Recently, Bitcoin took another step closer to being recognized as a mainstream currency after the Japanese government decided to include bitcoin among legal tenders. With the inclusion of bitcoin into the list, it has become the first currency without a nation.
With the inclusion of bitcoin into the list of legal tenders, banks and financial institutions in the country are now capable of accepting bitcoin deposits. Earlier, bitcoin was considered as a commodity rather than a currency. The move to include bitcoin among legal tenders is a big move for the Japanese, especially after the Mt Gox incident which sent shockwaves through the financial community. The country has bounced back since then.
The new draft law will offer the same protection to bitcoin users as the ones available for people using other legal tenders. According to a recent Nikkei report, the number of bitcoin users in Japan as grown since the announcement of the new draft law. many online platforms have included bitcoin as one of the additional payments options. Even before the country considered bitcoin as a legal tender, over 1000 shops across the country were already accepting digital currency payments.
Nikkei estimates that over 50000 of the 12 million bitcoin users across the world are Japanese. However, framing bitcoin regulations will be one of the most challenging tasks for the government as bitcoin is not like any other legal tender out there at the moment.
With bitcoin deemed legal, we can expect the instances of fraud involving bitcoin to reduce as reputable companies and financial institutions will now be able to provide investment opportunities in bitcoin. This will give people options to choose from and they don’t have to rely on a handful of investment schemes like before.
There are still concerns about bitcoin as a legal tender, but in due time, we can expect them to be addressed by the modification of existing laws to include the digital currency.
