There was this posting on coindesk.com the other day:
Bitcoin exchanges operating in the UK do not have to register with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) under money laundering regulations, the government department has revealed. 8th July 2013.
Then this posting yesterday 11th July announcing the Bitcoin.de exchange being able to work with a German Clearing Bank (Fidor Bank AG), which will then be able to fully comply with any KYC/AML requirements . This looks like it near enough caused Bitcoin to jump 10% overnight.
However it should be bourne in-mind that I believe the most single important investment money or otherwise in the Bitcoin arena is Google’s recent investment in Ripple.com or OpenCoin (the company), this is an allied trading platform with a Bitcoin API – those network if secure enough could be a competitor to all merchant services clearing, like VISA and Mastercard – hence Google’s investment.
Note that Google have invested – small change, but it’s still VERY telling.
Ripple, billed as “the world’s first open payment networkâ€, may lack the rebel allure of Bitcoin itself, but its distributed model could patch one of Bitcoin’s chief weaknesses, namely its reliance on a few sometimes less-than-transparent exchanges. Of course, Ripple will be usable for the exchange of other currencies, too, and it arguably sits alongside other new financial technology startups such as Transferwise.
RIPPLE now allows you to pay anybody in Bitcoin as of 2nd July 2013 in a way that might promote Bitcoin to be used for FOREX. Note that the first bitcoin exchange – bitstamp.net is a British company, yet unable to find a British bank to sort out payments yet… Although bitstamp.net do require all the KYC documents to open an account with them, so the exchange is already in a prime position to completely challenge mt.gox – Americans, you’ve just got to love’em.
Disclosure: The author has accounts with most of the bitcoin exchanges with KYC requirements or otherwise.