Ukraine's PrivatBank allows e-commerce Bitcoin transactions

Author: Cleopatra

Ukraine's largest commercial bank, PrivatBank, has accepted Bitcoin, allowing online sellers to directly accept Bitcoin payments from customers.

PrivatBank is headquartered in Dnipropetrovsk, in central Ukraine. PrivatBank has always been at the forefront of the technological revolution. Cristina Karmazin, head of the bank's e-commerce department, recently announced that PrivatBank has concluded testing of a new service that allows online sellers and e-commerce portals to directly accept Bitcoin payments from customers. Cristina Karmazin said this at the conference "Cross-border e-commerce: Importing Ukraine" held in Kiev on Thursday. After the introduction of the new system, PrivatBank's payment gateway will have a Bitcoin payment option. Using PrivatBank's payment gateway, sellers can accept an equal value of Bitcoin in exchange for products and services priced in Ukrainian hryvnia and euro denominations. Customers who are willing to pay with Bitcoin can choose Bitcoin payment, scan the QR code, and conduct the transaction.

Once the Bitcoin transaction is confirmed, PrivatBank will convert the Bitcoin into the equivalent value of hryvnia or euros (according to the market price), depending on the settings of the seller's PrivatBank account. With the support of the largest bank in Ukraine, online sellers can now receive Bitcoin from customers without worrying about regulatory issues or market fluctuations. PrivatBank has its own system and is now inviting sellers from Ukraine and other parts of Europe to use it. PrivatBank has submitted an application for the new business to the Central Bank of Ukraine and hopes to get a license soon. However, don't get your hopes up until you get the final word from the Central Bank.

More and more European countries are optimistic about Bitcoin.

GoPay, a major payment platform in Czechoslovakia, recently announced that it accepts Bitcoin payments and has partnered with BitcoinPay, which is based in the UK. However, Russia is an exception, and has recently drafted a law that would make exchanging Bitcoin for rubles a crime punishable by four years in prison. Russia recently clarified that even though it is against cryptocurrencies, it is open to the technology that powers it and that Russian financial institutions may turn to blockchain technology for fund transfers or other applications.