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As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, "Is Bitcoin really banned in Thailand?" Well in a recent article from Nikkei.com, that is asia.nikkei.com, the article is titled: Thailand bans bitcoin, other crypto payments starting in April. And like with everything I urge folks who are watching this go read that article. There is a lot of other stuff in the local media that's come up about this. The first time I read about it was in Nikkei so I am going to quote them. Quoting directly: "Thailand on Wednesday issued a ban against payments using cryptocurrencies and other digital assets that will go into effect next month in a bid to maintain stability in financial markets. The move by the Securities and Exchange Commission will apply to all cryptocurrency including Bitcoin. Consumers will no longer be allowed to purchase goods or services with the digital currencies." That is really interesting. "Consumers will no longer be allowed to purchase goods or services with the digital currencies. I will get to that in a minute. "Digital assets payment operators will be given a grace period through the end of April to halt services. Again, "Trading of the assets for investment purposes will be allowed to continue." I thought that was interesting. Quoting further: "The SEC said it decided to regulate and control the use of digital assets after discussing the "risks and benefits" with the Bank of Thailand, the central bank, according to a statement Wednesday. The risks cited include losses from price volatility, cyber theft and money laundering." 

Well I have got to imagine that cyber theft and money laundering are probably lower priorities but losses from price volatility I can honestly understand. Let's not forget, Central Banks, their main job is maintaining the credibility of their currency and that is just a fact; maintaining the strength if you will, maintaining the strength and credibility however you really want to look at that. The Thai Baht going back into '97, Thai folks myself included, get a little bit nervy when something comes along that may start messing around with the currency because this country has had some real economic problems resulting from heavy fluctuations in the currency. What I think is interesting here is not so much that this ban has occurred on sort of what do you want to call it, a day to day basis, it is not banned as an investment device but it is banned as effectively a currency. The question for me is one, okay quoting again: "consumers will no longer be allowed to purchase goods or services with the digital currencies" and then it goes on to say "trading the assets for investment purposes will be allowed to continue". I mean divining where trading and payment begins and ends, that to me is a tough one. Also, it is my understanding that one of the major selling points for most cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin is the fact that it is not possible to ban them. The thinking is “Oh, it is beyond the ability of a Government to ban it”. Well we might be seeing the rubber hit the road on that here in Thailand, see whether or not that is actually true. My gut tells me it probably is possible to effectively ban something like this but maybe not. The internet is sort of an elusive thing and in a way, cryptocurrency, its whole history has almost been like water flowing downhill. It is going to go wherever it can go the easiest way to get itself downhill.

So I think it is going to be interesting to watch this. Understand it is not fully banned; as an investment mechanism it is perfectly legal. Then the next question is what does that mean vis-à-vis versus payments because when you invest in something obviously you would trade currency for the asset and even in investment circles, there are things like swaps. Is it not possible to swap Bitcoin for a big bushel of wheat or something? I am just hypothesizing off the top of my head. It seems like a complex issue truly to try and ban this so as I said, Thailand may be a real test case as to whether or not Bitcoin can be banned as a practical matter.