Topic: Bitcoin-central (Read 3063 times)

Lots of the work that we do is unseen.

At Paymium we spent lots of time and energy talking about Bitcoin to our regulating bodies, the Banque de France, the ACP (French equivalent of the American SEC), TRACFIN (AML French supervising body) etc. We engaged all these resources with one goal in mind : get these people to know Bitcoin, advocate our beloved crypto-currency and listen to them, help them think until they finally reach the same conclusion as we did : there's nothing wrong with people being free.

There's nothing wrong with people freely exchanging value, we don't hurt anybody, we're not forcing anyone to use Bitcoin, we simply want to see our dream and the future of money become a reality.

After all this patient work and lobbying we're finally happy and proud to announce that Bitcoin-Central.net becomes today the first Bitcoin exchange operating within the framework of European regulations. Since 2010 we kept learning, when mtgox got kicked out of France for not complying with the law we learnt from it, when our banks gave us a hard time we learnt from it, when we discussed with smart people on these very forums we learnt from it.

From monitoring the regulatory field we learned that TRACFIN knew about Bitcoin, that the ECB knew about Bitcoin. And that they were both worried.

So we felt that if no one went there, and told these people about Bitcoin, they would come to us anyway.

We're therefore extremely proud and happy to announce that Bitcoin-Central.net will be raising the bar for all the other exchanges, at least the ones operating in Europe.

We're announcing today that Bitcoin-Central.net is getting, through a partnership with Aqoba, allowed to operate like a bank, (or more precisely like a PSP which is basically the same as a bank, just without the debt-money issuing part).

Some people might argue that regulation is a bad thing. We respect this opinion, but we'll have to agree to disagree.

But this is not only some regulatory detail, it has dramatic implications for us, our users, and... our competition

Let's go over a couple of them:

• Our user's funds will actually be held at Aqoba's partner financial institution under the user's name, they will be separate from Paymium's funds (on the other hand, all of other exchanges funds for example sit in the same account, and are considered by their bank to be their corporate property)
• Our user's accounts will be protected by the "Garantie des dépôts" which is the French equivalent of the American FDIC (the insurance cap applies to each account individually, and not to the sum of all user balances, so unless your EUR balance exceeds 100kEUR your fiat is 100% insured by the French taxpayer)
• Each account will in a few months get its very own IBAN number, users will be able to use it as any other bank account, have their salaries and pensions sent there and have them automatically converted to Bitcoin if they so wish)
• Each user will soon be able to order its own debit card that will use their EUR and BTC balance to honor purchases and cash withdrawals
• We'll have direct access to the banking networks which will let us 100% automate all incoming and outgoing transfers
• Corporations will have an actual financial institution talking with them if they wish to start accepting Bitcoin and be safe from a regulatory point of view
• Paymium will have a much better legal standing and a much higher attractivity for second and third-round investors
• Paymium will be in a much better position to make its vision become true : make all our transactions, be they denominated in crypto or fiat currency, flow through the pipes of the Bitcoin network

BUT, that doesn't mean more hassle for our users, since we know exactly what is legally required we can already tell them that a simple ID will remain sufficient to fully verify an account.

It's a big day for me and Paymium, and it's a major milestone for this community.

As promised paymium / bitcoin central forwarded the bitcoins last Friday evening.

Overall this took a little while longer than I'd hoped, but in the end they were courteous & fulfilled thier obligation so no harm no foul.

I'd be happy to reply to this thread once this situation is resolved and I've confirmed I have the bitcoins in my possession. Thank you for your time.

@Paymium_Support , @davout

I have been a US customer of bitcoin central for several years now, before you switched your terms of service to only accepting eurozone clients. You had previously verified my identity, accepted my bank transfer, and allowed me to make purchases on your exchange before changing your ToS.

I've been attempting to secure a mechanism to access my coins since last fall (October) via your support email and recently a ticket in your support system but have not been able to do so. Initially you said a mechanism to do this would be available via the website and then you were doing it manually, but haven't received any ETA as to when to the transfer is expected (I last contacted you about a month ago).

I understand that as a small business you are busy / have lots of happenings, but as an early customer I have to say I am a bit disappointed about the lack of transparency. Especially with news such as the mt.gox affair popping up every so often, and the volatility of the bitcoin market, I'd assume that legitimate businesses and exchanges would want to do their upmost to preserve their reputation / resolve situations quickly.

I'd be happy to reply to this thread once this situation is resolved and I've confirmed I have the bitcoins in my possession. Thank you for your time.

I have just discovered that if I want to withdraw bitcoin, I have to wait for 10pm - 11pm. Yes you read well, they only proceed between this hour. Furthermore, this happens only if your request happens within 5pm, otherwise your withdrawal will take place between 10pm - 11pm of the NEXT day.

I thought they were joking. They were not. They say it's because of security.

A little note: they are a branch of paymium, which is a payment institution of France.

Bankers..........

Did it multiple times. Got my bitcoins in 24h max, no problem.

It's clearly said in their FAQ. They withdraw once every day (monday to friday).

I have no experience with bitcoin-central, but given all the recent coin losses on exchanges I'm ok with daily BTC withdrawals.  If some exchange wants to essentially have a hot wallet of size zero, and personally humanly, OK distributions from a cold wallet once a day then I think that's probably a good idea. 

You shouldn't be holding your coins on an online exchange anyway.  You can still spend coins that you are holding personally instantly so the only people this will inconvenience are arbitragers.

Try to withdraw bitcoin and let me know what happened.