Quote from: aardvark15 on January 14, 2018, 03:20:23 AM

The South Korean news is concerning because even if they dont ban cryptocurrency trading, they are considering it. I think cryptocurrencies will eventually be mainstream, but there are going to be situations like this along the way that will affect the market enough to cause a crash.

"considering it" in what sense? in the US, several congresspeople have called for the government to ban the use of BTC over the years. there are always people in government who will make incendiary suggestions like that.

i bet that's why the russian government contradicts itself every few months regarding their legal position. in november, the communications ministers said that bitcoin "will never be legalized in russia." yet a few days ago, the story broke that a bill was drafted to legalize cryptocurrency exchanges, and that the finance ministry is developing a list of approved exchanges.

i think "korea bans bitcoin" is the new "china bans bitcoin".....nothing more. i suspect we are entering the era of regulation, licensing, whitelisting of crypto services. my worry is that this will just be a honeymoon period before the real crackdown comes.