There is no uniform international legislation for cryptocurrencies that would determine how digital currency can and cannot be used. Therefore, every country determines the conditions on its own. Some accept cryptocurrencies, others don’t want to have anything to do with them, and some have even criminalized them. Regardless of the reason a country states when banning cryptocurrencies, the case is mostly that it wants to maintain control over its own financial system.

Saudi Arabia has banned bitcoin for religious reasons, saying it’s incompatible with Muslim law. Iceland banned it to prevent large amounts of money leaving the island nation’s borders. The Bolivian government banned it for the simple reason that it cannot control it.

Ecuador has been fighting against popular cryptocurrencies since about 2014. The country’s central bank issued a damning statement against bitcoin, saying that BTC has “no backup, because it supports its value in speculation. The financial transactions carried out through bitcoin are not controlled, supervised, or regulated by any entity in Ecuador, which is why its use represents a financial risk for those who use it.”

However, Ecuador issued its own national cryptocurrency in 2015 as a compatible system tied to the local currency, which enhances convenience in everyday transactions. It appears the government was not afraid of new technology, it only wanted its citizens to use its own version of it.

Many countries that ban this technology had phases when they didn’t let their own currency be traded on the free market. They don’t establish exchange rates through economics but by simply saying: “Okay, the exchange rate is now X.” For the people, however, it’s hard to trust a manipulated currency, so they start looking for other options.  These governments feel threatened by new technology, so their only solution is to criminalize and restrict it. All this, however, may give rise to a black market in the country because you can’t turn bitcoin off with laws.

For many people, cryptocurrencies represent “internet money that people used to buy drugs and order hitmen.” This association has scared off several governments. Countries like China, Vietnam, and Bolivia would rather see the technology banned on the pretence that they are developing laws to successfully keep cryptocurrencies out of grey or black zones with the idea “let’s regulate it before we use it.” This isn’t compatible with innovation though. Even the first television sets were invented before there was any associated regulation. They were sold and people waited to see what happened as a result.

The U.S. has a generally positive attitude to cryptocurrencies. There are a number of crypto start-ups and investment firms bringing legitimate business power to this still-developing branch of fintech.

Even though it’s perfectly legal, countries don’t necessarily support holding cryptocurrencies. The U.S. Treasury doesn’t consider bitcoin a currency, but a money services business. This distinction means it is subject to the Bank Secrecy Act, so exchanges, payment processors, and other crypto businesses have to follow strict reporting, registration, and record-keeping practices. In addition, the IRS calls bitcoin a property, which means those who hold it are subject to tax.

Ten years after being released, cryptocurrency technology is an unstoppable machine that is spreading all over the world. You can’t turn it off, you can only choose how to engage with it (if at all).