BlockTrades no longer accepting US customers

in #blocktrades11 months ago

Due to increasing regulatory uncertainty with regard to cryptocurrency in the US, BlockTrades is no longer offering trading services to US citizens and residents. We will keep existing accounts open for US customers until June 1, 2023 to enable download of trading records, but those accounts will no longer be able to use our trading service.

I'm sorry it has come to this state, but at this point it seems like it is impossible to predict anymore what token may be considered a security by the SEC as the definition seems to change based on who is in charge, so I see no choice but to end the service for US customers.

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While it is alarming and quite sad to see this day come, I would ask if there is a way to create a decentralized service that provides a mechanism your current customers can turn to when you are no longer able to provide services.

If we cannot decentralize trade, cryptocurrency has already failed and we might as well just sign up for CBDCs.

Thanks!

Our service only provided crypto-to-crypto services, but to create a fully decentralized version of even that is quite difficult, because it requires cross-chain transfers. Essentially each chain that supports exchanges between each other would need to be able to validate transactions on the other chain.

What about Rune? Can't each token be exchanged for Rune, which can be exchanged for the other tokens? I confess I am not up to speed on the specific tokens Rune can work with, but the last I saw included the bulk of capitalization of the industry. Is there no way to set up a DAO based on Rune that is immune to jurisdiction because there is no corporation, no owner to serve or regulate?

I can kick in if required to make it happen.

I don't really know anything about Rune, never used it. But from a technological perspective, there either needs to be an organization in the middle, or there needs to be a way for the system to validate transactions on the chains.

Hi blocktrades, right now your website generates the 503 error when viewing it, I'm in Mexico.

The US government kills innovation... The SEC should be abolished.

I disagree. Quite innovative when coming up with new ways to be assholes.

Isn't that the truth!

!lol

Why are vacuums always so tough?
Because they know how to suck it up.

Credit: reddit
@nonameslefttouse, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of @akumagai

(1/1)
Use the !LOL or !LOLZ command to share a joke and an $LOLZ

I agree 100%. King of innovation and very friendly to those in cutting-edge technology.

Thank you for update us.

