Bitcoin Now Ranks as Form of Money in France

March 20, 2020         By: Steven Anderson

After the last couple of long, strange weeks in the markets, one more strange development has cropped up, a development tipped off our way by our friends at Digital Currency Index. Bitcoin, long thought to be only the province of speculators and criminals, has taken on a whole new life as an officially-recognized form of money in France.

Yes, that’s right; you can now pay for anything in the country with bitcoin as readily as you could with Euros. The move ultimately stemmed from a decision reached by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, who established a ruling in a case between the Paymium cryptocurrency exchange and BitSpread, an alternative investment firm located in the UK. Paymium loaned BitSpread 1,000 bitcoin just ahead of the Bitcoin Cash hard fork launched in 2017, and as a result, both companies claimed that the Bitcoin Cash generated by that fork belonged to them.

Ultimately, the court found that the borrower was entitled to the Bitcoin Cash created, as bitcoin was to be considered a legitimate form of money, and bitcoin lending was ultimately the same as any normal “consumer loan.” Thus, the property generated as a result of that loan would belong to the borrower, since ownership of the property borrowed became the borrower’s for the terms of the loan contract.

This wasn’t the first such move, just the latest; Germany, India and South Korea have made similar moves in recent days, and it’s starting to look like there’s a growing body of support for cryptocurrency in general.

It’s certainly come a long way from its early days of being the primary request for ransomware operations, that’s for sure. With the Silk Road mostly dead, and stores like Overstock.com stepping in, the legitimacy of bitcoin—and by extension cryptocurrency—has only grown in recent days. This is, of course, pretty much the ultimate in mobile payments tools as it requires a phone or card to use, and as more stores actually accept it—which will likely start happening now that it’s considered the same as money in many countries—the infrastructure for cryptocurrency will have to grow to match.

Sure, not everyone will take it right away. It still requires that infrastructure be in place. But as more customers want to use a specific payment method, astute businesses will respond accordingly. Those who don’t will find themselves losing out to those who do.