Bitcoin has always had a rather peculiar relationship with the European Union. Their love-hate relationship has been going on for quite a while now, and we all root for a happy ending.
Let’s see how Bitcoin is doing. What would the BTC/EUR relationship look like in the future? What will actually happen with this cryptocurrency? Will Europe accept Bitcoin as a completely legitimate currency which will go hand in hand with Euro, or will they reject it as something that cannot be incorporated into the European system?
Current EU regulations
Bitcoin is still unregulated. Depending on which school of thought you belong to, this could be either a very positive or pretty negative thing.
The point is — regulators from all over the globe are doing their best to provide regulations for all cryptocurrencies. This could open the door to some really significant changes — or it could be Bitcoin’s doomsday.
So what is the European Union doing in this regard? Bitcoin has been here since 2008, but the EU waited until 2012 when their first regulations were published. The reason why it took so long is their uncertainty about the importance of Bitcoin (and all the other cryptos that popped up in a short period).
The first document that was officially published by the Union was the report about the cryptocurrency proliferation. The document itself may not be an important regulator, but it was vital because it acknowledged the existence of cryptocurrencies and that they were an entirely legitimate currency.
In 2012, the EU published something called Virtual Currency Scheme. This was the first time they outlined official regulations for cryptos, and the only difference was that they called them Virtual Currencies.
After a couple of ups and downs regarding the EUR and BTC relationship, driven by fear of another Great Depression, things got a bit stable — all until the notorious Mt Gox theft. Once the EU officials saw that cryptocurrencies could be stolen and hacked, they needed to revise their manifesto and issued a new version of Virtual Currency Scheme, which provided a new perspective on things and imposed stricter regulations.
We have reached the most important part of this article — how the EU views crypto? The VCS doesn’t consider it a currency at all, yet the governments are able to tax some of the transactions done using cryptocurrency, which puts us in a kind of a paradox position due to the fact that we may have to pay taxes for something that the EU sees as not equal to fiat currencies.
That is one pressing problem that continues to be a pain in the neck for many crypto investors, and the other one is the battle for privacy. Cryptos were initially made to be anonymous and private, which made the officials think twice about their nature. At the moment, there is an ongoing debate whether the EU should have an insight into all transactions in order to stop terrorist activities and illegal transactions from happening (such as buying weapons, drugs, and more).
Future EU regulations
The EU has a team of experts that call themselves the FinTech Task Force and they are doing their best to introduce cryptocurrencies to the system and make all parties content, but it has proven to be tilting at windmills so far. Instead, most of the job is done by individual members of the EU, and some has made significant progress in that matter.
Future crypto regulations in the EU are also dependent on GDPR. Remember May 2018? It was a turbulent time when basically all websites with which you had been registered sent you a privacy policy update. That was all due to the sudden changes that GDPR had brought to data protection, and as such, this regulation couldn’t but impact cryptocurrencies either. However, the way GDPR and cryptos would cooperate (or not cooperate) is still relatively unknown, and there is a lot that has to be done before everything is put in motion.
What is the overall sentiment towards Bitcoin?
On the other hand, Bitcoin has not been doing that great lately. The average price for a single unit of the most popular cryptocurrency is barely €3,400, which is a bit better in comparison to last month but a massive downfall in contrast to this period last year.
What can we expect from Bitcoin in the future?
Unfortunately, people are losing faith in Bitcoin overall. If you listen to one group of investors, they will tell you that it is the perfect time to act and buy this cryptocurrency as the upward swing is definitely going to happen in the future just like it happened in December 2017. Others claim that Bitcoin is rolling into the abyss from which there is no return. The truth is — we cannot really determine with certainty what to do, but Bitcoin is here to stay regardless of its price. It has been incorporated into society, and there is no need to worry about that. The right question is — how much will it cost?
Conclusion
But what about BTC’s relationship with EUR? Well, it has been similar to other fiat currencies. Whenever a change is made, all other fiats follow. So far, nobody can predict what is going to happen.
In other words, the future is always uncertain, especially with cryptocurrencies. But let us give you a piece of advice — research! The Internet is filled with bits and pieces that are extremely important for people who follow Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, you now have a crucial insight into the regulations that EU imposed on Bitcoin and other cryptos. That could be your way to dig deeper into the study and see where it can all potentially go from here.
Make your investment decisions that are based on thousands of opinions rather than one or two blog posts.