National Bank of Ukraine on Bitcoin

[grarpamp]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 11:42 AM, Anton Nesterov
<komachi at 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.