Czech Central Bank threatens to fine Paralelni Polis for physical bitcoins called “coins”

The public movement of cryptanarchists in the Czech Republic Paralelní Polis, which supports bitcoin, has received a warning from the Central Bank of the country for the issue of physical coins.

According to Martin Leskovjan, chairman of the Paralelní Polis group, in his tweet, the Czech National Bank is opposed to calling jubilee silver coins issued by the project “coins”. Paralelní Polis began issuing such coins with the support of BitNotes, a physical money company. The face value of these coins is 0.01 BTC (about $ 92).

Each coin depicts personalities widely known in the world of cryptocurrencies: Ross Ulbricht (Ross Ulbricht), Julian Assange (Julian Assange) and Aaron Schwartz (Aaron Swartz).

“The Czech National Bank sent us an official notice that if we continue to use the term“ coin ”on our website, we will be fined. The Bank believes that it has a monopoly on this word. But how else should we call the coins? ”, Leskovyan tweeted.

Paralelní Polis considers the situation completely meaningless. Paralelní Polis appeared in Prague in 2014 and has become very popular in the cryptocurrency community. In addition, its structure includes cafes that accept payments in bitcoins. However, the project “does not make love” with the Czech authorities. As stated on the Paralelní Polis blog, the movement aims to support people who have rebelled against the system and made a major contribution to the freedom of the Internet.

The Czech Republic is known for its conservative approach to cryptocurrencies. In August, the Czech government planned to tighten cryptocurrency supervision. In addition, if Czech companies do not register their activities with the national Trade Licensing Authority, they may be fined up to EUR 20,000.

According to a social survey conducted last year, Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency for savings in the Czech Republic.