Quote from: N_S on September 27, 2013, 09:49:13 PM

Thanks for the update!

Quote from: cryptocyprus on September 27, 2013, 09:30:55 PM

I am a main speaker at a conference in Cyprus on August 9th which is organized by the Cyprus International Institute of Management, my speech is on both Neo & Bee and Bitcoin in general.

Is the date a typo, or are you referring to 9 Aug. 2014?

Yes it was a typo and now fixed, thanks for pointing that out.

Our path to regulation

As many people within Bitcoin assume the stance that the regulators have an agenda against Bitcoin, I can assure you this is not the case. The regulators are always two steps behind technology, their procedures towards making changes without external input can be very slow. Once you start asking questions many of them too see the potential of Bitcoin and wish to obtain a better knowledge of the protocol itself. This produces a situation where Bitcoin businesses get levied with the existing regulations that are enforced upon more traditional financial institutions, they fully understand that they cannot regulate the protocol themselves, however they can regulate the point of entry where government issued fiat can be converted into Bitcoin.

We are working with our lawyers and KPMG to provide the regulators with a knowledge base (in Greek) of the Bitcoin protocol. Both our lawyers and KPMG have assigned partners to our case to ensure that it is handled correctly from the outset.

Due to the fact that our business has so many intricate parts, we are proposing our own "new" framework to the regulators in Cyprus, that is more fitting than the traditional models. This framework will include the more traditional AML/KYC policies, with strict auditing processes along with many more smaller details.

The fact that we are using such reputable lawyers and KPMG we know for certain that the regulators will take a positive view towards our proposals, they will make amendments where they believe things need to be changed, that is both understandable and expected.

We have factored Central Bank Deposits and minimum required seed capital into our plans from the beginning, so this is not of grave concern to myself.

This process will be complete before we open the flagship branch (Yes lawyers can work quickly too Grin

), please also remember that this is Cyprus and not the US.

In a nut shell
We are using our Lawyers & KPMG to provide a knowledge base of Bitcoin to the regulators, we are also proposing our own regulatory framework directly to the regulators that is more fitting to Bitcoin and our business operations than the regular archaic legal framework. This is being positively received by the regulators because we are being extremely proactive whilst using reputable partners to achieve our goals.

As a side note to anyone starting a venture that could potentially fall foul of the regulators, ask the questions to the regulators through a reputable lawyer and tax advisers, every business is different and treated as such, they are not necessarily evil people and they offer 10x as much help if you are proactive and provide them with detailed information as to what Bitcoin is, how it works and what it is your going to be doing.