Are you holding bitcoin in South Africa

Hey South Africans, what’s the deal right now? Feels like we're stuck in the 1930s. Just picture this: our government wants banks to hand over Bitcoin from holders because they’re totally anti-crypto. They’re actually planning to take it from us. Honestly, South Africa is the most Bitcoin-unfriendly country on the planet at the moment. Any bank account linked to Bitcoin trading has been banned, and they’re not lifting those bans anytime soon. It’s getting worse. I saw a politician on live TV telling everyone to invest in Apple stocks and other things but to stay away from Bitcoin, saying it’s just a tool for scammers and fraudsters. A lot of crypto investors have already packed up and moved to Dubai or other places. Things got really tense when bank CEOs started saying they’ll have to follow government orders. If you've got the cash, maybe it’s time to consider leaving South Africa. It’s wild; they now know what a hardware wallet looks like, and trying to travel with one is risky. Next thing you know, they might ask you to open it up at the airport. If you get caught, they could force you to send your crypto to a government wallet. Find a way to get through the airport without your hardware wallet. If you can memorize your recovery seed or find another method, do that. Just don’t travel with a hardware wallet because they’re onto us. Any tips on getting through the airport without having your hardware wallet would be super helpful.

This is very bad news for people who are living in South Africa but it is another stronger reminder on danger of KYC. Why KYC is extremely dangerous – and useless The danger is not in the present and the future but it is more fearful because it is retrospective too like what has happened in South Africa. It's not like if you obey to government requirements now, you are well, but they will trace back to your past activities with your bank accounts, bank transfers and try to connect as most data as they can for finding whether you have any cryptocurrency-related trades in the past. That's very terrible and is like a time-delayed bomb which you don't know when will find you and explode.

You yourself wrote that it's better not to have such a device with you if you're leaving the country, so I don't know what smart advice someone can give you to make sure that border control won't find it. The only thing that comes to my mind is to make several accounts on your hardware wallet, the first of which will be only for showing in case it is necessary, and the others will be protected with a passphrase and completely invisible to anyone who has physical access to the device. This way, you can take your device with you without fear that what's on it will be taken away, of course, provided that you have stored your seed/passphrase safely.

Because the Apple stocks are on a local stock exchange ran by the politician. It's all corruption. Nobody bothers to actually look out for your best interests anymore, because it's easier for them to make money if they ignore them. Use the metal seed phrase engraving method, or just write it on a random page in a bunch of notebooks.

Bank should start giving what exactly? I feel this statement is incomplete and can be confusing. If you trade on a decentralised exchange I don’t know how banks can actually trace you. Just that we have been so carried away with the simplicity of the common Centralised exchange even though we know its disadvantages with pricacy. This is definitely not right even in the court of law. Just forget about that Wallet and move of when you get another you can import it back with the seeds phrase.

What made you think that banks and government can not trace your bank transfer history? They surely can, and they can know everything about your bank transfer history: in volume and out volume. They also know which trade partners of your bank account. Now, which things they don't know. If you and your trade partners did not leave any information about purpose of bank transfers, banks and government can not know that, but is their tracing work stops there? It does not stop there! If some time in the future, one or some of your trade partners got problems with banks and government, and they know your trade partners are doing trades with cryptocurrencies, it will be the time of digging deeper and they will find you.

To own Bitcoin, you just need to remember a sequence of 12 English words (the seed). Frankly, I've always considered hardware wallets to be quite unsafe for storing Bitcoin, although they are very popular on our forum. The problem, in my opinion, is that almost everyone knows what a hardware wallet looks like these days. So, if you're found with one, people will know you have Bitcoin. This is very dangerous in today's world.🙋 In my opinion, it's better to use a cold wallet based on the Electrum app and two devices. The fact that Bitcoin users are so heavily persecuted in South Africa amazes me... Does your government plan to introduce central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) anytime soon? If so, that explains a lot... For a crypto investor, in my opinion, the ideal option is to completely avoid interaction with the banking ecosystem. Do you have any physical exchanges that exchange cryptocurrency for cash?💸

Perhaps I should say the opposite: countries that ban Bitcoin are the ones that typically force all users to adopt it the right way. Bitcoin doesn't have a network IP address that can be restricted in any country. It's best not to bring any conspicuous physical devices, including physical wallets. How about backing up your seed phrase on a metal plate in your suitcase, the inside of your phone case, or writing two words on each button of your shirt?  But it's still recommended to learn exactly how your local airport security checkpoints work.

Share some links on this news, this part of south Africa isn't surfacing at it should, maybe this news is overshadowed by other news coming out of the country South Africa. Well with the incidences of South Africans chasing people out of their country I don't think it's the right time to talk about living in South Africa just yet, although it just what's trending now out of South Africa. But concerning this news I used to think that SA was welcoming to Bitcoin, since their technology is one of the most advanced in the continent it will be really bad of them to be negative about Bitcoin in South Africa.

Now tell me how they could seize my holding if I’m not connected to any centralised authority? I mean if I had my bitcoin in a non custodial  wallet they do not even have access to it without my seed phrase or private keys. On the bitcoin they network they can see the transaction but cant do anything about it because they have no idea who it who! And bitcoin doesn’t even have and IP address to Identify that I’m from a particular country.

