After China and South Korea stance on ICOs, another country from that area, Vietnam, is making its opinion heard. In a statement published a couple of days ago, the State Bank of Vietnam established that:
according to the provisions of the law has led, Bitcoin virtual currency and other similar is not lawful means of payment in Vietnam; The issuance, supply, use of bitcoin and other similar virtual currency as a means of payment is prohibited in Vietnam.
This is probably one of the most radical approaches towards cryptocurrencies in that area. For the record (and as afar as I know) here are the positions of the most important countries in Asia / South-East Asia:
- China: beware of ICOs, we may leave Bitcoin trading happening on p2p, otc platforms in Hong Kong
- South Korea: beware of ICOs, no official position on Bitcoin
- Singapore: we will not regulate Bitcoin
- Japan: we already use Bitcoin in certain payments
The more I look at these regulation attempts, the more I tend to think that the banning of Bitcoin is not related to the intrinsic threat that cryptos are posing to fiat, but more so to the general level of corruption in each and every state.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform):