Adam Vaziri from Diacle introduced how Bitcoin is being treated from a legal standpoint in the UK.
Adam took Nicolas' discussion at a conceptual level about the definition of money and currency and looked at it from a regulatory point of view.
Money was money if legal tender and legal tender requires the ability to pay debt with the currency.
Adam questioned whether it was safe to push Bitcoin to be recognised as a currency.
You need to investigate the implications first and whether or not the existing legal infrastructure is transposable to this new technology.
Adam described the different regulations that juxtapose over Bitcoin, such as the e-money regulations and payment regulations
and suggested a form of indirect regulation of Bitcoin Exchanges as payment institutions.
Adam gave an overview of the regulatory landscape at an international level with a discussion about how it is perceived in China,
Germany and the nordic countries.
Questions were raised by the audience about the introduction of Coin Validation
(a system to prevent the circulation on the blockchain of illegal money);
Adam drew an analogy with the crackdown of online gambling by the US in the 00's and the fact that Bitcoin is currently being used
to circumvent US gambling legislation.
Coin Validation would inhibit this activity and, in any event,
Adam's view was that the US would close this loophole in their gambling laws in the near future; however,
Coin Validation endangered the fungability of Bitcoin.
One of the key points brought out by the presentation was that although Bitcoin
was an unregulated territory in the UK for now, anti-money laundering laws still apply and that,
although in the past Bitcoin businesses neglected the implications of money laundering laws, now there is growing awareness.
For further information about digital currency and fintech regulation see diacle.com .