Bitcoin Gives Canadian Banks a Run for Their Money: Q&A with The Bitcoin Embassy

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Bitcoin Gives Canadian Banks a Run for Their Money: Q&A with The Bitcoin Embassy

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"[Bitcoin is] a real legitimate competitor to fiat money," explains Francis Pouliot, director of public affairs of the non-profit Bitcoin Embassy in Montréal. "It puts a huge competitive pressure on governments, for example, to manage their money supply more responsibly."

Since 2013, the Bitcoin Embassy has worked as an intermediary for Canadians new to the Bitcoin market: hosting classes for beginners, meet-ups for software developers, one-on-one discussions with potential entrepreneurs, and Montréal's first Bitcoin ATM.

After Canadian banks began shutting down the accounts of many Bitcoin-based businesses without explanation, Pouliot and the Bitcoin Embassy, along with Bitcoin Foundation Canada and Bitcoin Alliance, got their chance to defend Bitcoin to the Canadian Senate's Banking, Trade, and Commerce Committee as a part of their 2014 Study on the Use of Digital Currency.

"And it seems like they were quite favorable to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies," says Pouliot. "The way we approached them was by showing them the potential that Bitcoin has for innovation and specifically innovation means new services, new platforms. These services and platforms are operated, created, and maintained by people, who are paid salaries and who pay taxes."

Produced by Joshua Swain

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Comments

[The Late P Brooks]

Bitcoin only exists to facilitate criminality and terrorism, right?

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Certainly. When was the last time something beneficial to society came out of a technology that wasn't approved by political elites?

[AlmightyJB]

Um...I'm pretty sure AL Gore invented Bitcoin. Why don't you move back to Somalia.

[Suthenboy]

That is correct. Also, government issued money never is.

[Suthenboy]

Holy crap. Every once in a while a Newsmax story is worth clicking on.

"Pelosi denies GOP Wave Happened"

Pelosi - "There was no wave of approval for the Republicans. I wish them congratulations, they won the election, but there was no wave of approval for anybody. There was an ebbing, an ebb tide, for us."

"Pelosi told Politico that the problem is not with the Democratic message or their priorities, but in a failure to engage voters."

Is this more propaganda from the queen of nonsense, or does she really live in a bubble? I would say that the Dems really need to get rid of her but she is such an entertaining member of the Democratic Party Freak Show.

[antisocial-ist]

That's there go to response whenever their policies fail or get rejected by voters. If only people knew how great Obamacare is, the Soviet Union just wasn't marketed right,etc,etc.

[Keith85]

She is sort of right...Obama is really unpopular and many "democratic" voters didn't' go to the polls for that reason. Also out of the 20 "competitive" senate races the incumbent was a democrat in 16 of them. Another way to explain it would be because democrats won so many seats in 2008, a lot of those seats are now up for re-election in areas that democrats can no longer win. The republicans break even would have been to gain 5 seats, I think they gained 7, so yeah a victory but not a "beating" like many believe.

[Greg83]

Looks like the nearly year long bear market is finally coming to an end (hopefully). Price is up ~15%/$55 on the day.

[Cytotoxic]

Yeah, it just keeps rising. I wanted to wait until I got job to buy, and now this happens. Dammit. How do I buy BTC anonymously? Does it have to be all 'back-alley'?

[Greg83]

They don't make it easy to buy anonymously anymore.

Best bet is probably localbitcoins.com, where you can meet up with someone for cash. Quite safe as long as you're dealing with someone with a long history/good reviews. High premiums though.

You can also download the Mycellium wallet app, which has a local trader feature.

Maybe check to see if there is a meetup near you and go to the next event. (bitcoin.meetup.com). There you can almost certainly find someone willing to sell to you.

Now that I think about it there might be a way to anonymously and instantly buy with a prepaid VISA on the new Circle exchange, but I'm not sure what kind of verification they require.

[Cytotoxic]

Circle is great, but I am sure the credit card info can be used to find you. I want to keep it a secret because I honestly expect cryptos to massively rise in value and the government, in its desperation throws, will come for the capital gains wherever it can. I also want to buy some other 'alts' privately. The area BTC Meetup group page had a solitary 'needs improvement' comment when I checked several months ago maybe I will look again.

[ritchbumpsyrg]

My best friend's mother-in-law makes $85 /hour on the internet . She has been out of work for 5 months but last month her pay was $16453 just working on the internet for a few hours.
Visit this website ????? http://www.jobsfish.com

[Buckyball magnets]

BuckyBalls can provide you with hours of entertainment, that means BuckyBalls attractive finish off your play with a strong appeal. When you meet that have been formed shape or want to start to create other shapes, you just need to simply restore the grain into a spherical magnetic ball, then you can try to re-create more other shapes. You can use a lifetime trying to create different types of shapes.