Afghanistan launched a crackdown on crypto exchanges, closing at least sixteen such exchanges in the last week.

According to Sayed Shan Sa’adat, an Afghanistani security official:

“[Afghanistan’s central bank] stated in a letter that digital currency trading has caused lots of problems and is scamming people, therefore they should be closed. We acted and arrested all the exchangers involved in the business and closed their shops.”

Is anyone surprised?

First, you’ve got a very authoritarian regime.  If cryptocurrency really was this vast underground economy, free from government interference, that would horrify them, so it’s not surprising they’re not big fans.

Second, Islamic law is very finicky about finance.  Although there are different interpretations, it’s safe to say that that Taliban is going to take the strictest.  I am not an expert on this, and it’s possible there is no overlap since the theological constraints are mostly around charging interest.  But in Islamic countries, this thinking impacts everything from derivatives contracts to options to short selling.

But the big factor probably isn’t theocrats or theology.  It’s probably exactly as officials say: new technology + unsophisticated people + money involved = scams.  According to one resident:

Digital currency is a new phenomenon which is not used in Afghanistan, therefore the process should be monitored by the government so that there will be no scamming and people can make better investments,

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

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His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.