Ελλάς (Greece)

[luffy]

difficulty in Greece is rising like BTC difficulty 
lets see where it ends!
Digital currencies are not very popular at the moment, lets wait for bank collapsing and then we are talking!

[Serenata]

Has anyone tried to buy Bitcoins from Greece?

Most Greek bank clerks haven't even heard about SEPA (they are completely useless and unprofessional) and even those that know about it as for 8-15 euros per transaction, so unless I am buying 1000 euros worth of bitcoins it's not really worth it.


Other ways?

I could try with Paypal over OTR or find someone on the forums first (in hopes that he will trust me and consider the PayPal transaction risk free) but Paypal will be my last resort.

Emporiki Bank is charging 0,50 euro for SEPA transfers, so is Εθνική (National Bank). Speaking about web banking of course, I've no idea how much it is at the counter.
Avoid Paypal at all costs. They could freeze your account if they ever learn about it. You could also consider localbitcoins.com

[Tritonio]

Other ways?

I could try with Paypal over OTR or find someone on the forums first (in hopes that he will trust me and consider the PayPal transaction risk free) but Paypal will be my last resort.

Emporiki Bank is charging 0,50 euro for SEPA transfers, so is Εθνική (National Bank). Speaking about web banking of course, I've no idea how much it is at the counter.
Avoid Paypal at all costs. They could freeze your account if they ever learn about it. You could also consider localbitcoins.com

Thanks Seranata. I also noticed at the same time that my web banking charges 0.5 euros to send to Slovenia (bitstamp.net). I think I'll give bitstamp a try today. On the counter they charge 18 euros. WTF???

Also if anyone has suggestions about exchanges that he/she has used, I'm interested to hear about them.

[luffy]

web banking is the most friendly and low cost way to sent/receive money. i find winbank very user friendly by using mtgox exchange (wire and SEPA)

[Tritonio]

web banking is the most friendly and low cost way to sent/receive money. i find winbank very user friendly by using mtgox exchange (wire and SEPA)

I am also using winbank. OK I'll SEPA from there to Bitstamp.

[imanikin]

...speaking of Greek banks, will be interesting what if anything the Bank of Greece and the Greek bankers will say regarding the ECB VC report:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=121187.msg1305601#msg1305601

TEM doesn't respond, but maybe the bankers will... 

[Tritonio]

So I did a SEPA transfer to Bitstamp using Winbank (Piraeus' ebanking system) costed me 0.5euros. It took about 3 bussiness days (5 days in total because of the weekend) for Bitstamp to deposite the money to my account. I sent about 100 euros which got converted to USD by Bitstamp for free (with quite a good conversion rate; I mean if I let my bank do the conversion instead it would cost me more) and then I paid 0.5% fee to buy bitcoins with an instant order which took about 10 minutes or so. So everything went smooth, if anyone from Greece want to buy bitcoins, bitstamp looks like a nice solution (Mt Gox needs verification and stuff).

@imanikin: how do you even email the CEO of a greek bank? :-D Cause anyone under him will probably have never heard of bitcoin. I mean, the clerks haven't heard of SEPA so it would take at least being a CEO to know about Bitcoin. :-P

[imanikin]

@imanikin: how do you even email the CEO of a greek bank? :-D Cause anyone under him will probably have never heard of bitcoin. I mean, the clerks haven't heard of SEPA so it would take at least being a CEO to know about Bitcoin. :-P

Agreed. None of those people read their own emails...  

I guess, the place to start might be just to email the Bank of Greece or any other bank with a link to that ECB paper, and ask them for an official position on Bitcoin...  

[Serenata]

So I did a SEPA transfer to Bitstamp using Winbank (Piraeus' ebanking system) costed me 0.5euros. It took about 3 bussiness days (5 days in total because of the weekend) for Bitstamp to deposite the money to my account. I sent about 100 euros which got converted to USD by Bitstamp for free (with quite a good conversion rate; I mean if I let my bank do the conversion instead it would cost me more) and then I paid 0.5% fee to buy bitcoins with an instant order which took about 10 minutes or so. So everything went smooth, if anyone from Greece want to buy bitcoins, bitstamp looks like a nice solution (Mt Gox needs verification and stuff).

I wouldn't mind trying that out. Which bank does bitstamp use and where is it located?

