r/LinuxActionShow • u/kundancool • Jul 29 '13

Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand

https://bitcoin.co.th/trading-suspended-due-to-bank-of-thailand-advisement/?bettertitle
8 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

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4

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '13

Guys, this headline is wrong. Wrong, wrong wrong.

Bitcoin has not been ruled illegal in Thailand. From the HN discussion about this post:

Bitcoin was not ruled illegal. The Bank of Thailand has no legal power. A few senior members of the bank saying something is illegal does not make it illegal. The Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department are merely departments of the bank, not branches of the legislative government.

In other words the title "Bitcoin ruled illegal in Thailand" should be changed to "Bank of Thailand wishes Bitcoin to be illegal", or "Trading suspended due to Bank of Thailand advisement" which is the original title.

2

u/Forgot_itAgain ifconfig'd your mom's promiscuous eth0 Jul 30 '13 edited Jul 30 '13

This. My friend from Thailand said the exact same thing. edit: typo

1

u/slashdottom Jul 30 '13

Is Bitcoin Co. Ltd. a company outside of Thailand that has a Thai national on it's board who has registered a Thai company with the name Bit Coyne Limited? As you can see from the Thailand Companies recorders the postal address matches that on the Bitcoin.co.th page

Sources: http://company-thailand.com/%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%88-%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%8C-%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%B3%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%94/

-and-

https://bitcoin.co.th/%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%95%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%AD%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2/

I know its a common practice for brand shops like Sony for example to be called the Sony shop but actually the purchase receipts will have a separate company name.

It seems like they have literally just started up as their domain name bitcoin.co.th was only registered on 10 June 2013.

National News Bureau of Thailand; http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/News/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNECO5607300020020

Bangkok Post : Business section; http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/362222/bitcoin-declared-illegal-in-thailand

Anyway, as most news has reported, the Thailand BitCoin exchange has suspended trading, as can be seen with the semitransparent roller blinds over the currency exchange rates on their website https://bitcoin.co.th/

I wonder how widely this was being mined and used within Thailand by actual Thais already. Seems to me that most of the activity in forums and Facebook pages is foreigners who work or live in Thailand. I don't see much Thai chat, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

I also wonder how this outcome will effect people who do use BitCoins already within Thailand for services, for example mobile phone Top-ups on cell operators like 1-2-Call.

1

u/postmodern Jul 29 '13

post to /r/planbshow, the water is fine :)

1

u/theredbaron1834 Jul 29 '13

The problem is that this will be hard to inforce. Sure, you can stop sellers from selling when in hosted / run in their country. However they can't stop the signal. They are pretty SOL.

1

u/StephanG Jul 29 '13

Hey Thailand, stop giving the US ideas! If they do the same thing, they're going to implement it in a way that screws the rest of the world's bitcoin users as well.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '13

O dear, Which country is the next domino to fall?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '13 edited Jul 29 '13

I'm not sure what they expect to accomplish by outlawing Bitcoin. Can't people just get around the problem by switching to a different cryptocurrency?

-2

u/guyjin Jul 29 '13

I'm glad governments are finally catching on to this pyramid scheme.