The Mixed Fortunes of Bitcoin in Australia

While even the Bitcoin Foundation seems to be skeptical of increasing Bitcoin merchant diversity, an existing start-up has come forward to deliver some unadulterated good news on the Bitcoin ecosystem.
The US Bitcoin scene is palpably strained following increased FinCEN regulations on money transmission, but the picture elsewhere, as painted by Coinarch, is apparently a lot rosier – even a cause for celebration.
Coinarch is a trading platform registered in Singapore but primarily serving the Australian market, an environment which has recently also become more problematic for certain types of Bitcoin start-ups. In August, regulatorsannounced that fiat-digital transactions would be subject to Australian general sales tax (GST), increasing costs for those wishing to explore Bitcoin using AUD.
‘The interesting thing with all of this is, of course, the response of government,’ Co-founder Mark Hergott said in an interview.
‘The federal government is due to commence a Senate committee inquiry into Bitcoin shortly, with its findings due early next year. The hope is that this committee sees sense and avoids silly rules like those recently announced by the ATO which said that Bitcoin purchases are GST applicable, something which could greatly affect the practicality of using Bitcoin.’

This post was published at Coin Telegraph on 2014-10-30.