I learned to respect people's opinion when it comes to using an alternative digital currency like Bitcoin because government will never support anything that will work in their favor when it comes to making decisions like this, this is where we must make more awareness to people to let them know that they have to be in control of their assets and the only way to ensure this is by embracing on their adoption of Bitcoin under a decentralized network.

Memorizing the seed phrase without any form of backup should not be an option, i could have suggested you use one of your device to secure it offline when you cross the border you can access it back, but how sure are you that the people doing the checking won't be asking to access your mobile phone as that can get it exposed to them, you can also try to save the phrase in different places on your device in a pattern only you can access and combined it together.

Is Bitcoin the only asset you own on it?  Put the seed in a place where nobody would even consider looking.  For example.  Sew it on a piece of thin fabric.  Then undo the interior layers of your jacket and insert the piece of fabric there, then sew it back up making sure the new seam will be unnoticeable.  Hell.  Sew it in the interior side of the elastic of your underwear.  Maybe the inside soles are also an option, sew it underneath the soles or insert a piece of fabric with the seed sewed on to it under the inside soles.  Find a creative way but make sure there is no way you can lose it and that it does not make the piece of cloth you are modifying evident at all. I would not put it on any thing I may lose.  Such as luggage or inside phone cases.  Even jackets are a risk.  If you could do this on the inside of a t-shirt or any other piece of clothing you will least likely have stolen away from you or seized, it would be best. Memorizing the seed is not a bad idea IF you use it along methods like the ones I described above.  Just in case something unexpected happens, memorizing it MAY help.

Combining both methods seems to me as the best alternative means out there for now, memorize such away that if your get down the plane you can immediately back it up. Then add it with the physical back up. One particular thing i would go for is hiding it under one’s sandals. The top sole can be removed and then add it in between them and stitch it back. I don’t know how thorough the search might be but it will be extremely difficult that at the airport all passengers are this thoroughly searched. The only way one is searched so thoroughly is when you’re under surveillance already before coming to the airport because I don’t think a random person can be searched thoroughly like that. One thing is that strict rules like this or restrictions has actually helped people better to actually use bitcoin in more private settings than usual, there is no way the government can clamp down decentralize mode of using crypto. One thing the citizens will result into will be P2P

I won't call them the "most bitcoin hated country" as there are still other citizens that are bitcoin maximalists from the country who believes and own bitcoin. It's just the country's currency government regime that hates bitcoin for what I don't really understand aside that they're ignorant In this situation what I think is that you can transfer your assets from hardware to a software wallet like electrum and when youve left airport to another country you can transfer back your asset to your hardware wallet and be in one piece safe.

Unless there is a suspicion of drugs or something, I doubt they would search them this thoroughly too.  I heard of airport security looking inside shoes but I have never heard of searches as rough as cutting jackets or t-shirts or destroying shoes.  I would be furious as hell, what do I do, do I walk bare feet with a teared up jacket?

I second this. Keep a backup no matter what. Maybe have the seed phrase written with some simple encryption. Plus, there are many ways to hide 12 or 24 words in plain sight, really. Mark the words in a book, for example. As said, seed phrase is all you need. If you want to spend safely you can * either learn to use cold storage, hence a laptop and an USB stick you install (after you arrive to destination) a Tails OS would do (there's some risk in this if you are not computer savvy), * or you can buy a HW at arrival (you may bring unwanted attention), * or you buy a SeedSigner (not assembled) and use that: even at customs it should not be that odd, a Raspberry Pi with camera and display is not necessarily a Bitcoin device.

But South Africa is one of the countries in Africa that are leading when it comes to crypto currency adoption, because from what I have been able to gather South Africa has a large followership when it comes to crypto currency especially Bitcoin. This is really unfortunate that this type of moves are still been taken by the government trying to crack down on the use of crypto currency in the country. I really thinks that the advice that the government is getting about crypto currency is very wrong, because in a time were most countries are trying to adopt crypto currency into their economy due to the economic implications that crypto has , a country like South Africa one of the leading economies in Africa is still fighting about crypto currency.

For someone from a country where cryptocurrency was initially banned and accounts linked to crypto transactions were freezed by banks, I actually understand what you're saying, however, your concern is mixed with too much fear. Crypto regulations in South Africa might be very tight but comparing it to 1930 I think is a bit exaggerated. Maybe the authorities there are tryna tighten control through KYC and financial surveillance and not to outrightly confiscate people's assets at the airport. That said, your warning about KYC is actually valid. Immediately your identity is tied to your transactions, it creates a trail that the government can use at will to track you. That part should be the major concern, not the things you said are happening at the airport.

Wasn't South Africa once bitcoin-friendly? And now its government hates bitcoin and even if caught, they are told to deposit it? This is really disturbing. There is no difference with Hong Kong where every tourist in transit or its own citizens where the government has the right to have the authority to check your cellphone including you have to give the password, if you resist you will be charged with a criminal offense. Suppose you go to Hong Kong and are caught carrying hardware that contains bitcoin, or a cellphone/laptop that has bitcoin they will check and maybe confiscate it. - https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/hong-kong-force-travelers-unlock-230008697.html This is even more terrible, because there are still some countries that do not like the use of bitcoin so that the government changes its laws to have rights to it.