Bitcoin walks the world. Or not?

One can argue long and hard about whether it is good that btc grows in price and that the fluctuations are simply unrealistic percentages. But the fact is that Bitcoin as a phenomenon spans more and more countries.

Recently, several colleagues decided to conduct several cryptocurrency studies (by reference - you can find a full-fledged collection on the topic, which includes: an analysis of the legal status of Bitcoin in the world, attitude to “digital gold” in Russia, as well as translation of one of the first reports of the ECB on legal aspects of this network).

In this habli note I would like to share several observations that may be useful to those:
')

1. who wants to make a virtual currency startup;
2. who is interested, and what is the “cue ball” not from a technical point of view;
3. who is himself studying the laws of bit-coins;
4. and, of course, to everyone who is interested in Bitcoin in principle - as a phenomenon.

So that it becomes immediately clear what exactly is studied , I enclose a map of the countries I walked through, studying the status of Bitcoin from the point of view of law (from sources - opinions of state authorities, English-speaking, less often - in local languages, websites, as well as statements of lawyers from these countries) .



If we take the averaged picture (and there is no other position yet - too many positions), then the attitude to btc & altcoins is approximately the following:



Thus, most of the states are still more or less doubted as to, “what is this bitcoin of yours?”.

I will not repeat everything, I will highlight the important:

Of those who recognize cryptocurrency, there are those who consider them:

1. goods;
2. currency;
3. intangible good;
4. financial asset;
5. payment means.

Opinions on how Bitcoin and the brothers should and should be regulated at all vary greatly, and most importantly, even within countries (the example of Russia in this regard is far from an exception: let's say China has already hesitated markets more than once, literally recently including making statements in one way or another connected with the cryptosphere, for example, prohibiting the withdrawal of funds from stock exchanges).

If you look at the map (above), you can see that all bans are mainly related to Asia, except for Iceland. The last taboo is connected with the crisis of 2008 (if you are not aware of the issue - look at the materials on the Web, because that year this beautiful northern country was actually robbed and ravaged: however, not only that).

The prohibition by authorities of digital currencies does not mean that the latter are not used within society. For me, perhaps the most prominent example on this subject is Colombia.

Very often, especially in South America, there was a position that “the cryptocurrency market is not yet developed in the region,” which is essentially tracing from the ECB’s position, but does not always correspond to the realities if you go through sites that are somehow tied to crypto in the same countries.

Many absurd in the actions of the authorities, who really do not understand what Bitcoin is and that its essence (not only legal) is of a completely different sense than even electronic money. Again, Russia is not the only example: here is Iceland, where the public has been on strike for a long time and for a long time stronger than in Greece; and India, where recently the promised tax and financial reform does not redistribute capital, but only removes it finally from the poorest strata of the population, while giving the elite room for development, including in the area of ​​p2p-currencies; or, say, the United Kingdom, which clearly wants to keep pace with the times, but still does not know exactly how.

The last is that the doubts themselves are so different everywhere that they could be further divided into several subgroups:

1. doubt, but mostly see a positive outcome (England, Denmark, Estonia);
2. doubt, but mostly see a negative outcome (India, Indonesia);
3. doubt in the sense that they cannot understand at all (Nicaragua).
4. doubt in other directions.

To make it even a little clearer, how well developed is the network of Bitcoin communities in the world, another map. This time - ATM-btc.



And in order to make it quite beautiful and clear - one more card: this time about the nodes in the Bitcoin network. Perhaps the correlation between this data and those given in the book will become quite obvious.



By the way, I have been interested in the node for several years (which was one of the most powerful in the world in terms of volume if interactive btc cards do not lie) that is circled in a red circle and located in the Irkutsk region: I, as a resident of this region, are not completely clear where it can, in principle, be located and most importantly - who owns it. But this is a question of another article, but for now - finish this.

Yes, the approaches look confusing, but it’s understandable: for the first time, all states have to deal with so many phenomena that contradict the most centralized state of the state as a phenomenon: torrents, Uber and Co, encryption coins ... and with this all transboundary rights and responsibilities, indefinite responsibility and weight, just snow avalanche, concepts (terms and categories), which in principle are difficult to understand at the level of current perception.

And yet, Btc, Efiruma and others like it already have their own “safe havens”: for example, the Isle of Man, which I will try to tell you about somehow, which means I have hope, at least for me, that Bitcoin’s original essence at least in part will not be spoiled by speculation, the desire of the Fed and the Central Bank of all stripes to suppress this uprising, as well as the “greater fool's effect”, which today is working to unwind the squeaky mechanisms of public power.

For now. Questions will be a great addition to the article.

PS To make it a little clearer: the book has been written for several months and contains facts about Bitcoin that are unique to the Russian-speaking environment, therefore this article is not just four beautiful pictures and results, but preparation for reading something more. Thank!