Funny sidenote, Millennium Bank charges 5% for SEPA! I got in contact telling them that other banks have a modest fee of 50 cents and they just replied that it is their policy to charge that. I wonder how those people are still in business... >.<

[Tritonio]

So I did a SEPA transfer to Bitstamp using Winbank (Piraeus' ebanking system) costed me 0.5euros. It took about 3 bussiness days (5 days in total because of the weekend) for Bitstamp to deposite the money to my account. I sent about 100 euros which got converted to USD by Bitstamp for free (with quite a good conversion rate; I mean if I let my bank do the conversion instead it would cost me more) and then I paid 0.5% fee to buy bitcoins with an instant order which took about 10 minutes or so. So everything went smooth, if anyone from Greece want to buy bitcoins, bitstamp looks like a nice solution (Mt Gox needs verification and stuff).

I wouldn't mind trying that out. Which bank does bitstamp use and where is it located?

Funny sidenote, Millennium Bank charges 5% for SEPA! I got in contact telling them that other banks have a modest fee of 50 cents and they just replied that it is their policy to charge that. I wonder how those people are still in business... >.<

Also Τράπεζα Κύπρου (Bank of Cyprus) phones you to ask why you send money abroad. And they say it's illegal to send money abroad using bank transfer (like SEPA or the common internation transfer) to buy good or services.

[pazor]

it is illegal to use your own money ?
it is illegal to use a paid bank service to transfer your own money with a international transfer protocol (SEPA) ?
it is illegal to transfer amounts lower than 10k € ?

why they offer a paid bank service to their clients if its illegal ?

bullshit !

μας δουλεύουν, ρεεεεεε....

[Tritonio]

it is illegal to use your own money ?
it is illegal to use a paid bank service to transfer your own money with a international transfer protocol (SEPA) ?
it is illegal to transfer amounts lower than 10k € ?

why they offer a paid bank service to their clients if its illegal ?

bullshit !

μας δουλεύουν, ρεεεεεε....

Well it's legal for very specific cases like sending money to a friend or a student abroad. Utter bullshit as you said. All banks I've heard of don't ask about the reason why you send money. ESPECIALLY for amounts like 100 euros... Yet that one does. So if you intend to buy BTC you should think twice before using Κύπρου.

[pazor]

which mining pools do you use in greece ?
how much is your power rate there ?

[pazor]

http://www.xe.gr/eleytheros-xronos/nomismata-xartonomismata%7Cad-22579688.html

lol
 

btw... it is a virtual coin.
 

[Tritonio]

which mining pools do you use in greece ?
how much is your power rate there ?

Power is getting more expensive here latelly. Not sure how up to date this is: http://www.ionianeco.gr/thermanse/thermanse/deixreosi.html
So it goes from 0,08436 EUR/KWh to 0,14798.
I'll find a bill and see the exact prices.

I used to use Mt Red just for fun.

[imanikin]

Seems that "Grexit" is postponed about a year. 

[imanikin]

Does anyone have comments regarding the greek references in this article?

[Tritonio]

Does anyone have comments regarding the greek references in this article?

The fact that virtual currencies are beginning to affect financial markets and are being used by the Greek government to trade, shows their importance.

Which virtual currency do they use exactly? Ven? (BTW I've never heard about Ven before)

[imanikin]

The fact that virtual currencies are beginning to affect financial markets and are being used by the Greek government to trade, shows their importance.

Which virtual currency do they use exactly? Ven? (BTW I've never heard about Ven before)

Yes, that was my question for you guys: if anyone in the .gr space mentioned the Greek gov and VC's before. I had heard of Ven before, but not in conjunction with anything Greek.

The closest thing to VC in Greece, as far as i know was TEM. 

[Tritonio]

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ven_(currency)

Ven is a global virtual currency used by members of a social network service, Hub Culture, to buy, share and trade knowledge, goods and services. It is the first virtual currency to be used in the financial markets and the first used in commodity and carbon credit trading. Ven can be spent at Hub Culture Pavilions or used for micropayments on the Internet at large.[1] The value of Ven is determined on the financial markets from a basket of currencies, commodities and carbon futures. It trades against other major currencies at floating exchange rates.

Not that out government is sane in any way but why would they trust the virtual currency of a social network based in Hong Kong?

EDIT: I thought you meant VC = Ven. Sorry. Disregard my message.