Legal The European Union has passed no specific legislation relative to the status of the bitcoin as a currency, but has stated that VAT/GST is not applicable to the conversion between traditional (fiat) currency and bitcoin.VAT/GST and other taxes (such as income tax) still apply to transactions made using bitcoins for goods and services.[1]:European Union In October 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that "The exchange of traditional currencies for units of the ‘bitcoin’ virtual currency is exempt from VAT" and that "Member States must exempt, inter alia, transactions relating to ‘currency, bank notes and coins used as legal tender’", making bitcoin a currency as opposed to being a commodity.[2][3]According to judges, the tax shouldn’t be charged because bitcoins should be treated as a means of payment.[4]According to the European Central Bank, traditional financial sector regulation is not applicable to bitcoin because it does not involve traditional financial actors.[5]:5

Others in the EU have stated, however, that existing rules can be extended to include bitcoin and bitcoin companies.[6]The European Central Bank classifies bitcoin as a convertible decentralized virtual currency.[5]:6In July 2014 the European Banking Authority advised European banks not to deal in virtual currencies such as bitcoin until a regulatory regime was in place.[7]In 2016 the European Parliament's proposal to set up a taskforce to monitor virtual currencies to combat money laundering and terrorism, passed by 542 votes to 51, with 11 abstentions, has been sent to the European Commission for consideration.[8]The European Commission also notably presented a "parallel" proposal aimed at preventing tax evasion techniques as revealed in the Panama Papers.[9]In 2017 it was revealed that the proposal will require cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets to identify suspicious activity.[10]BitcoinWhy You Shouldn’t Invest in BitcoinKerry CloseAs bitcoin prices dominate headlines, you might be wondering whether you should invest in the popular cryptocurrency.Probably not: It's just too volatile.

The virtual currency is known for wild fluctuations in price.The value of one bitcoin—which was created in 2008 by an anonymous programmer or group of programmers—reached its all-time high of $1,165.89 in November 2013 before taking a major dive, according to CoinDesk data.Since then, prices have more or less inched up, and at the turn of the year, they started to approach record highs.best litecoin gpu 2014On Thursday, the value of a bitcoin reached $1,153.02.litecoin generatorHowever, later Thursday morning, prices suddenly fell by about $200."Liquiditylitecoin gpu loaddried up—no shorts, no sellers, which means a volatile little bubble formed quickly," Peter Smith, chief executive of bitcoin wallet Blockchain, told CNBC.Those sudden ups and downs would be bad news for your portfolio.bitcoin human trafficking

Although bitcoin had a more than 100% return on investment in 2016, it's also five times more volatile than the S&P 500, said Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke University, who described bitcoin as "an extremely risky investment."Evenbitcoin dövizif you were to buy bitcoin low and sell high, you still might not see the big payday you're hoping for.bitcoin out of sync fix"You try to sell it, and by the time the order goes through, the price may have dropped," said Matthew Elbeck, a professor of marketing at Troy University."It's really, really not worth it for the ordinary consumer."Ifyou do choose to take the plunge and buy a bitcoin, make sure it's a very small part of your diversified portfolio—and that you can afford to lose your investment."I would never recommend this on a stand-alone basis," Harvey said.Still, for some people living internationally—like Venezuelans plagued with a shortage of cash and those in China, where the government has restricted movement of capital outside of the country—bitcoin presents an attractive option to get ahold of cash, Harvey said.

Its rising popularity in these countries are part of the reason behind bitcoin's recent surge.Regardless of bitcoin's ups and downs, the technology behind it—particularly the blockchain, the common ledger that the virtual currency uses—could have a long-lasting impact as a medium of exchange.As Harvey told MONEY's Taylor Tepper in 2015:For me, though, I look at Bitcoin not just as a currency, but what it could do in the future in other applications.Think of the Bitcoin technology as a way to exchange and verify ownership.It’s like getting into your car with your smartphone.You present cryptographic proof of ownership.You’re the owner, and it’s verified through this common ledger.The car is able to identify that it is your car, and so the car starts.KBBEX, a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin Exchange Platform, has formed a strategic partnership with the Taiwanese Bitcoin Platform BitoEX, to supply bitcoins in more than 5000 convenience stores located in Taiwan.Consumers may now buy bitcoins at all FamilyMart convenience stores in Taiwan.

The alliance enables the development of Taiwan bitcoin industry bitcoinsto become accessible in the daily-life of Taiwan citizens.“Following the existing 3000+ FamilyMart convenience stores, BitoEX has signed agreements with two other mega convenience store enterprises (OK Mart and Hi-Life), making it now a total number of more than 5,000 locations in Taiwan available for purchasing bitcoins in late 2014,” Cheng Kuang Tai, CEO of BitoEX explained.“We have chartered KBBEX as our supplier of Bitcoin to BitoEX.We are confident that in collaboration with KBBEX and the associated companies, the recognition of bitcoins will grow and general public would cast their vote of trust to bitcoins.” KBBEX currently supports 11 kinds of the world’s major trading currencies, namely USD, CNH (Offshore RMB), EUR, HKD, GBP, AUD, CAD, CHF, JPY, SGD and NZD for bitcoin trading.Users can sign up for a free account and trade with nil handling charge in KBBEX at this stage.KBBEX dedicates itself for a simple, professional, secure and multi-currencies offshore bitcoin exchange center.