My country is currently in the throes of a major Bitcoin crackdown. Almost a thousand people have been hired whose only job is to identify and track Bitcoin users.
Once identified, a person is fined (for “failure to disclose”), forced to provide their Bitcoin address(es), to list these Bitcoin addresses on all future tax returns (my country taxes savings & requires all savings reported, however small) and to register with financial supervisory authorities as a financial services provider even if one simply purchased Bitcoin and has no intention of reselling the amount.
It does not matter how little one holds. Most of what the authorities are doing here is in a legal grey zone. There will be many interesting cases clogging the legal system in years to come. They will probably find in favour of the government. They are freezing business bank accounts, confiscating all financial records and forcing businesses to identify all users of Bitcoin, and are issuing very large fines.
The only way to use Bitcoin is to be completely under the radar. They’re not able to detect individual users who are silent. If you live outside the capital, you are more safe; all of the new people hired to identify Bitcoin users are in the capital. Businesses that use Bitcoin must be careful not to not draw attention to themselves.
The authorities here are implementing a draconian regime for Bitcoin. The first cases are starting to move through the courts, but there is no outcome yet. Many Bitcoin users are attorneys and barristers, judges, etc. And we are on friendly terms with them. The legal professionals we deal with suggest that my country will ultimately be forced to back down (at least when it comes to small amounts, the notion that any holder is a ‘financial services provider’, etc), because there is legal basis, or precedent, for what is being done here. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for the courts to settle these matters.
If we get caught the authorities will investigate us, likely freeze our bank account (at least until we identify all our transactions, amounts, etc. and likely pay a fine) and try to make an example of us. And I WILL NOT co-operate in identifying Bitcoin users, even if the authorities themselves would likely identify them from records of bank transfers for our frozen account. They may shut us down, but I’m a Bitcoiner, and I agree with Satoshi’s pseudonymous protocol. I will uphold it.
This is not a tale from some dystopian future; it is an account of what is happening in a European country right now. The people in it are real, and the army of “Bitcoin Inspectors” is real. This is not a cautionary tale, extrapolation or other literary device. These people are under a Soviet Style regime right now, simply because they use Bitcoin.
They’re frightened to show that they use it, refrain from talking about it, and certainly can’t openly sell it. When they get caught, they’re forced to reveal all their private keys and incriminate themselves.
It’s an intolerable situation, and yet, Bitcoin is so compelling and useful and valuable, there are people willing to take the risk of storing their money in Bitcoin. Even people from the legal profession are breaking the law, just as it was in the U.S.S.R.. Everyone broke the law, everyone knew everyone was breaking the law, but the façade of the State remained in place…until the economy collapsed, and it was all swept away.
People in comparatively free countries think Bitcoin is about memes, Virtue Signalling on Twitter and other inconsequential things. Having fun is important, but facts about people suffering open tyranny as described here needs to be widely disseminated, exposed, and roundly condemned. The people doing this must be shamed into total submission, their ambassadors openly ridiculed and their national pride wounded.
South Africa was called, “The Skunk of the World” and the international shame of being a South African was very painful for the people who mislead that country. The same must happen with any country that denies people their right to do math.
Which country is it that’s described here? You already know it’s a European country; Can you discover which one it is?
