Treating Bitcoin Trading Addicts
A 'crypto clinic" has popped up in Scotland with the main goal to cure investors of their "crypto addiction". Say what?
Castle Craig Hospital in Peeblesshire, the Scottish Borders, has created the course of treatment.
From the Evening Standard:
Experts say the trading of digital currencies or assets such as Bitcoin can become a behavioural addiction, similar to online gambling with some users obsessively following minute-by-minute fluctuations in prices.
The West Linton facility already runs drug and alcohol addiction programmes, but said it now treats cryptocurrency addiction by using techniques found in gambling addiction programmes.
"The high risk, fluctuating cryptocurrency market appeals to the problem gambler. It provides excitement and an escape from reality," gambling therapist at Castle Craig Hospital, Chris Burns, told the Evening Standard. "Bitcoin, for example, has been heavily traded and huge gains and losses were made. It's a classic bubble situation."
Tony Marini, a former gambling and cocaine addict, is leading some of the center’s new treatments.
"I see cryptocurrency trading as a way for people to escape from themselves, into another world, because they don't like the world they're in," he said. "The first stage of treatment is to join other addicts in group therapy and share their life stories. This helps them identify with each other and realise that they're not alone."
BITHUMB BLOCKS TRADING IN 11 COUNTRIES
One of South Korea's largest exchanges has blocked trading to 11 nations and now requires stricter verification from all those outside of South Korea.
The self-regulation is a means of fostering the transparent cryptocurrency market and investor protection.
“We will cooperate with the government” and follow self-regulatory measures based on the policies introduced by the Korean Blockchain Association, the exchange emphasized. The Korean Blockchain Association is spearheading self-regulation among crypto exchanges in the country. Bithumb’s revised internal regulations reflect “the government’s recommendations and the Korean Blockchain Association’s recommendations,” Korea Economic Daily elaborated.
The blocked countries include North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Ethiopia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu, and Yemen.
HOW LITHUANIA BECOME A HUB FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY INNOVATION
Lithuania has outperformed nations 20 times its size in the token economy, making it Europe’s fifth largest country for crowdfunding. The small nation boasts a burgeoning cryptocurrency scene, aided by fast internet and a favorable regulatory climate. Why is this? Bitcoin.com News explores.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
