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Bitcoins Join Global Bank Network
another random user writes "Bitcoin-Central, a currency exchange that specialises in virtual cash, has won the right to operate as a bank. They got the go-ahead thanks to a deal with French financial firms Aqoba and Credit Mutuel. The exchange is one of many that swaps bitcoins, computer generated cash, for real world currencies. The change in status makes it easier to use bitcoins and bestows national protections on balances held at the exchange. Under European laws, the deal means Bitcoin-Central becomes a Payment Services Provider (PSP) that has an International Bank ID number. This puts it on an equal footing with other payment networks such as PayPal and WorldPay. As a PSP it will be able to issue debit cards, carry out real-time transfers to other banks and accept transfers into its own coffers."
The NSA are digging their tunnels underneath the bank's head office as we speak.
No sig today...
"However, he said, this protection only applied to balances held in euros rather than bitcoins."
So either you have an Euro account which is treated as a real bank account, or you get a Bitcoin account and are outside those regulations.
In other words, they now have an Euro bank and a Bitcoin exchange combined in the same company, but not a Bitcoin bank.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
...It is a soul-less monster.
...there's a difference?
I'm not an accountant or tax lawyer, so treat this with suspicion:
US tax law doesn't do much to distinguish between receiving cash and anything with a market value. If it's a gift, you pay the gift tax based on the cash value when you received the gift. If it was compensation for employment, you pay income tax. If it was for an investment, you pay capital gains rate. If it was reimbusement for a business expense, you don't pay tax. If it was for, well, you get the idea. It's not quite that simple, but for a Slashdot explanation, it'll do.
The good news is that you only pay one tax. You can estimate the value yourself. If you estimate too low, the IRS may come knocking. If you estimate too high, thank you for helping to fund our wonderful government with your kind donation.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Yes. Banks have souls. Many, many souls. Usually sold to them for a new car, nice house, pretty girl, etc. You know, the usual.
With relaxed lending rules, you don't even have to sign in blood anymore.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
There is no official exchange rate from EUR to USD either. The only currencies operating with official exchange rates are IRN (Iran), KPW (North Korean won), and a few others. For those there is a black market using completely different rates.
If you check the currency rates from different banks, you will see they differ. Usually by very small amounts, because every time a robot discovers it can buy USD with EUR in one bank and sell in another at a profit, the market rates at both banks will even out. The same mechanism is at work in Bitcoin. Sometimes however, the bots run out of funds and the exchange rate stays sparated by a few percent.
As for taxation, I have reported my bitcoins and Bitcoin earnings to the tax authorities every year, and they still have no clue what to do about the information. Bitcoin is an undefined entity. All their calculations return undef, NaN, null or similar.
[souls] sold to them for a ... pretty girl
What - you can buy those with a soul? Darn it! Why did I have to be born without one. Curse my ginger genes!
You don't need a bank if you are using Bitcoin. However your existing money does and your existing trading partners do. Therefore you need a way to move between the Bitcoin and banking worlds. Hence, exchanges (which already exist, but a new one has launched).
Of course, with no banks, this leads to the question of how you can get credit from the Bitcoin economy. I explored these topics in a talk I gave at the London conference, the latter part covers distributed markets, ways to use modern cryptography in P2P networks to implement things like low overhead bond and stock markets. Consumer credit financed by individual bond issues isn't really practical today, but technology could make it so.
Better than that, Bitcoins generated on graphics cards have PCI Express compliance
There seems to be some confusion about our recent announcement of a partnership with Aqoba allowing us to hold Euro balances legally. There has been an overwhelming response to this development, unfortunately some of the information quoted by journalists is factually incorrect.
This shall serve as a clarification.
In short, Paymium is neither a bank, nor a PSP. And it doesn't need to be.
Paymium, the company behind Bitcoin-Central has partnered with Aqoba, which is a registered PSP. The Crédit Mutuel Arkéa bank (not to be confused with the Crédit Mutuel bank) is the bank that Aqoba is associated with to provide the financial infrastructure a PSP needs.
This allows Aqoba to keep funds on behalf of third-parties in payment accounts ("comptes de paiement") which are different from bank accounts ("comptes de dépôt"). The difference between these is that funds deposited on a payment account may not be used for investments or loaned out. Additionnaly, these accounts have no overdraft capabilities.
These accounts will soon get their own IBAN number, be able to be associated with a debit card, but remain distinct from what is legally referred to as a "bank account".
In short :
Crédit Mutuel Arkéa is the bank that is used by Aqoba for its financial infrastructure needs,
Aqoba is a registered PSP,
Paymium works with Aqoba in order to operate as an intermediary when individuals and corporations wish to engage in the exchange of Bitcoins,
The "Garantie des dépôts" mechanism (which resembles the FDIC) covers our clients against a collapse of the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa bank.
Funds deposited with us will still remain clearly separated from Paymium's funds.
It is still a big development for a Bitcoin exchange to be able to operate legally within the European regulatory framework. Bitcoin-Central is leading the way in this respect. But we're neither a bank, nor a PSP. And we intend to keep it that way.
Don't just help spread rumors from other sources.
There seems to be some confusion about our recent announcement of a partnership with Aqoba allowing us to hold Euro balances legally. There has been an overwhelming response to this development, unfortunately some of the information quoted by journalists is factually incorrect.
This shall serve as a clarification.
In short, Paymium is neither a bank, nor a PSP. And it doesn't need to be.
Paymium, the company behind Bitcoin-Central has partnered with Aqoba, which is a registered PSP. The Crédit Mutuel Arkéa bank (not to be confused with the Crédit Mutuel bank) is the bank that Aqoba is associated with to provide the financial infrastructure a PSP needs.
This allows Aqoba to keep funds on behalf of third-parties in payment accounts ("comptes de paiement") which are different from bank accounts ("comptes de dépôt"). The difference between these is that funds deposited on a payment account may not be used for investments or loaned out. Additionnaly, these accounts have no overdraft capabilities.
These accounts will soon get their own IBAN number, be able to be associated with a debit card, but remain distinct from what is legally referred to as a "bank account".
In short :
Crédit Mutuel Arkéa is the bank that is used by Aqoba for its financial infrastructure needs,
Aqoba is a registered PSP,
Paymium works with Aqoba in order to operate as an intermediary when individuals and corporations wish to engage in the exchange of Bitcoins,
The "Garantie des dépôts" mechanism (which resembles the FDIC) covers our clients against a collapse of the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa bank.
Funds deposited with us will still remain clearly separated from Paymium's funds.
It is still a big development for a Bitcoin exchange to be able to operate legally within the European regulatory framework. Bitcoin-Central is leading the way in this respect. But we're neither a bank, nor a PSP. And we intend to keep it that way.