Does Using Virtual Currencies Pose a Real Threat?

28th January 2016

European Parliament’s Economic Committee has been discussing the potential benefits and harms which can stem from using virtual currencies. The committee’s report is expected to have a significant effect on the attitude of the European Union towards the new technology which is highly regarded by the online gaming world.

Benefits and Supports

Online gambling fans usually wonder about how to use bitcoin before registering at online bitcoin casinos. As a matter of fact, using virtual currencies is easy and profitable due to the fact that there is no need a bank to verify the transactions between the buyer and the seller. The process works with the help of the cryptographic technology; so fraud can easily be prevented because the block-chain creates a verifiable database from all of the transactions.

Primavera De Filippi –  a researcher of National Centre of Scientific Research in Paris – stated that crypto-currency could accelerate more transparent and efficient law enforcement.

Despite the fact that many people associate bitcoin with such illegal activities as money laundering, the owner the popular crypto-currency aims to conform to the the existing online gambling laws. According to Jeremy Millar, a partner with Magister Advisors, it is far easier to detect a crime if people use bitcoin due to the fact that it is actually traceable.

Potential Drawbacks and Major Concerns

Virtual currencies are not as innocent as they intend to be since they contain loopholes. The European Commission’s expert, Oliver Salles contradicted with all of the statements above and emphasized the vulnerability of a costumer in terms of cyber threats and hacking. He strengthened that the key role here is the monitoring factor instead of introducing new rule propositions.

Britain shows a good example to EU in “maintaining lower regulatory obligations for peer-to-peer lending”, said Sean Ennis, an economist at the OECD club of rich nations.

Based on the expert’s opinion the regulation of using virtual currencies might be considered as a response of the recent terrorist attack in Paris. These currencies should not be of any assistance to terrorist plans.

There are 600 virtual currencies in the world and bitcoin transactions are applied by about 20 companies, claimed Jeremy Millar, a technology consultant of Magister Advisors.