Nigeria Warns of Bitcoin, Ripple, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Onecoin

The Central Bank of Nigeria has sent a notice to banks and other financial institutions in the country, warning them of some issues associated with Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term. The regulator specifically stated that Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term, Ripple, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Onecoin and others are not legal tender in Nigeria and thus anyone dealing with them do so at their own risk.

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Unlike the claims on some community forums, the central bank did not "ban bitcoin" in Nigeria but rather just asked the financial institutions under its jurisdiction to follow standard policies meant to curb money laundering and terror financing.

While banks are asked not to hold, trade or use any cryptocurrencies themselves, they are allowed to keep servicing bitcoin exchanges. They need to make sure these exchanges have effective controls in compliance with rules on customer identification, verification and monitoring.

Only if the exchanges are found to be not compliant do banks need to stop their relationship with them according to the Central Bank of Nigeria. And if banks notice any suspicious transactions, they need to be reported, presumably just as with any non-cryptocurrency related clients.

It should be noted that many reports refer to the Bulgarian-created OneCoin as a multi-level marketing (MLM) scam.