> Do tell more! I was unaware of any country having officially stated Bitcoin as illegal

Bitcoin itself may not be illegal, but the encryption schemes may be illegal for private citizens to use in some countries, especially ones that don't want their citizens communicating in secret.

In Bitcoin protocol there are no encrypted messages. The only thing that may or may not be encrypted is your own private keys. But it does not concern legislation of encrypted communication because you don't communicate those keys to anyone.

I too don't know of any such country, but he might be living in a country that bans all foreign currency. (That's how it was in communist Romania.)

You can make an argument that Bitcoins is not a foreign currency as it can be mined domestically in your own country.

The law I pasted to some other replies just states that the only currency that can be used for commerce within the country is the national one. Also defines that national currency is the one created and regulated by the central bank.

In fact, is it even known which country bitcoin originated in?