No, you've linked to something that says it is OK to use it. You are misunderstanding what legal tender is.

The European Commission says [1]:

"Within the euro area, only the euro has the status of legal tender."

"Yet...contractual parties are free to use...virtual currency schemes (e.g. Bitcoin). Although these are not official currencies and have no legal tender status, parties can agree to use them".

Germany has not made Bitcoin legal tender. Don't fool yourself.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/euro-area/eu...

Within the Euro area only the Euro has the status of legal tender but businesses settle in USD all the time.

The link I provided is jurisprudence in Germany but it doesn't impact the whole of the EU. Malta might soon join though.

If you want HN and other people to take Bitcoin seriously, it's in your interests not to make false or inaccurate claims.

If there are "a few countries here in Europe where cryptos are legal tender" then this is a big deal and you need to provide a reference.

Otherwise you just come across badly. Terms are important.

The German source you provided explicitly states that it is not legal tender, but "just" treated similarly as other currencies: buying bitcoin is recognized as exchanging other currencies, it can be used similarly in contracts, ...

Can you tell me where? I must have honestly missed it and so must have all the other people who think this https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/19/bitcoin-u... is true.

The Guardian article doesn't say it is legal tender either. Legal tender has a very specific meaning.

The German source says that for some purposes it is "treated equally to legal tender" and that "exchanging virtual currencies to legal tender and back is tax free". Neither statement makes sense if it were legal tender.

Its status for some purposes is similar to that of other non-Euro currencies (e.g. contracts between private parties agreeing on it etc), none of which are legal tender in Germany.

Ok that difference makes sense, thank you for the explanation.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are treated equally to legal tender in Germany.

> Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are treated equally to legal tender in Germany

I’m sceptical that you spent 20 years in fintech without learning the definition of legal tender.

If you go to a restaurant, eat your meal (thereby accumulating a debt) and slap legal tender on the table, the restaurant must accept it. They may also accept other things, like Visa credit cards or Ethereum. But they aren’t obligated to. The former is legal tender. The latter is a way to pay. Obligations around settling debt are the sole defining characteristic of legal tender, so it doesn’t make any sense to say one thing is “treated equally” to legal tender if it lacks this core characteristic.

I'm familiar with the definition but I learned today that I was mistaken in the translation. The articles I had previously read and linked said bitcoin was legal tender but the actual legal document provides a slightly but importantly different definition.

If you travel abroad you may have to exchange your currency to pay for a meal, because your coin is not treated equality to legal tender locally, and the defining characteristic is that it settles the debt at the time of exchange. I believe that's a function that cryptocurrencies fulfil by design and if the court states they are to be treated equally to legal tender that seems to prove my point.

In UK, Scotland is issuing it's own fiat money that is not a legal tender. See here https://www.scotbanks.org.uk/banknotes/legal-position.html