Hello Davout,
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The bank accounts that are holding third party funds are legally set up for that purpose.
They are third-party bank accounts and are by law outside of the company. The Third party bank accounts have a monthly check by a register accountant (RA).
Ok, so does this particular kind of bank account have a name ?
Who exactly has authority to pull money from it ?
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Its the same system as used by notaries in the Netherlands to held third party funds.
I understand. In the case of a notary he has an account and maintains an accounting system that is necessary to keep track of funds ownership. Obviously you have such a system too, otherwise you could not have a functioning exchange, my question is : "who has the authoritative accounting data ? Is it you ? Is it some third-party ?"
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In the case something happens to the company a curator will be appointed by court and the curator will refund everybody's money that is on the bank account.
The funds for our operational costs are in an other, normal business bank account (at a different bank).
If a curator is needed to perform such a task it means that you're holding the funds directly and have full access to the bank account holding customer money. Is this correct ?
I do not know the exact legal terms they call it in other countries. In holland it is called a "third party quality bank account" It are accounts with a double or triple authority system. Non of the parties has direct authority to pull money. One party sets the transfers out of the system, and an other, (third) party checks the transfers and sends them out. So you always need two parties to authorize payments. One party is FBTC Exchange and the other is the registered account (RA).
If the company has trouble then a curator takes the place of FBTC Exchange and pays out the funds to the clients in the same way as explained above. The accountant can set the transfers and the curator sends them to the rightful owners.
Maybe it would be best if you read the legal aspects of such a bank account and you will see that the regulations are set by law.
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The things you assume... lets talk about that.
I'm not really talking about assumptions, but about factual information that I learned over time while doing what I do, and which you seem to have some knowledge about. I'm doing you the professionnal courtesy of sharing some of it with you, make the best out of it. Next time I won't be the one asking the questions, next time you'll be sitting in front of a few not-so-funny people wearing not-so-creative suits.
Thanks for the heads up but we have investigated our legal business structure and regulations regarding the exchange thoroughly.
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We legally do not need to have a payment service provider license or electronic money issuer license. We use the same bank-account structure for the same reasons as they do.
Let me pause for a minute here and re-read this. You are saying that because you use the same infrastructure you can ditch all the capital, reporting and compliance reporting requirements that a PSP has ? Maybe you could enlighten me regarding this particular point.
What is there to enlighten... We work legal and according Dutch laws and regulations. The use of a PSP sets an extra possible security breach because criminals can hack into their systems, and how do you know if the system from your PSP is secure enough for your customers.
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We have a good relationship with ING.
I'll interpret that as "we have a good relationship with our account manager". Might be wrong here though. It would seem extremely weird and unusual though that they open "the same bank-account structure" as a PSP for a regular corporate client that has no particular financial license whatsoever.
To get a "third party quality bank-account" in the Netherlands you need to registered it legal by a notary. (Do not know if this is possible in France)
With the papers from the notary you can open a third party quality bank account and the bank provides you with the authorisation system.
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I hope for you that you are soon finished rebuilding Bitcoin-central.
We actually are, we're wrapping up some details before relaunching though. If you actually come to get some experience in this field you'll very soon learn that there's where the devil is…
Lets hope you and your hosting service provider has taken actions to prevent what happened to Bitcoin central a few months ago. I looked at your site and i can not find anything about your security. Is there a reason that you do not state it on your website? I think people would like to know what you have done to prevent it.
Can you enlighten me, maybe there is something that our security experts can help to tighten security at FBTC Exchange.
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If we can help you in any way let me know.
It's a little presumptuous to assume you could run not only one, but also help with a second exchange business at the same time, don't you think ? But hey, smart people are always welcome!
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I think we can support each other in building a reliable set of exchanges to provide all Bitcoin users the service they deserve.
Absolutely, that's why I'm more than happy to challenge you on important issues. It is quite important that we have reliable exchanges. And if you don't do your legal background work probably you're up for a lot of pain down the road, not at the beginning, but when you'll start actually picking up some business. Which will make it even harder to handle.
I know how to do Business, been doing it for many years already. Do not see any issues in this section.
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Advanced bitcoin traders can earn more if they can quickly switch between multiple exchanges.
Like I said, the important thing is reliability, not gadgets for speculators. If we want half-baked corporate structures that'll fall at the first nod we already have Mark Karpeles for that. I strongly encourage you to document yourself about his problems with French banks in court, because right now, I kinda feel you're walking right in his footsteps.
I have no comment on this.
greetings peter
FBTC Exchange