Bitcoin Forum

Bad News
French Authorities dismantle "Illegal" Bitcoin exchange.
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140707&id=17754490 (http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140707&id=17754490)

Good News!

Bitcoin is worth 9000 Euro in France!

"During a raid last week on one of the suspects' homes, investigators seized a portfolio of Bitcoins - worth some 9,000 euros per unit - as well as credit cards and computer hardware."

On which exchange, I wonder ;)

Mtgox.FR??? ::)

European Banks are in big trouble and usually the last resort is debasement of the currency.  You very well could see Wiemar-like hyperinflation.

Of course the banks want to prevent people from transacting in BTC because they can't extract the value out of it.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-06/european-banks-are-trouble

-bm

Wow, crazy.  :o

It's crazy how the news always inflates the values of the seized goods that they get from raids.   Just like all those drug busts that they do where they claim that it's "street value" is like a quarter of a billion dollars...

In b4 change. It will happen. The Dutch are working on a legit and legal exchange, it will be a nice start.

Yeah I certainly find the timing of all of the negative BTC related statements coming out of Europe very suspect at a time when Spain is seizing deposits retroactively, several countries are desperately trying to prop everything up to appear to be okay and currencies are failing.

It seems that they are truly worried people will start looking at alternatives so FUD is happening on a larger scale.

There were undercurrents going on for a while.  For instance Belgium banned derivatives based on BTC.  Historically Europe has been far more restrictive towards alternative currencies.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beenz.com

The Spanish banking deposit thing is indeed a very scary omen.

In a larger historical context it was alternative currencies that led to America's independence from Europe.  http://21stcenturycicero.wordpress.com/fraud/colonial-scrip/

-bm

9000 € , crazy

Idiots!! What they will realize in time is that Bitcoin is the next biggest revolution after internet. The only real danger to Bitcoin may surface 50 years down the line, when Skynet becomes self-aware and takes over all internet. Then we may need a John Connor to save our Bits. ;)

Fun apart, would the french police also declare Paypal illegal there once Paypal integrates Bitcoin in its system?

FTFY:

Historically Europe has been far more restrictive towards almost everything.

Although in the past 100 years the US has been trying to catch up.

True.

America gets criticized if even the slightest restriction is imposed.

-bm

https://bestxchanger.com/

https://web.archive.org/web/20130728025401/http://www.bestxchanger.com/
 

Part of what I've been working on are ways for these economic hostages to safeguard their personal wealth...  I do believe that Bitcoin will be a major(perhaps primary) refuge because although not perfect it is has the longest history of any crypto and is the most credible.

-bm

It does not say anything about customers being defrauded, so I am massively confused

a) super official Mtgox defrauds millions of people = legal = just bankrupcty court
b) french place, operates properly but a pig rats on them = illegal = closed by police

So cheating people out of their money is fine, if you are registered?

How can you ILELGALLY sell bitcoins? I can see that you can ILLEGALLY STEAL bitcoins or SCAM people but if coins are exchanged for currency, at a muttually agreed price, how can that be ILLEGAL? Another example for the tendency to create crimeless crime because there is not enough victimless crime out there to feed all the government scum.

What is wrong with this planet. ..... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was probably some local exchange without any licence to exist.
It is not so bad that they shut it down, because its possible that in the future we would see another news about people that got scammed by failed exchange.

As far as i see this, this is just good news. :)

LOL 9000 euros per "unit".

On a more serious note, is it just me or does France seem to be really anti-Bitcoin? I've read stories of questioning at French airports as well.

It must be because they are so desperate to squeeze every last tax dollar out of their citizens that they can get.

https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FFwqhPjp.png&t=541&c=kcU2YwDX98v5iQ

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg7706120#msg7706120 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg7706120#msg7706120)

French Authorities dismantle "Illegal" Bitcoin exchange.
Duplicate topic, do mods ever merge threads here? (I think usually the answer is 'no')

It's more than that,
Bitcoin is recently under attack in Europe and France:
EBA opinion
http://www.eba.europa.eu/documents/10180/657547/EBA-Op-2014-08+Opinion+on+Virtual+Currencies.pdf

AMF (download the document)
http://www.amf-france.org/en_US/Publications/Lettres-et-cahiers/Risques-et-tendances/Archives.html?docId=workspace%3A%2F%2FSpacesStore%2Fb87033f5-ecbf-41f1-8236-ee44c91df3c7&langSwitch=true

http://www.coindesk.com/french-officials-seize-272800-illegal-bitcoin-exchange/

yeah, thought about that too, interesting story to unfold here...  :o

MSN news is just another crappy news feed that probably google translated a french article
Here is a decent one with real material: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/france-confiscates-first-bitcoins-from-arrested-illegal-bitcoin-exchange-operators/2014/07/07

I started to feel annoyed when some little crappy news takes the price down significantly. Something is definitely not right here

You're confusing coincidence with causality.

either way. I jumped in when the price was 520->460->420->560->580, so maybe it's time for me to quit. I do not believe in 'to da moon'.

will the FUD ever stop!!!

the pdf from the EBA has one paragraph about bitcoin. and all it says is that bitcoin can be risky, and that it needs to publicly announce those risks

meaning like every other country (bolivia, china, russia, UK, america)

"bitcoins are risky, they are unregulated and investors can lose aswell as gain"

so chill out folks its not war!!

You can (partially) "jump out"  the same way.
Maybe, sell a little for a profit and hold the rest, since BTC fundamentals are looking really strong.

After some time every bad news turns into good ones for Bitcoin, at any case it still increases its popularity and carefulness of holders.

€ 9000 each ? holly...

I don't look at it as an investment you jump in or out of. I look at hedging slightly because I would rather see it become an actual currency being used to buy and sell goods and services and not just an investment platform to make fiat money.

Thanks for your advice. I am anyway stuck with $3K sale limit at coinbase.. selling 4btc a day will will take me quiet a time to cash out

Despite all recent positive news I do not think we are ready for the primetime yet. Maybe one or two more iterations bubble-collapse. We still do not know whats gonna happen with the remaining Silk Road coins, mt gox coins.. this dust should settle.

Absolutely we've still got some major issues that will need to be resolved but it seems that they are, slowly.

France is the least capitalistic country in Europe. Their regulations are so extreme, it's basically impossible to start a business and taxes are incredibly high. They are a welfare state where it's easier to be unemployed than start a business.

They are in dire need of Bitcoin. I hope a very strong grass roots movement begins.

hmm .. I just take the good news of its course. for bad news not too ignored: D

France is a place where you can be rich (with bitcoins of course) and can be out of law at the same time.

I think the author was misinformed as to the value of bitcoin.

The exchange rate has not changed that much recently