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Comment by lucb1e | Hacker News Reader

Can someone explain what the use of being a certified bank is? I know it's easier to do bank transfers then, but Mt. Gox allows this already, also in Euro. And I thought Mt. Gox was a certified bank actually, especially considering the legal documents they require for Euro transfers.

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TL;DR: Bitcoin-Central.net, a French Bitcoin exchange gets many needed protections and features: (1) FDIC-esque insurance to fraud/etc., 100kEUR and 0BTC; (2) Personalized bank account numbers, making transfers easy (IBAN); (3) Segregation of client and company money; (4) Very easy and secure way to transfer money; (5) An ID is the only thing needed to sign up

Hmm could you elaborate on point 4? I didn't think of that, but yeah I guess with regulations, that adds another layer of security. Just how much exactly? If it gets hacked, I guess this still doesn't mean we can get our eur/btc back?

Your EUR will be fully insured (upto 100kEUR. Protip: Don't put 100kEUR into BTC).

Point 4 is you will have a unique IBAN address to wire money too. Instead of wiring to Bitcoin-Central's bank account number, you will wire money to YOUR account (at Bitcoin-Central). IBAN wires are free when using SEPA.

Ultra-concise summary: Instead of an exchange having 1 eur account and 1 BTC, each customer has an individual account. This provides ease, security, and EUR insurance.

Nice, thanks for the info!

Mtgox wishes it was a bank :) They ask for the docco for AML (trading) requirements - so they're not shifting the 5M btc that they've processed to dodgy criminal types - like lawyers & politicos :)

In the UK Mt. Gox have had issues with several banks who've basically disavowed them and all but refuse to do service with them. Having a certified payment processor means banks can't do that.

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