While we haven’t exactly seen widespread adoption of bitcoin for
digital news subscriptions, it’s nice to see it getting a start in Italy.
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“Contracts
with virtual currencies are enforceable in principle and penalties can
be imposed for criminal offences associated with virtual currencies.
Certain business models based on virtual currencies are subject to
financial market laws and need to be subjected to financial market
supervision.
Professional trade in virtual currencies and the
operation of trading platforms in Switzerland generally come under the
scope of the Anti-Money Laundering Act. This includes compliance with
the obligation to verify the identity of the contracting party and
establish the identity of the beneficial owner.”
“The more I learn about bitcoin, the less I remain sceptical about it!”
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“We finally got clearance from ARIF, who were asking FINMA many questions about how they should deal with us. [The clarification from ARIF] is what we were expecting.”
“I don’t really know why [Bitcoin Suisse AG] made so much noise [about its ATM]. Maybe they wanted to get themselves known or they want things to move quicker.”
“I think SBEX fulfilled all the regulatory requirements before Bitcoin Suisse did, so they got the approval first.”
Bitcoin Suisse chief executive Niklas Nikolasjen said his firm was working on obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals for their ATM. He said the media had overstated his firm’s cancelled ATM launch and that it had been consistently working to obtain regulatory approval.
“It is now clear to everyone in the industry that the regulatory authorities require certain steps to be undertaken by companies who professionally deal with digital finance. BTCS is naturally following these requests as well,” he said.
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Bit-Wallet at Bitcoin Meetup in Rome Photo by G. Baroncini Turricchia |
“Risk and opportunity were clearly disclosed in a neutral way. In the second part, [a representative moderated a] discussion between politicians, institutions and business, and [many questions were asked by these participants].”
The events come in the wake of the Central Bank of Italy’s May warning that domestic investors should avoid buying, investing in or using bitcoin as a currency due to price volatility and the lack of consumer protection laws to protect consumers.
Proliferating bitcoin
A second, non-affiliated event, organized by digital payment advocacy group CashlessWay, is set to take place on 26th June. Speakers will include bitcoin banking provider Robocoin CEO Jordan Kelly and parliament member Sergio Boccadutri, who presented a proposal for regulating bitcoin under existing Italian law in January.
“Italy is full of cultural tastemakers and has a rich history in banking and finance. These all support Robocoin’s goal of helping proliferate bitcoin.”
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“Households make daily payments using cards and cash totalling 8 million in volume and to a total value of over SEK 3 billion. Even if the use of bitcoin in Sweden were to be much larger than the average exchange value of just over SEK 266,000, this is a relatively low value in relation to other types of payment. At present, there only seem to be around 25 swedish companies accepting Bitcoin.”
“It can contribute to meeting new payment needs and to making payments cheaper and more secure. Those who choose to use a particular payment service can be expected to do so because it gives them an added value in relation to other payment services. This also applies to virtual currencies, which can for instance make some cross-border payments simpler, faster and cheaper. Another advantage is if the payer does not need to share sensitive information, such as card number or bank account number, with the payee.”
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(CoinDesk) Estonia-based bank LHV has announced a new project that will explore
the legal framework and potential uses of bitcoin’s block chain
technology in banking so it might develop bank services for bitcoin and
other digital currencies.
“We are interested in the technological
side of digital currencies as we hope it could make bank services more
simple and efficient,” Priit Rum, head of communications at LHV, told
CoinDesk.
The project manager will examine all digital currencies, not limiting itself to bitcoin.
For
now, the bank won’t engage in trading bitcoin, Rum said, but more
likely, could develop its payments system using block chain technology.
The company claims to be the first bank in the world to implement such a program, stating:
“We
have been aware of crypto currencies for some time now […] we decided
last month that establishing a side project to explore the block chain
technology and analyse possibilities of cryptocurrencies would be a good
opportunity to stay with the innovation.”
While the news of this action by a major bank is perhaps encouraging, in Estonia, bitcoin is tangled in regulatory uncertainty.
Earlier this year, the country’s central bank issued a warning
against bitcoin and digital currencies calling it a Ponzi scheme,
saying “virtual currency schemes are an innovation that [deserve] some
caution”, but that it would continue to monitor their development.
