“Since the beginning, we never treated bitcoin as a payment instrument because we hope that it would be recognized as a commodity,” Nidya said in Jakarta on Thursday on the sidelines of a discussion on illegal transactions with bitcoin and the government control authority.

She said Bitcoin Indonesia was still waiting for the regulation on bitcoins that is expected to be issued by Bank Indonesia and the Financial Service Authority. 

She denied that bitcoin transactions are totally uncontrollable or anonymous, saying that all members and users of Bitcoin.co.id could be tracked.

“We know the numbers of their bank accounts as well as their IP addresses. But because [Bitcoin] is unregulated, we cannot know who are the senders or recipients,” she said as reported by tempo.co.

Meanwhile, legal consultant for digital currency Robertus Ori Setianto said he disagreed that bitcoin should be treated as a payment instrument, but he did not reject it.

He, however, agreed that there should be regulations for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. “Just let it be a toy. But, it should be regulated. We, however, have to think twice before treating it as a payment instrument,” he added.

Bank Indonesia had declared Bitcoin as an illegal payment and transaction instrument, but the Trade Ministry's Futures Exchange Supervisory Board (Bappebti) is considering it as an investment instrument. (bbn)

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