One of the things I’m hoping to do with this site is focus on Irish issues related to bitcoin, such my experiences buying bitcoin for euro in Dublin, or the statement I unearthed from the Department of Finance on Reddit which outlined some interesting points about capital gains tax. I also worked for many years in the online video game industry with Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, which were all using proprietary virtual currencies, and have been operating in Ireland for eight or nine years now, so I have a strong interest in how bitcoin is treated, given that there’s already a long-standing precedent here in Ireland.
So as I researched a bit more, I decided to go onto the CentralBank website, and see what they have to say about Bitcoin. So despite everything in the press about Bitcoin in Ireland, there is a grand total of four official links to do with this on the Central Bank website.
The most recent notice, is a European Banking Authority document from the 4th of July, which gives a consumer notice about the risks about conducting business with cryptocurrencies in general, including bitcoin. The document can be read by clicking here. It looks like it is aimed at policy makers, to give them an overview of the way it can impact the broader European economy.
Directly preceeding that is a full transcript from the Irish Central Bank’s Director of Markets Supervisioon, Gareth Murphy. He was speaking at the Bitcoin Finance 2014 conference in Dublin’s RDS . RTE also did some coverage with him speaking which you can read by clicking here (video only available in Ireland). He speaks from the point of view of a regulator, and goes into great detail about many aspects of bitcoin, the technical changes coming to the financial system, and their role in managing the security of the money supply.
They also list a consumer information document published in 13 December 2013 outlining risks in dealing with bitcoin which can be read here, and a general statement from the Irish Central Bank’s Governor Patrick Honohan from the 2nd of December which can be read here.
So there’s not much, but some good, recent information nonetheless. I rang up their Information line and was told that as Bitcoin is unregulated, they don’t really have much to say on it. How long that lasts will be interesting to see. We’ll get onto the Revenue Commissioners in the next week and see what they have to see for a later article.
