Topic: The UK Public & Bitcoin - page 3. (Read 6363 times)

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Supposing a UK based exchange did manage to satisfy the banks and regulatory agencies that it was in compliance with all the relevant legislation, would anyone actually use it?

The Money Laundering / Terrorism / Payment Services regulations would seem to suggest that a compliant UK exchange would look something like this ...

Registration would involve:
- Sending a certified copy of Passport / Driving Licence (that is, a copy signed by e.g. an accountant / notary / bank manager).
- And a certified copy of a recent bank statement (not an online one!).
- Entering your address history for the last three years.
- Consenting to a credit check / electoral roll search.
- Waiting for a secret code to arrive by post and entering that to verify current address.

There would be no ability to send or receive bitcoins other than to/from a single bitcoin address you control. Changing that bitcoin address would probably require a lengthy process involving sending documents by post.

Deposits and withdrawals would involve paying a 1% fee to cover bank charges (faster payments aren't free for businesses). They would only be possible to/from your verified bank account (which must be in your name).

Additional fees would probably have to be levied to cover the cost of regulatory compliance - say 0.5% on every trade.

Any transaction you make (deposit, withdrawal, trade) may be suspended for up to a week if it looks a bit unusual or suspicious - but the exchange wouldn't be able to tell you why they suspended it, since that would be a criminal offence ("Tipping Off").

Deposits and Withdrawals above £10K (or that add up to £10K per month, or that look "a bit funny") would probably require such extensive due diligence that even talking about the due diligence is illegal.

Sounds fun, eh? Any ideas for domain names - I notice www.painfulbitcoins.co.uk is free.

During my time buying/selling bitcoins as someone from the UK, I have found the trade between £ and Btc more expensive just because I have a Uk bank account, due not to the exchange itself, but the fees from what I can tell charged for the international transfer of funds to my account, due to the fact so few if any exchanges can establish a stable base here in the UK.
If Exchanges could have a banking base in the UK, their is no reason for high fees, like £30-50. I don't blame the exchanges for this problem, I'm aware out banking industry has made it anywhere from difficult to impossible for them.

The cost I told myself at the time was worth it, as I only did it as a for need basis. Giving more appropriate timing I might not needed to do them at all. I could of done without the 3-5% taken off it when I was trading in 4 figures worth.

There is methods of trade out there outside of the exchanges, but it certainly does not provide the same sort of stability in price or risk management. I do look forward to a UK based exchange their is enough trade to make it worth while.

I have tried more than a few exchanges, but even European based ones suffer the problem of transfer fees. Bitcoin Central was my most recent exchange I use, based in France it didn't seem to change the fact I still get hit with the same high fees of exchanges based outside of Europe.

I think with the TransferWise -> Bitstamp route it's actually Bitstamp (or at least their bank) that are the slow link. If you pay the £17 per £1000 to speed the transfer then that seems to go through from the TW end within a few hrs. Once it's gone it can take another 24 hrs to clear to Bitstamp. More at the weekend.

By the way, I'm only recommending this route to let people know that I'm doing my best to keep my margins down on Local Bitcoins if they need coins quickly. My affiliate link is only going to my friends.

People are suggesting TW because it works. You can't have it both ways, you can have speed at a premium, or cheaper transactions that take longer.
Before about a month ago my transfers (Bank->TransferWise->Bitstamp) were taking around 18-36 hours. Recently it's taking much longer, around a week which i assume is the increased demand they've been having.

There was only ever really one way to buy coins on an exchange quickly and that was at Intersango plus that only lasted for a few months the rapid deposits until they were shut down for banking reasons.  It's always taken days to get money into MtGox AFAIK especially from the UK.

EDIT:  They has always been a massive demand for bitcoins in the UK.  Before Intersango shut down and MtGox Barclay's stopped, GBP was the second most traded fiat pair with BTC after USD.  The problems in the UK are probably suppressing the average bitcoin price IMO.  If you could get GBP into an exchange with instant free UK bank transfers I think they'd be a much bigger buying demand for bitcoins.  If you could open an exchange like MtGox that accepted instant free GBP deposits (and withdrawals) you could corner at least 10% of exchange traded volume.  Or around at least >£30Million ($40Million, EUR35Million) a month in trade.  It's just the money laundering laws in the UK are so tight that HSBC has to go to Mexico to do it 

To be honest I think the TransferWise pushing is partly due to the affiliate program lol. Regardless it is one of the very few options available s...o . It does kind of negate the whole instantly sending coins when it can take days just to get the BTC into an account. Whoever does find a way around this could dominate the UK market, I don't really believe the UK citizens trust their government. At least all the people I know hate every banker/politician and would rather those corrupt officials got sent to the highest volcano peak and asked politely to jump of the edge.

I keep seeing people trying to push TransferWise but like I said before 48 hours is too long to make a translation with the current volatility of Bitcoin.
 
