National Bank of Ukraine on Bitcoin
"...hryvnia is the only legal tender in Ukraine, adopted by all natural and legal persons without any restriction on all territory of Ukraine for the transfer and settlement. <...> Issuing and turnover any other currencies [besides hryvnia] and using of money surrogates for payments is forbidden<...> Given the above, National Bank of Ukraine considers "virtual currency/cryptocurrency" Bitcoin as a money surrogate that isn't providing real value and can not be used by individuals and entities on the territory of Ukraine for payments, because it is contrary to the norms of Ukrainian legislation. <...> However, the international distribution of such payments attractive for illegal activities, including money laundering and financing of terrorist activities. We emphasize that user is responsible for all the risks in use "virtual currency/cryptocurrency" Bitcoin. National Bank of Ukraine as a regulator is not liable for risks and losses associated with use of "virtual currency/cryptocurrency" Bitcoin. In order to protect consumers rights and safety of money transfer, National Bank of Ukraine encourages citizens to use services of only those payment systems/settlement systems, which included the National Bank's Registry of payment systems, settlement systems, participants in these systems and service providers of payment infrastructure." So it's not says Ukraine bans Bitcoin (some media already published such statements), it says Bitcoin already illegal in Ukraine, as any currency besides hryvnia, and says govt isn't responsible for any risks with using Bitcoin. Official statement: http://bank.gov.ua/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=11879608&cat_id=80928 (in Ukrainian) Law of Ukraine "About National bank of Ukraine": http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/679-14 (in Ukrainian) -- https://nesterov.pw GPG key: 0CE8 65F1 9043 2B11 25A5 74A7 1187 6869 67AA 56E4 https://keybase.io/komachi/key.asc
On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 11:42 AM, Anton Nesterov <komachi@openmailbox.org> wrote:
"...hryvnia is the only legal tender in Ukraine, adopted by all natural
Issuing and turnover any other currencies [besides hryvnia] and using of money surrogates for payments is forbidden<...>
Given the above, National Bank of Ukraine considers "virtual currency/cryptocurrency" Bitcoin as a money surrogate that isn't
We emphasize that user is responsible for all the risks in use "virtual currency/cryptocurrency" Bitcoin. National Bank of Ukraine as a regulator is not liable for risks and losses associated with use of
National Bank of Ukraine encourages citizens to use services of only those payment systems/settlement systems, which included the National Bank's Registry of payment systems, settlement systems, participants in these systems and service providers of payment infrastructure."
So it's not says Ukraine bans Bitcoin (some media already published such statements), it says Bitcoin already illegal in Ukraine, as any currency besides hryvnia, and says govt isn't responsible for any risks with using Bitcoin.
http://bank.gov.ua/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=11879608&cat_id=80928 http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/679-14 (in Ukrainian)
It's a careful difference between banning for everyone, and banning/regulating that which is under your purview as given to yourself in law. ('Official' currency... like govt issuing, for paying taxes with govt, interacting with govt regulated banks, and among govts, etc. Not for use purposes among private entities such as people, stores, employment, etc). Are there any countries where banks and/or currency are independent entities from the government? Their position on bitcoin would be interesting. If I were a bank, I'd fight *for* bitcoin so that I could offer wallet, exchange and retail services for fee, market the banks mining operations as investments, etc. Lots of money to be made there. Eventually maybe no one will care to define 'official', only that things just work.
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Anton Nesterov -
grarpamp