Bolivia Essentially Banned Crypto but Blockchain Advocates Are Pushing Back

Widespread acceptance of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies suffered another blow this week when El Banco Central de Bolivia outright banned any currency or coins that were not either issued by or regulated through the government. The bank specifically mentioned Bitcoin, Quark, Peercoin, Namecoin, Primecoin and Feathercoin in the announcement but the statement seemed to include all cryptocurrencies. The policy actually went into affect but the announcement did not surface for general consumption until PanAm Post, a Spanish language media outlet, released the news. The statement from the central....

Here's an unfortunate news item. It's being reported that El Banco Central de Bolivia - the Bolivian Central Bank - has banned any form of currency or coin not issued or regulated by the Bolivian government, reports CoinDesk. This, of course, would include bitcoin and similar digital currencies like "Bitcoin, Namecoin, Tonal Bitcoin, IxCoin, Devcoin, Freicoin, 10coin, Liquidcoin, Peercoin, Quark, Primecoin, and Feathercoin." The news was reported originally by the PanAm Post, who points to a resolution dated May 6th "which prohibits the use of coins specifically not issued or regulated by....

El Banco Central de Bolivia, the central bank of the South American nation, has officially banned any currency or coins not issued or regulated by the government, including bitcoin and a list of other cryptocurrencies including namecoin, peercoin, Quark, primecoin and feathercoin. The official policy, launched on 6th May, has recently surfaced to garner coverage from Spanish-language news source PanAm Post, and is the first announcement by the country's central bank on the subject of digital currency according to research from the US Law Library of Congress. A translation of the central....

Crypto assets are enjoying the lenient stance that the United Kingdom government is maintaining regarding ownership, usage and trading of digital currency assets. Unlike countries such as Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Egypt, Indonesia and Ghana where virtual currency is banned, the UK left its doors open for the highly volatile asset class. The study results are […]

A country with a high-rate of the unbanked, a large informal economy and a tumultuous history of inflation sounds like a perfect scenario for Bitcoin and cyrpyocurrencies to thrive. However, a quick glimpse on Bitcoin-related groups on social media shows otherwise. The Bolivian Bitcoin community is yet to take off. Unbanked majority. The majority of the country’s population is unbanked. According to the World Bank’s Global Index 2014, a meagre 11 percent used a debit card to make payments and near 5 percent used credit cards. Although, unlike other Latin American countries, such as....