
Cryptocurrency Now Fully Legal in South Korea - wslh
https://thenews.asia/amendment-to-special-reporting-act-passes-cryptocurrency-trading-now-legal-in-south-korea/
======
proy24
Also worth noting is that South Korea is considered to be a country with a
serious gambling problem
[https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/11/119_255191.h...](https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/11/119_255191.html)
This is partly due to the fact that upward mobility in South Korea is
notoriously hard without the right connections and also the reason why the
country went full YOLO on ICOs in 2017.

Still even with the current ruling only spot exchanges are legal and derivates
are still not allowed which means koreans exchanges are still not allowed to
offer shitcoin futures with 125x leverage.

~~~
solveit
> This is partly due to the fact that upward mobility in South Korea is
> notoriously hard without the right connections

This is perceived to be the case, yes, but I have seen no evidence indicating
that it is in fact the case. In fact, all measures I can find put Korea
somewhere around the middle of developed countries in social mobility.

------
kbumsik
The title is a bit misleading. The crypto exchange was legal already. The new
law seems to consider crypto exchanges regular financial institutions, thus
more regulated. As a result crypto is expected to be more trusted industry.

> One of the main caveats to the enactment of the amendment is that
> cryptocurrency exchanges will need to comply with reporting requirements.
> Although the larger exchanges mostly comply with the new rules already,
> small and medium-sized exchanges may have trouble obtaining the contracts to
> reach full compliance.

------
wslh
In this phase of blockchain/cryptocurrency a link is created between the two
worlds that is neither cryptoanarchist nor anticrypto. We are seeing different
strategies on how states are dealing with this. For example, Germany
initiatives [1] are different than US state based ones [2].

Even if we don't agree, cryptocurrencies are now an unstoppable force. We can
say that the worst case scenario for cryptocurrencies would be to share the
same destiny as the BitTorrent protocol [3] where there is a lot of usage but
is not popular. Cryptocurrencies are moving beyond BitTorrent fate because
there are many financial institutions, regulators, etc that are connecting
these two worlds.

Ironically, it is more practical to use stable coins for global transfers than
the volatile currencies in the permissionless blockchains that host these
stable coins [4], and also more practical and cheaper than a wire transfer
between two US accounts.

I am not saying that cryptocurrencies are not used for illicit purposes also,
or that there is some magic intrinsic value behind them. Just saying the in
the political context cryptocurrencies are gaining territory.

[1] Germany on chain: National Blockchain Strategy Released -
[https://medium.com/@philippsandner/germany-national-
blockcha...](https://medium.com/@philippsandner/germany-national-blockchain-
strategy-released-1420e9d066f7) & Bitcoin officially recognized as a legal
financial instrument in Germany: [https://www.somagnews.com/bitcoin-
officially-recognized-lega...](https://www.somagnews.com/bitcoin-officially-
recognized-legal-financial-instrument-germany/)

[2] State Regulations on Virtual Currency and Blockchain Technologies:
[https://www.carltonfields.com/insights/publications/2018/sta...](https://www.carltonfields.com/insights/publications/2018/state-
regulations-on-virtual-currency-and-blockchain-technologies)

[3] File-Sharing and VPN Traffic Grow Explosively:
[https://torrentfreak.com/filesharing-and-vpn-traffic-grow-
ex...](https://torrentfreak.com/filesharing-and-vpn-traffic-grow-
explosively-191009/)

[4] The Rise of Stable Coins: Beyond Facebook Libra:
[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rise-stable-coins-beyond-
face...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rise-stable-coins-beyond-facebook-
libra-sebastian-raul-wain/)

~~~
Nursie
> Even if we don't agree, cryptocurrencies are now an unstoppable force.

I'm sorry, but this is far from obvious.

> We can say that the worst case scenario for cryptocurrencies would be to
> share the same destiny as the BitTorrent protocol [3] where there is a lot
> of usage but is not popular.

Actually, the worst case is a crash and the whole scene collapsing in a mess
of criminal trials and bitter recriminations.

Just because cryptocurrencies are 'legalised' doesn't mean a whole lot for the
long term. In fact I would hope to see this sort of thing result in much more
active enforcement of existing legal and financial protections, something the
cryptocurrency scene has been unnervingly able to dodge so far.

> gaining territory

Not in many places. They seem to be seen by most folks I encounter as both
passe (that was so 2017!) and basically as crimebux.

I'm also enjoying the _frantic_ handwaving away of power usage concerns in the
wake of the current rebirth of the green movement, post Thunberg.

~~~
dmos62
Even if most exchanges are shut down and the price crashes, the network can't
be undone, in that, if there's demand, it's sufficiently resilient to continue
to exist. For crypto to function as currency we need it to be at least
somewhat stable. We currently have that. We also need to be able to exchange
it, which we also have. Remember that decentralized, anonymous and trustless
crypto<->fiat exchanges are possible, like Bisq
[https://bisq.network/](https://bisq.network/)

~~~
Nursie
> if there's demand

And if there isn't?

One of the failure states for cryptocurrencies at present seems to be a period
of falling demand accompanied with a falling hashrate, at which point the
blockchain can be manipulated relatviely cheaply by bad actors and all hell
breaks loose.

