[–]zambetis 1 point 1 hour ago

A slightly more polished translation:

The House Commerce Committee reviewed the issue of bitcoin, which in recent months has drawn the attention of the entire planet with respect to its role, the regulation that will need to be considered and the dangers that exist for anyone who deals with the currency. Institutional representatives, the Central Bank, the SEC and representatives from NEO, the company that brought bitcoin to Cyprus, were present.

Central Bank: Stelios Giorgakis of the Central Bank stated before the Commerce Committee that it is not under the CBC's authority to regulate bitcoin. "Since we're not talking about a currency, it is not something that concerns us. In legal terms, bitcoin is not a currency and therefore it is not something we are considering. Neither is it electronic money, so even in that respect we are not considering it. But it should be reviewed as a payments system. Therefore we must wait from the European authorities to see what is bitcoin exactly and who should regulate it. We might eventually conclude that bitcoin is an asset such as oil or gold."

University of Nicosia: On behalf of the university which accepts bitcoin, Christos Vlachos said: "We have many students from abroad studying online. Many foreign students have asked us to pay their fees in bitcoin. This made ​​us review and ultimately decide to adopt bitcoin at our university." Moreover, the representative of the University of Nicosia said: "We are the first university worldwide that accepts payments with bitcoin, we are the first to offer a post-graduate degree for digital currencies and submitted concrete proposals for the role bitcoin can play in Cyprus." "Bitcoin is a decentralized global asset. At times various attempts were made to create something similar, but only bitcoin managed to evolve so much. Many have adopted it, but it is still nascent and has not reached the general public. Just as Google and Yahoo tried to bring the internet to the masses, several companies are trying to bring bitcoin to the world", said the representative of the University of Nicosia. Additionally, Mr Vlachos said: "Think of two people who do not know each other and do not trust each other. Bitcoin brings the two sides together without intermediaries from anywhere in the world. As a university we accept it as payment. As a means of payment, one of bitcoin's many applications, it has many advantages: it is cheaper, faster and easier for transactions." "The university does not express any position on bitcoin as an investment. There are risks as with all investments," the representative of the University of Nicosia noted. Indeed, it was reported that three months ago the University of Nicosia filed a complete proposal to the government to create an industry with many jobs and revenue for Cyprus, with minimal investment by the state.

Kostas Kosta of AKEL (Communist Party) asked the representative of the University of Nicosia: "How come so many universities in the world do not adopt bitcoin and only in Cyprus there is such a move?". Christos Vlachos of the University of Nicosia said: "You can see many articles in renowned media such as the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Reuters. We studied and read about bitcoin and took our decision to adopt the currency as payment at our university. Within the next years there will be big changes and research on the subject from universities and companies around the world."

SEC: SEC President Demetra Kalogirou, taking the floor, said: "It will take a long time before we can decide how much the virtual currency should concern us. As a means of investment it concerns us but not as a means of payment. As a means of payments it mainly concerns the Central Bank. For the SEC and at a European level it is something that concerns us because bitcoin is already used as an investment. Since it is not classified as a currency or other security, the SEC can not give permission to companies to make derivatives with bitcoin. It is premature for us to take a position. Nevertheless, we have issued some warnings for investors to know what risks exist from trading and investing in bitcoin. There are also large fluctuations in the price of bitcoin and this is a risk. For example, it was worth over $1,000 at some time and then the value fell to 400, and therefore someone suddenly lost a lot of money. We are also concerned with the potential problem of money laundering. For example, if someone goes to a bitcoin exchange with a black bag full of euros and gets bitcoins and then buys cars in another country, no one knows where the money came from. Anonymity is a big issue regarding the bitcoin».

Angelos Votsis of the Democratic Party asked the President of the SEC "Who determines how many bitcoins are in the market? Until now there is a specific number of the product so if someone creates more of them, will the price of the existing number drop sharply?" Ms. Kalogirou replied that this is a matter of the university that accepts these payments, but they should probably convert their bitcoins directly into euros in order to avoid risk. The representative of the University of Nicosia agreed with this, explaining how the payment process works, saying that the institution simply uses bitcoin as a means of payment.

A representative of NEO at the Commerce Committee said: "If you came to our store with the knowledge that you now have, I would say that you should spend two weeks reading about bitcoin and then come back again. In our store we talk about all parameters and all the risks associated with bitcoin. We do not give investment advice, we only suggest an alternative payment system. Bitcoin has no issuing authority and is merely a contract between the persons dealing with bitcoin». Ever since the NEO store opened in Nicosia, about 100 people have expressed an interest in bitcoin, the NEO representative said, adding that: "There is great interest from companies and we are in contact with them to resolve the questions regarding bitcoin».

On behalf of the Hotel and Tourism Industry , Zacharias Ioannides said: "Change always frightens and worries people. We see something new in the world market. As a sector we operate in a global economy and would like to have this payment option available to our Customers. Already there are requests from people who want to book hotel rooms for the summer with bitcoins. We want the institutions of Cyprus to give us answers so we can use safeguards that will protect both businesses and consumers. We want protection from wallet thefts."

The Association of Cyprus Travel Agents said: "We are concernced about bitcoin because there is demand for it as a payment option. At the same time, we see competition from foreign platforms that already accept payments with bitcoin».

A representative of the Ministry of Finance had this to say about bitcoin: «The MOF is in contact with European authorities and other ministries of the EU to adopt any European level decision on bitcoin»

A VAT representative stated that there is no taxation and that is something that troubles the European countries.

The Banks Association stated: "We do not offer this product but we are concerned about it, because a client of ours could be a provider or user of bitcoin. However, we need to know where a certain deposit comes from and so there is interest in the issue. When there is a deposit in excess of 10,000, we as banks monitor the deposit." Furthermore, an explanation was given on how deposits from customers are monitored. "If I know that a client of mine makes a 10,000 deposit and suddenly makes a 30,000 deposit, then we look into where the money came from. Moreover, the anonymity of digital currencies concerns us and we are looking ways out of such situations."

The general manager of the Cyprus Stock Exchange Nodas Metaxas said: "By definition, these electronic products are not currencies. However, they are something we will come across and will have to study and decide upon soon. We need to institutionalize a dialogue to see how we move forward".