US Regulation at its finest lol way to go USA 🤣


~~~ embed:1648410203996528642 twitter metadata:MTMzMTMzMDM1NTUxMzc0NTQxM3x8aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS8xMzMxMzMwMzU1NTEzNzQ1NDEzL3N0YXR1cy8xNjQ4NDEwMjAzOTk2NTI4NjQyfA== ~~~
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @jeffjagoe, @taskmaster4450le ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.

Totally understand and support your move here. At the same time feeling really discouraged as an American in crypto.. Tokens that will not move and aren't spendable are basically worthless to me. No reason why Hive can't stay strong in other global markets.

Formerly, I was able to not worry about needing to get out anytime soon, but currently, I can't afford assets with such a shaky future.

Ooops...posted in wrong thread

USA might be the first, but it won't be the last and their stranglehold on those who obey will get much, much worse.

Some VPN's are fine, but Lokinet is faster, more private and more decentralised (it's similar to Tor). Use it, then look at many of the other options that are out there that have no limits and do not require any KYC either like swapspace.co, godex.io, simpleswap.io, or godex.io.

All of those will buy your Hive and sell you Hive, no worries.
Black and grey all the way. #agorism

Inviting American refugees to Poland was recently a runing joke for me when I saw some twisted Murica content online. Once again, I feel sorry for you, decent people living in this more and more oppresive place.

That's a real shame. I'm sure people will suggest other options, but this sort of creeping legislation is bad for crypto. I hope you can keep operating elsewhere, but let us know of other issues.

Aaaarrrrggghhhhhh.

What are the options for Americans?

Disobedience

Seems like the people calling the shots have some funny ideas about freedom.
It's a sad, shameful milestone.

Have you found much time for the reputation system?

We just started working on it about two months ago. So far there's just one guy working on it, but I plan to give him some more help soon.

I'm hoping it will work as well as this other creation you put together.
It is definitely a governance issue in need of some algorithmic math treatment.

Sorry to hear that BlocKTrades.. My favorite exchange. You guys in the States need to get rid of the mafia openly running the show. Same goes for Canada. The turd must fall.
Here is the real scary news I read yesterday.. IMF has a coin....
'
https://www.theepochtimes.com/umu-a-new-global-digital-currency-launched-at-imf-event_5202855.html

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are being floated in the EU and US. It means the end of all semblance of financial privacy and terminates all lingering ties to sound money. After what we saw during COVID, we know governments will stop at nothing to coerce society the moment any emergency arises, whether real or contrived. Dissidents will be un-personed.

I can't wait to be un personed.I'm a Man :) All us Humans will have to band together and form our own society. If we are large enough, they can't F with us. :)
The trick is...... Doing it

The State followed us to the physical frontiers, and now the digital frontier. Freedom always means finding ways to escape.

Exactly.
I am not a PERSON or a CORP-ORATION. (All "Capital" letters are intentional). I am a living man.

Using their new currency (not money) will permanently enslave you in their new system, as this is well documented on the imf, bis, wef and other globalist websites, plus the Agenda 2030, Lockstep, Project Sandman and other docs. It's even worse for those people who decided to edit their own DNA with the jab. That step literally removed their "human" rights in their admiralty maritime law system.

Anyway, fighting these entities is fruitless and will result in death, so the best maneuver imo is to render the beast obsolete. Stop using their financial, energy and food system constructs completely. #web3

It is time to build voluntary communities and voluntary economies inside the crumbling shell of the status quo. Silver, gold, crypto, tools, and practical skills all need to be accumulated for that.

Hive doesn't pass the "Baker Test", I guess. So we shall see

This is depressing! This government is despicable, I truly despise "Them"!!!! Rant over...

I figured this would happen at some point. It is why I stopped investing my fiat currency into HIVE. This makes things so much more difficult.
The only way I can think of now is to buy MATIC or BUSD and swap for PHIVE or BHIVE and use the CUB multi token bridge to move it onto the chain. That will be cumbersome and expensive.

It's a sad day in Hivetopia but I fully understand your decision. You must cover your bases. Thank you for all you have done!

Oh! Ni! Those with big guns do have very loud voices! More turmoil in global financial situation soon, they have to control all cryptocurrencies!
There must be a way out!

Oh this is going to be very serious for the people who lives in USA.
I even have a dream to go there and settle..well

Really sad and disappointed to hear this, we need a permanent solution of this we love to see hive ecosystem system expansion and development not restrictions like this

is blocktrades the only way for americans to transfer hive? does this basically mean those in the US need to either power down and leave hive or use VPN to continue using blocktrades?

you can always go via the wleo.io bridge to e.g. pHive, and trade that for e.g. MATIC on the Polygon network. Same goes for Binance and bHive, but Binance doesn't work for US.

Please don't use a VPN to access our service. It wouldn't help anyways, as we are required to collect identity documentation from our clients. There are still many trading services that work with US customers and many trade Hive, but I've always been very conservative when it comes to avoiding regulatory problems so I don't want to take any risks.

Thank you @blocktrades, I appreciate everything you’ve done on Hive. I agree about not risking with vpn. Things have to be done right. I realized there is Ionomy exchange. Hopefully it will work.

There are exchanges like godex or stealthex where you can get BTC (and many others) for hive or vice versa.

Thank you @misterc 🙌

I've used ionomy a long time ago but it doesn't transfer US dollars to your bank does it?

Bittrex was what I had been using to get US dollars to my bank so I could actually spend it. They don't do United States anymore. Now I'm confused. I signed up for Coinbase but haven't used it yet and don't really know if we here in the US can send hive and HBD there and convert to US dollars and have that sent to our bank? I don't even know how to ask the questions correctly. Can anyone help?

I’ve used Ionomy when bittrex stopped working for US, it was about 3 years ago. I need to test it and see if it works. You can try by sending 1 hive or less that way if it doesn’t work you don’t loose much.