Bisq appears to rely on bank transfer services, which are usually traceable,
reversible etc, so I'm not sure it's quite the panacea one would hope.

~~~
dmos62
> > if there's demand

> And if there isn't?

I feel like this question is meant for speculators and investors.

> Bisq appears to rely on bank transfer services, which are usually traceable,
> reversible

Bank trasnfers are of course not anonymous, but there's nothing linking them
to crypto trading, because those are direct transfers from buyer to seller.
The platform, Bisq, doesn't ever touch the money. Bank transfers are sometimes
reversible (called chargeback), but for example for SEPA that's only in the
case of theft and you're not actually obligated to return the money, but you
would have to explain why you received it. The worst that I've heard happen is
a bank account being frozen, because of suspect activity (unexplained
transfers from many different private individuals). Bisq has effective
mechanisms for dealing with the chargeback risk. If anyone reading this is at
all interested in trustless system, I highly recommend taking a closer look at
Bisq.

~~~
Nursie
Doesn't sound massively trustless to me, and it does sound like passing the
risk of frozen accounts etc onto the user.

~~~
dmos62
It's trustless in that you don't need to trust the system. It's not risk free;
however, in practice the risk has proven to be negligible. The platform is
matching buyers and sellers. There isn't a middleman in the transactions, so
there isn't any passing of risk. The risk of freezing your account is only a
problem if trading crypto is not permited by your bank, otherwise you can just
explain/prove what you're doing. Even if it's not permited, you can be smart
about how you trade to minimize risk exposure. Again, it's not risk-free, but
you're aware of the risks and the platform doesn't require trust (definition
of trustless).

~~~
Nursie
The risk is that you start getting looked at for regular large transactions.

The platform does require trust, it requires trust in the banking system and
in the person you're transacting with. Not sure really what it achieves apart
from delegating trust from a central authority to a disparate set of
individuals. I'm not convinced that's a good thing.

~~~
dmos62
Generating bizzare banking activity is one of the risks, but, again, only
where what you're doing is illegal. Also, you don't have to trade in attention
attracting sums.

You don't have to trust the person you're trading with, because the platform
uses an escrow system (multi-signature BTC addresses), account age signing (an
old account is unlikely to have been stolen) and has mediation. That leaves
negligible risk, of which you're aware.

> delegating trust from a central authority to a disparate set of individuals.
> I'm not convinced that's a good thing

Bisq provides very similar decentralization and privacy guarantees as Bitcoin
(which is the point, because a system is as decentralized/private as its
weakest link), so I'll delegate answering this to the myriad of articles about
Bitcoin's trustworthiness.

~~~
Nursie
> the platform uses an escrow system (multi-signature BTC addresses),

But still acknowledges that some methods can result in the money being
recalled after the BTC has been released.

> account age signing (an old account is unlikely to have been stolen)

Unlikely, but you still have to trust that the account hasn't simply been used
to build up trust before the big score, which is something we see over and
over and over again in the cryptocurrency space.

> Bisq provides very similar decentralization and privacy guarantees as
> Bitcoin

Which is absolutely not the same thing I pointed out to you as the problem.
You can't just say "but bitcoin!" to wave away that this platform still
involves trust, and not trust in a regulated actor like a bank, but trust in a
number of actors, any of whom may not be trustworthy. You may not have to
trust the platform itself, but it's not clear to me that that is any sort of
positive.

------
slovenlyrobot
Is it my imagination or was this the second country announcing the same in the
past few days?

~~~
imvetri
Same here. Waiting for answer.

~~~
_rrnv
Something's to it. First was Germany clarifying legality of cryptocurrencies,
then India Supreme Court lifting 2y ban. Now SK. Interesting.

------
sandov
This must have triggered the spike back to $9k.

~~~
swarnie_
India also lifted restrictions this week i believe.

~~~
harshal_gajare
Yes. [https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2020/03/04/indias-apex-
court...](https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2020/03/04/indias-apex-court-lifts-
the-ban-on-cryptocurrency-trading/)

------
magma17
as a layman, I'm gonna buy all I can.

~~~
dmos62
[https://www.google.com/search?q=gambling+help](https://www.google.com/search?q=gambling+help)

~~~
chroem-
Even taking into account the bear market of the last two years, bitcoin still
has an average annual return of 350%. To say that all cryptocurrency equates
to gambling is just foolish.

~~~
dmos62
I've seen too many sad go-all-in stories to not mention the dangers of
gambling.

> average annual return of 350%

That's misleading. The price is currently at the ~35-40% retrace from the high
of 20k. What happened so far (for example the rally to 20k) is not an
indicator that Bitcoin's value will grow or even be sustained.

I'm not saying Bitcoin doesn't have speculative value, but you have to be
already an experienced analyst and trader (in case of day trading) to have a
chance at profiting from it. "If it were easy everyone would be doing it"
proverb is true. Crypto is much harder than forex for example. Again, unless
you really know what you're doing, trading will hardly be more profitable than
going to the casino.

~~~
chroem-
>I'm not saying Bitcoin doesn't have speculative value, but you have to be
already an experienced analyst and trader

If you buy and hold for multiple years, on average you will make 350% a year,
very similarly to how you would see a certain level of average annual returns
from buying and holding on the conventional stock market. The growth is being
fueled by the adoption of a new technology.

~~~
swiley
That really doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Bitcoin is well known and widely used at this point, even if it hasn’t reached
its maximum audience it’s approaching that. Contrast the stock market who’s
potential is capped by a combination of fossil fuels and the solar radiation
flowing into the earth, which we’re no where near using efficiently, and you
can see why they’re not at all in the same category.

~~~
llcoolv
Bitcoin's maximum (and future) audience is 100% of world's GDP, so that
governments can no longer steal value through inflation (FRB and QE). So far
it isn't anywhere near that level yet.

~~~
Nursie
Controlled inflation and QE are good things, that help keep the economy
ticking.

Where you see governments 'stealing value', the rest of us see sensible
monetary policy.

God save us from idiots who would hand said policy to a handful of software
engineers and a self-interested mining cartel.

