<story><title>Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand</title><url>https://bitcoin.co.th/trading-suspended-due-to-bank-of-thailand-advisement/?bettertitle</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cs702</author><text>Thailand&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department&amp;quot; has advised that, quoting from the OP: &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;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.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;We can get a sense of how successful and lasting this edict will be with a simple mental experiment: replace &amp;quot;Bitcoin&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;US Dollar.&amp;quot;  The edict thus becomes: &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;the following US Dollar activities are illegal in Thailand: buying US Dollars; selling US Dollars; buying any goods or services in exchange for US Dollars; selling any goods or services for US Dollars; sending US Dollars to anyone located outside of Thailand; receiving US Dollars from anyone located outside of Thailand.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;  How successful could &lt;i&gt;that edict&lt;/i&gt; be, and how long could it last, realistically?&lt;p&gt;Foreign exchange controls are normally difficult to implement and enforce. Control of Bitcoin -- a decentralized, optionally anonymous, virtual commodity -- should be even more difficult.&lt;p&gt;I suspect a lot of Bitcoin trading volume in Thailand will simply go underground.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wmil</author><text>To put things in perspective, from 1933 - 1964 it was illegal for US citizens to own non-jewelry gold.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Executive_Order_6102&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are already many limitations on currency, this can last as long as the others.&lt;p&gt;This is actually arguably good news for Bitcoin. The government of Thailand sees it as a feasible way to bypass currency controls.</text></comment>
<story><title>Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand</title><url>https://bitcoin.co.th/trading-suspended-due-to-bank-of-thailand-advisement/?bettertitle</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cs702</author><text>Thailand&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department&amp;quot; has advised that, quoting from the OP: &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;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.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;We can get a sense of how successful and lasting this edict will be with a simple mental experiment: replace &amp;quot;Bitcoin&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;US Dollar.&amp;quot;  The edict thus becomes: &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;the following US Dollar activities are illegal in Thailand: buying US Dollars; selling US Dollars; buying any goods or services in exchange for US Dollars; selling any goods or services for US Dollars; sending US Dollars to anyone located outside of Thailand; receiving US Dollars from anyone located outside of Thailand.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;  How successful could &lt;i&gt;that edict&lt;/i&gt; be, and how long could it last, realistically?&lt;p&gt;Foreign exchange controls are normally difficult to implement and enforce. Control of Bitcoin -- a decentralized, optionally anonymous, virtual commodity -- should be even more difficult.&lt;p&gt;I suspect a lot of Bitcoin trading volume in Thailand will simply go underground.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gamblor956</author><text>No need to control Bitcoin itself--they can control the &lt;i&gt;users&lt;/i&gt;.  That is ultimately more effective, because as with historical foreign exchange prohibitions in other countries have demonstrated, the prohibiting country generally has no control over the prohibited currency.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Also, it seems that this is not an actual prohibition. Rather, it is merely a legal advisory memo from the national Bank of Thailand to a Bitcoin company regarding the current legal status of Bitcoin transactions in Thailand.  According to the BoT, Bitcoin transactions &lt;i&gt;may&lt;/i&gt; not be legal under the current law, so the BoT will not provide banking services to individuals or companies that will use the services for Bitcoin-based transactions or services.</text></comment>