Coinbase will connect to your bank, but you have to figure out how to trade Hive for something coinbase supports.

I'm still trying to figure it out myself.

You are welcome 😊
I have used stealthex and godex a few times for hive and so far i can't complain.
Not that you think i'm recommending something i haven't tried. 😃😃

Ohh damn that's hard

I was wondering when this would happen. Got to take care of your business.

Feelsbadman

Them too? I understand, but, this is so disappointing to me.

Sad times indeed - sorry to hear this

Sad news.
By the way you should considered, come to El Salvador the Bitcoin city, AND have an agency here of tour Enterprise.
Here we know the legal system.

It can come to Brazil, here is such a mess that the government is able to accept toy money in place of real, but I did not understand all the exchanges will happen this?

Sad to hear this, I hope this Gensler will be fired soon who's doing his best to push crypto away with these regulations.

Would that mean Cubans will be allowed to use your services?

If they're in America.

I mean there's always Atomic wallet for trading. Hive Engine for now... and remember self custody.

This isn't the first time I've heard this announcement lately. I ran into several roadblocks trying to deal with it in the UK, only to find out the websites I spent hours trying to set up and become verified for, no longer serviced the UK. Great.

Starting to wonder if, no matter how much Hive I got, it's ultimately just unable to be spent in the future and functionally worthless

Give folks time. Non-custodial exchanges and black market alternatives will emerge.

I'm so sorry to hear this!

The US government constantly undermines the propaganda of being a "free country." I can't blame you for dodging the biggest mafia in the world.

A sad day.
I'm so glad I am not American.

Interestingly a number of close US allies (UK and Australia in particular) are taking a very pro-crypto approach.

They see the opportunity and don't have a reserve currency status to protect.

The US is not very free economically, and the legal system is utterly broken where it isn't outright corrupt. Instead of serving as a bastion for peace and prosperity, the government is meddling in foreign affairs, sometimes openly, and sometimes covertly.

Thank God government is not society. Otherwise, I would be expatriating.

Ahh, does that mean that the KYC can be made optional?
Or it is still required to do business in other countries.

It's required by Cayman Islands law.

Why i do not wonder about that?

Maybe you did not ask for make a legal service in your country?

We in Germoney did it in the past and the part of financial goverment(BaFin) helped us to stay in the Legal Zone with no problems for us and our customers in the future...Belive me, that are wise words...

Maybe that is a better way for your service, too? Ask people who made regulations for your work is good or not? No Option for you? So they tell you the truth, be sure, everytime.

They tell you, you should open a Bank, if you do things like you did in the past... I am fully with that...

Salve

Alucian

As a U.S. Hiver ... don't you think this is a bit premature? Uncertainty about regulations is not itself regulations ... and even Bittrex, the only place with a Hive/USD pair, gave us three weeks to wind down our trades and didn't just put us out suddenly. You are one of Hive's biggest supporters, and we all respect that ... but why are you so quick to give up on those of us here in the U.S, when nothing yet has actually changed?

I know that you have courage ... we are sitting on Hive because of your courage ... you didn't let Justin Sun intimidate you by what he actually was doing... so, why are there no other choices? You found and a helped make a choice called Hive, once ... what happened?

It's disappointing to hear that BlockTrades will no longer be offering trading services to US citizens and residents due to regulatory uncertainty around cryptocurrencies.

Hey @blocktrades wanted to alert you to this issue that I and others are having with antivirus alerting us on the api.hive.blog service. I first saw it in the PeakD discord this morning.

Not sure what's causing it but wanted to give you the heads up so it can hopefully get looked into and resolved! Hopefully it's not just shadowbanning hive!

image.png

Sorry for the late response, but it's a false positive reported by Avast. It happened once recently too, then they cleared it. Basically users of Avast need to report it as a false positive and they'll take us off the list. In the meantime, you can just tell Avast to ignore it I think (I don't use AVAST so can't say exactly how you do it).

I'm not typically the paranoid type, but given we've had two such false reports in a short period of time, I guess there is someone out there trying to be annoying, given it's reporting a threat from an API node (it's not even a web site, so the claim is pretty ridiculous).

Thanks man, no worries! I added it to the exception list as I figured it was BS lol.

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

It is unfortunate to hear that BlockTrades is no longer accepting US customers. As a cryptocurrency exchange, BlockTrades has been a popular choice for many users, and its decision to restrict access to US customers is disappointing for those who reside in the United States.

While it's understandable that companies may need to adapt to changing regulatory environments and comply with local laws, the exclusion of an entire market segment can be disheartening for cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the US. The decision may have been influenced by the evolving regulatory landscape surrounding cryptocurrencies, which can create complexities and uncertainties for exchanges.

However, it is worth noting that there are still alternative cryptocurrency exchanges available to US customers, offering similar services and features. It's important for users to explore other options and find a platform that meets their needs and aligns with their geographic restrictions.

In any case, this development highlights the need for greater regulatory clarity and consistency in the cryptocurrency space. As the industry continues to evolve, it is crucial for regulators and market participants to work together to establish a framework that fosters innovation while ensuring consumer protection and financial integrity.

Overall, while it is disappointing that BlockTrades will no longer serve US customers, it is essential for users to stay informed about changes in the cryptocurrency landscape and seek out other reputable platforms to continue their digital asset transactions.

Thank you for supporting women from Ukraine 🇺🇦

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