I don't have to go to the newsagents to buy meat tokens so I can then go to the butchers to buy some sausages so I don't want to be changing my currency through third party sites to make a purchase of Bitcoin.

No its just UK banks charge extortionate fees for international and even just EU intra-SEPA transfers for UK personal accounts.  You can tho use TransferWise to get money into Bitstamp or MtGox for just £1 but I'm not sure if it works the same for withdrawals.

I totally understand where you are coming from, UK is rip off when it comes to bitcoin. I have looked into all the methods posted here, as op stated Localbitcoins and Bitbargain seem rather expensive, one guy is advertising to buy at £40 on one site and is selling at £100 on the other. Extortionate UK bank charges for international transfers make the big exchanges nonviable for someone just wanting one or two coins to get into the system, BitcoinFridge seems to have died, I put in a buy request and have had no response and other methods take at least 48 hours, which is unrealistic when prices can move by as much as £20 in an hour.
There must be many more people like the op and myself here in UK who are frustrated at the situation here, especially when you consider that for example I bought a laptop battery from Hong Kong on ebay, paid by paypal and received it within 3 days and yes I understand the problems re paypal chargebacks.
It seems the rest of the world doesn't trust the British banking system, can't say I blame em with George Osborne in charge.

Well, Max Keiser is building a UK exchange now -- so they must have some bank willing to play along.

But until then, simply bypass GBP by converting it to EUR:

Which exchanges allow me to transfer funds from my TransferWise account?
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/8149

Or, ... other methods include:

Bitbargain.co.uk:
 - https://bitbargain.co.uk

Bitcoin Fridge (re-opened):
 - http://www.BitcoinFridge.co.uk

hi, I was going to recommend transferwise as I use them but you have already gone that route. the first payment does take longer (3 days for me) but once set up usually within 48 hrs plus it costs only £1 !!!
also I use bitcoin central to buy btc currently around 96 euros,

reg.



      tips:    1HuDKnHJy73CC2QjbqRrixTEzHd3EFEfRs

Unless there's someone local for you.

Just because the US and the UK share a language, doesn't mean they share the same attitude!

I've been involved with a lot of early adopter projects over the years, and while its great seeing people wanting to shout from the rooftops about their new finds, you will find most of the public really don't care! The UK public are becoming more and more reliant on officials and the media telling them if they should get involved with things, and with no feedback, they tend to just assume its bad!

However, I have been selling bitcoins using localbitcoins for a short while to local enthusiasts, and it works for me.  I charge 10% over MTGox, and try and deal only in cash as it keeps costs down. I think its going to be another year before we see any real movement in the UK to recognise bitcoins as a legitimate way of buying and selling on the internet, but I have a feeling we might end up with a two tier market of below the radar trading, and big institutional trading, with about a 50% difference in their prices!

Ironically, for a country that gave the world Adam Smith, the father of free market economics, we like our cartels!

I accidentally posted this on a linked thread.

"Lots of issues with Transferwise. I got to the payment stage where I had the Bank Transfer and the Debit card options. However I could not complete either. My card is Visa but not verified so I was getting errors and it turns out in order to send money to a new payee I need a PINsentry device which is going to take 7 days to arrive lol."

Until I see a decent price on Localbitcoins or Bitbargain I will hold, I still think there is room for prices to drop a little anyway. *Now that I think about it I don't think I could even send a payment through Localbitcoins or Bitbargain anyway. I think my only option is to wait for the PINstentry card reader to arrive.  *

I (and many others) sell at LocalBitcoin for a reasonable markup. Rarely as high as 50% - perhaps when it's really volatile and I'm expecting a big bounce back. More normally it's around 20% - 30%. It's usually about enough to cover the movement in price in the time it takes to buy back in again on an exchange, plus a bit of profit. The benefit is you get your coins within an hour in most cases if you're using UK bank transfer and your bank supports faster payments.

I wouldn't necessarily trust a new seller but there are plenty of sellers on there with details verified through OTC, who've made lots of smooth trades and who have the feedback to prove it.

If you can wait though, the TransferWise/Bitstamp route only takes a few days.

What he said!

I've used this service twice now and it's cheap as chips, plus good support!

Funds do take 3 working days to arrive at the exchange though.

The two best ways at the moment are using Transferwise to Bitstamp (£1 charge for the conversion) and using Bitcoinfridge.

The chap who runs Bitcoinfridge is really professional and fast. I've emailed him at 2/3am before and he has replied in minutes.

Good luck.

You're recommending Bitbargain at what, more than 50% above spot price? So I pay £100 for a bitcoin at bitbargain right now when the gox spot is £61.30. Don't get me wrong I'm all for their service but let's not try to peddle extortionate prices onto newbies and suppose to them that they're getting a fair deal. I would go with Bowen151's suggestion.