-units of a bitcoin, such as bits - there are 1,, bits in 1 bitcoin.
Bitcoins can be divided up to 8 decimal places 0. The deflationary spiral theory says that if prices are expected to fall, people will move purchases into the future in order to benefit from the lower prices. That fall in demand will in turn cause merchants to lower their prices to try and stimulate demand, making the problem worse and leading to an economic depression. Although this theory is a popular way to justify inflation amongst central bankers, it does not appear to always hold true and is considered controversial amongst economists.
Consumer electronics is one example of a market where prices constantly fall but which is not in depression. Similarly, the value of bitcoins has risen over time and yet the size of the Bitcoin economy has also grown dramatically along with it. Because both the value of the currency and the size of its economy started at zero in , Bitcoin is a counterexample to the theory showing that it must sometimes be wrong.
Notwithstanding this, Bitcoin is not designed to be a deflationary currency. It is more accurate to say Bitcoin is intended to inflate in its early years, and become stable in its later years. The only time the quantity of bitcoins in circulation will drop is if people carelessly lose their wallets by failing to make backups.
With a stable monetary base and a stable economy, the value of the currency should remain the same. This is a chicken and egg situation. For bitcoin's price to stabilize, a large scale economy needs to develop with more businesses and users. For a large scale economy to develop, businesses and users will seek for price stability.
Fortunately, volatility does not affect the main benefits of Bitcoin as a payment system to transfer money from point A to point B. It is possible for businesses to convert bitcoin payments to their local currency instantly, allowing them to profit from the advantages of Bitcoin without being subjected to price fluctuations. Since Bitcoin offers many useful and unique features and properties, many users choose to use Bitcoin. With such solutions and incentives, it is possible that Bitcoin will mature and develop to a degree where price volatility will become limited.
Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale.