Bitcoins were first arrested in France

On Monday, the French police ceased the activities of the illegal Bitcoin exchange, arresting server equipment, organizers and 388 virtual currency units in the amount of € 200 thousand, reports Reuters .

Two creators of the exchange were detained in Nice and Cannes on Friday, before that, during a search of one of them, credit cards, computers and carriers with bitcoins were seized, each of which cost € 9,000 at the time of the detention. A similar arrest was made in France for the first time.

It was possible to reach the violators of the law thanks to the denunciation of the former policeman. He went to their site, bought virtual currency and told the police about his suspicions.

Bitcoin, the peering system of circulation of electronic money of the same name, which is often called cryptocurrency or virtual currency, was launched in 2009. The network is fully decentralized. Bitcoins can be used to pay for goods or services or exchange for ordinary money for specialized Internet sites. Today, 12.7 million bitcoins are contacting the network. A number of countries, fearing threats due to high volatility and not quite clear nature of bitcoin as a payment means, imposed restrictions on operations with this currency within its jurisdiction.

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