Shortly after, local bitcoin trading site BTC.ee put a halt on trades, coming under pressure from Estonian authorities who challenged the site’s compliance with the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.
Said Rum:
“LHV
is a regulated bank and we take all the regulations and guidelines very
seriously […] For us, all the questions about ‘know your customer’ and
concerns of money laundering have to be dealt with before we can really
develop new bank services using new technology.”
Estonians have been enthusiastic about bitcoin for some time, despite the regulatory difficulties the domestic ecosystem faces.
The
country’s capital Talinn had a successful week-long bitcoin showcase
last month, during which bitcoin advocates came together to educate
those new to the digital currency and boost its popularity.
For more on the latest developments in the eastern European economy, read our most recent report.
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“The Dubliner is an excellent place to [site] a bitcoin ATM, since they have a
lot of customers and long opening hours. The pub is also located very
centrally near the Stork Fountain, which is the center of Copenhagen’s
shopping district.”
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“The use of electronic
currency is restricted to banks and electronic money institutions — that is,
private legal entities duly authorized and registered by the Central Bank of Italy.
Aside from these developments, Italy
does not regulate Bitcoin use by private individuals, and currently the
implementation of initiatives concerning the use of electronic currencies lies
with the EU.”
“Banca d’Italia is
studying the [Bitcoin] phenomenon, and perhaps — if they were fast — in 10-20
years we could have a law on it.”
“In Italy, we are at the beginning of
Bitcoin’s spreading among the population. There is an interesting Bitcoin
community [in Italy],
but it is still very hard to explain to Italian people the real value that
Bitcoin creates in the economy and the job opportunities it creates.This is because of
misinformation by the national media that actually regard it as a scam or worst
as associated with criminal deeds.Even the local Bitcoin
Foundation is not as active as it should be, so whatever can move this
situation is welcome.”
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The Third CoinsSummit is to be held in London this July. San Francisco was the acting ground of the previous CoinSummit convention that was held in March; as the second convention presented, this next summit will feature a series of panel discussions and speeches from bitcoin enthusiasts, hedge fund professionals, VC and angel investors, and experienced cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.
The information posted on the CoinSummit official site:
“CoinSummit London is a two-day event connecting virtual currency entrepreneurs, angel and VC investors, hedge fund professionals and others who are looking to learn and network in the virtual currency industry. CoinSummit will take place on July 10-11 2014 at the East Wintergarden London.”
Some notable speakers include Silk Road Equity co-founder Matthew Roszak, new Bitcoin Foundation board of director Brock Pierce, angel investor Roger Ver, and Maidsafe CEO David Irvine. Some of the others participants include Megabigpower founder David Carlson, Lamassu CEO Zach Harvey, eToro CEO Yoni Assia, and many others.
This 3rd CoinSummit, organizers are presenting a new set. Besides the usual structure, a special platform is being organized for a few startup companies. Coinsummit has informed at their site, that ten startups will be given the chance to present in front of the entire CoinSummit audience and will be chosen on the basis of the size and charm of the opportunity they are designing, the strength of the team, and their traction / metrics / achievements.
The summit is organized by Pamir Gelenbe, a strongly firmed crypto currencies entrepreneur and partner at Hummingbird Ventures. After the last summit in March, Gelenbe has stated:
“We hope to bring together entrepreneurs, VC investors and folks from hedge funds who want to learn about bitcoins as an asset class…we really want to focus on the business side of Bitcoin as we don’t think there has been an event like this before.”
CoinSummit has been the leading hand on taking Bitcoin discussion to higher grounds by cementing the bonds between the Bitcoin communities around the world and relaying trustworthy information to the media and business investors.
CoinSummit London 2014, will be held at the East Wintergarden and take place on July 10-11. Entrance to the conference is invite-only. Digital currency enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who wish to attend the event can request an invitation on the summit’s official site; applying for the presentation is free and the deadline to register is June 20.
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(CoinReport) Heads up folks! Bitcoin 2014: Building the Digital Economy conference is being held in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17.
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