Today we will continue the series of publications about the difficult path of developing the legal status of cryptocurrencies in the EU zone.
If you suddenly decide to walk along one of the streets of Madrid and accidentally wander into Serrano Street, do not forget to take a couple of Bitcoins with you.
Because absolutely, when you go to any of the most fashionable stores, you will be able to pay with digital currency rather than with a plastic card or cash. If you suddenly run out of cash, you can just as easily exchange your “coins” for euros at any of the ATMs located nearby.
Bitcoin owes such diversity and freedom of circulation to the loyal attitude of the Spanish authorities towards cryptocurrencies and its current legal status.
Spain, as a country with a less developed economy compared to other EU members, completed the process of recognizing cryptocurrency back in 2014, which was initiated by the startup Coinffeine. One of the law firms specializing in technology and data protection in the Internet sphere turned to the Ministry of Finance and the Spanish Congress for official comment on determining the status of Bitcoin.
As a result, back on September 21, 2014, the Spanish government put forward a number of legislative initiatives, according to which Bitcoin was recognized as a legal electronic payment system. Since March 2015, the Spanish authorities began to consider bitcoin as a means of payment, and its movement is exempt from VAT, since, according to the official statement V1029-15 of the Ministry of Finance, it is not considered a paid service.
However, since mid-2016, the Spanish authorities have obliged mining companies and individuals involved in mining to register as individual entrepreneurs, as well as pay tax on profits from cryptocurrency mining, recognizing this type of activity economic.
Since 2017, residents of Spain have been able to exchange bitcoin for fiat money and vice versa, using ATMs of financial institutions connected to the HalCash platform. HolyTransaction Trade, a new Spanish cryptocurrency wallet, has teamed up with the international economic platform HalCash, providing its customers with the opportunity to almost instantly convert bitcoin into euros.
Today, the HalCash network has more than 8,000 ATMs in Spain and about 2,000 ATMs in Poland.. Consent to use its ATMs for exchanging crypto for fiat was first granted by Banco Sabadell, the fourth largest bank in Spain, and was later joined by seven more national banks: Targobank, Abanca, Baninter, EVO, Cajamar, Banco Popular ING and Laboral. Now users of banks associated with the HalCash network can convert cryptocurrency, as well as withdraw cash from the ATMs of these banks.
The principle of using ATMs to exchange cryptocurrency into cash is very simple: you indicate your mobile phone number on the operator’s website, after which you are asked to send “coins” to the specified wallet. After enrollment, you will receive an SMS with a PIN code. You enter it at the ATM and get cash. Theoretically, you can send money to Spain this way from anywhere in the world. To do this, you only need to know the phone number of the person to whom you plan to transfer money.
And in July last year, the Spanish company Bitnovo announced the launch of four thousand new physical points for the purchase of bitcoin. Автоматы установлены по всей Испании и позволяют пользователям, имеющим дебетовые Visa и MasterCard от компании, произвести прямой обмен фиата на криптовалюту.
Резюмируя изложенное, хочется в очередной раз отметить, что криптовалюты сегодня – это эталон актива, популярность которого постоянно растет на фоне недоверия к традиционным платежным средствам и опасений из-за проблем, вызванных экономическим кризисом.
According to https://letstalkbitcoin.com
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