Problem: The legal problem of Bitcoin and suggestions for Bitcoin management policies in Vietnam Nowadays, Bitcoin users in Vietnam included Vietnam-traders, exchanges, and merchants who
Trang 1Name: Vu Hoang Dung
Student ID: 17110077 - Master of Public Policy – VJU
Mid-term requirement
A two-page paper proposal consisting of the policy question to be addressed, preliminary ideas/hypotheses to be examined, and relevant sources of information/reference
Problem: The legal problem of Bitcoin and suggestions for Bitcoin management policies in
Vietnam
Nowadays, Bitcoin users in Vietnam included Vietnam-traders, exchanges, and merchants who accept payments in Bitcoins have grown rapidly In this situation, they will face a number of risks
in using Bitcoin such as legitimacy, price fluctuations, trust, security, and consumer protection Besides that, recently, many investors have suffered property losses when participating in fraudulent schemes
According to an October 30th statement1 in 2017, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said that Bitcoin is not a "lawful means of payment" in the country, and the "issuance, supply, use of Bitcoin and other similar virtual currency as a means of payment is prohibited
Authority: Bitcoin has gained wide acceptance around the world, the reason for these solutions
is to protect the interests of the state bank in issuing money and regulating monetary policy In addition, it also prevents money laundering, delinquency, and social harm As can be seen, this
is a temporary policy issued by the central bank to limit the rapid development of Bitcoin in the recently
Goals: Vietnam government need to provide policy implications to legitimize Bitcoin in the
current Vietnamese context These policies not only will benefit and protect Bitcoin users but also help to promote the development of Bitcoin “innovation clusters” in Vietnam
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Trang 2Approach: Virtual currency can be considered as a commodity, asset, investment channel or
means of payment However, due to lack of specific regulations, the Government now approaches Bitcoin as a means of payment
Ideal for action: According to the scheme, in Vietnam, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry
of Justice to take the main responsibility and coordinate with the State Bank, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance to review the current legal framework Then, the Ministry of Justice assessed comprehensively the current situation in order to propose the Government to resolve as well as amend the law on electronic money accordingly
The report assessing the current situation to revise the legal framework needs to be completed before August 2018 and by the end of 2018 must develop legal documents on virtual property
At the same time, to June 2019, it was necessary to complete the proposal for a legal framework on taxes on virtual property In addition, recommendations for the prevention of violations related to Bitcoin were also completed by the Government by September 2016
Reality check: At the moment, we do not know what is going to happen to Bitcoin, the bubble
may break and a financial crisis will spread throughout the system Meanwhile, Vietnam will also
be affected because nowadays, according to Similarweb.com, Vietnam's traffic on some Bitcoin exchanges is always in the top five along with countries like the US, Russia and Japan
The legality of Bitcoin needs to be addressed at the national level in the form of a long-term strategy for changing payment methods, accessing new technologies and integrating into the world economy
Real action: After reviewing and synthesized a number of documents, based on environment
impact assessment, social impact assessment, this paper will make some suggestions on the policy for legitimizing Bitcoin and managing of Bitcoin in Vietnam
- Recognize Bitcoin and Bitcoin Advocates & Stakeholders (Bitcoin’s users, Government, investors, enterprise)
- Regulate Bitcoin Market and businesses
- Vietnam government should help to stabilize the currency by maintaining a reserve of Bitcoins
- Policy transfer: Firstly, Vietnam need to learn and consider the mode of issuance, operation mechanism, impact factors, modes, methods, and behavior Secondly, Bitcoin can be considered as money in a specific community but only in this community Thirdly, since virtual currency can be a scam to the community, we need to guide the population, equipped with knowledge or even ban capital raising activities with virtual currency as in China Finally, in some developed countries, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and blockchain technology are the subjects of general education
Indicators: Some indicators can be used to analyze such as Bitcoin trading volume in Vietnam;
Number of investors, use of services related to virtual currency; The amount of tax collected from the virtual currency transaction; Number of businesses accept virtual money in payment; The number of blockchain related projects in Vietnam
Situations: Many countries, including Japan, Korea, China, the United Kingdom, and the United
States, are improving the regulations on virtual currency management The government is rapidly introducing regulations on the classification and management of virtual currency
Results: Bitcoin is just the beginning of new technologies and is becoming more popular, stable
and convenient In the future with the blockchain platform, Bitcoin will impact all areas of finance, banking, healthcare and education and so on
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