JVTech News This country intends to sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to its people
Although 2022 was not the best year for Bitcoin, this country still intends to offer Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to its inhabitants directly, without going through an intermediary. To do this, the government will set up its own cryptocurrency exchange platform.
Indonesia will sell Bitcoin and cryptocurrency to its people
In a regulatory process, Indonesia announced it will launch a national exchange that will allow its people to trade digital assets including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2023. The launch of the exchange platform is part of a reform by the Indonesian government aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency sector and finance in general in the country.
“Indeed, crypto-assets have become financial and investment instruments, so they need to be regulated just like other financial and investment instruments.” Explains Sastrosuwito, head of risk management and finance at the Indonesian Ministry of Finance.
Launched last December, the reform will therefore create a platform for the purchase and resale of cryptocurrencies controlled and regulated directly by the country’s government authorities. On this exchange, reserved exclusively for the Indonesian population, every inhabitant will be able to “easily” buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
This initiative is part of a global project aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency sector while exploiting the financial opportunities that this market represents. This new project echoes an announcement made a few months ago. Last September, the country said it was studying a law according to which every board of directors of crypto companies in the territory must be composed of at least 66% of members of Indonesian nationality.
A contrarian concept of Bitcoin
While the country is considered to be a state with a truly rich crypto culture, the government seems to be going against the grain of bitcoin values.
Indeed, while it has recognized Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as trading assets, it is important to remember that the country does not yet recognize Bitcoin as a currency in its own right. In this sense, in 2017, the government implemented a general ban on payments in cryptocurrencies on its territory.
This measure therefore goes against the essence of Bitcoin’s project, which is to offer a peer-to-peer payment system. Furthermore, while the digital currency aims to be decentralized, dispensing with institutions and governments, Indonesia’s control over the trading of crypto would mean losing the characteristics of these.
Concretely, the crypto initially allows for the free exchange of value anonymously, but if a state imposes itself as an intermediary then obviously anonymity will no longer be appropriate. In the same filing, Central Bank of Indonesia director Perry Warjiyo proposed launching a national cryptocurrency, dubbed the “digital rupee,” to regulate the sector.