I wonder how this severed ties with mainland Chinese users would impact the market, or if it would have any impact at all. 
What do you think?
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Hi,
For anyone who thinks this is a shock, please recall (or know) that in 1978, the UK was under foreign exchange control because as a country we were too poor to be trusted to maintain a GBP currency that was not inflating into oblivion. I stepped foot on my first aeroplane mid 1978 to fly to France to take up my first job as a field engineer in Sumatra. I took a total of ÂŁ200 Sterling in cash, and the customs officer wrote it in the back of my passport. At the time, if you wished to buy USD or Pesetas or French Francs in any reasonable quantity, there was a 100% tax to be paid to the British Government for the pleasure.
As Michael Cane most famously never said “not a lot of people know that”
Now the Chinese are large in number, and are known for not being averse to risky investments, so the news impact is high. But how will this work out in the long run? Country governments are (quite understandably) very nervous about capital flight and their inability to control it by ordinary means - like until crypto, every transaction having to go through a third party (counterparty) with an attendant risk and an unfair profit opportunity for big business like the banking cartel, and they are afraid of the accelerating methods by which their citizens can circumvent one of their most effective methods of controlling their own citizens (domestic currencies, and a resident captive audience who have to pay taxes on profits by law).
Crypto threatens that status quo in just about every country in the world with perhaps the small exception of offshore jurisdictions that serve the rich. So wouldn’t it be terrible if Joe Public has a mechanism to do with his thousand dollars that the rich and famous have been able to do with their millions and now billions of dollars, with a far smaller “barrier to entry” of a few satoshis instead of extravagant “international banking charges”.
My personal take on this is that there is equal likelihood that developed countries may move to severely restrict ownership and transfer of crypto funds, and also an equal chance that unless the majority of world countries adopt the same (undemocratic) methods, then crypto will be the only game in town in the next decade after the collapse of the USD and every other currency that it is a counterparty to, and BTC will indeed be worth more than $1M per token. Either way, it’s worth the participation. The risk / reward ratio is potentially huge - but not as huge as winning the lottery.
EU citizens can move capital freely within the EU - if I’m in Germany and use a debit card in a cash machine then under EU law I cannot be charged any more that if I use the card at home -all financial transaction charges, regardless of size or nature, must remain the same regardless of country.
Cash in excess of 10k euro can also be freely moved but customs have the right to ask source and reason for cash under money laundering laws.
Excerpt from the EU regulation: The basic principle is that the charges for financial transactions offered by a payment service provider (your bank) must be the same, for payments of the same value, whether the payment is national (and not your own bank) or cross-border. You cannot be charged extra fees (for example, annual fees or once-off charges) for using your card in other EU member states.
Hi,
That is because all EU countries share the same EU currency. Denmark, Norway, Sweden maintained their own currencies, as the UK did the GBP before Brexit. They are part of the EU. So does the same EU law apply to Krone or Krona? And Romania?
Used a card in Prague for some koruna - later checked for both rate and fees - rate was better than being offered by local bank and fees same - the law applies EU wide.
UK remains in SEPA for now at least (electronic exchange within EU)
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