The Central Bank of Bolivia, also known as El Banco Central de Bolivia, announced this week that they have officially banned the use of any currency, including Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, that are not regulated and issued by their government. The policy was officially imposed on May 6th, but has been receiving press coverage from PanAm post who got the official statement from the bank.
“It is illegal to use any kind of currency that is not issued and controlled by a government or an authorized entity.” The statement says from the Central Bank. This means that citizens cannot use currencies that are not already approved by the bank and government in the South American country.
The ban is in an attempt to try and protect the local currency, Boliviano, from inflating too much and to avoid potential loss of funds from their citizens. Bolivia has had some rapid inflation in the latest years, just as other South and Latin American countries had and this is their best way of protecting the consumers interests.
The decision to make it illegal to use cryptocurrencies of any kind is quite strict and not many other places have the same strict laws, despite having the same view on the Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole. It will be interesting to see if they will lift the ban of make the rules a little more consumer friendly in the future.