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Virtual currency schemes (VCS) have experienced remarkable developments over the past twoyears. As announced in its October 2012 report, the ECB has been examining these developments, partly in order to understand their potential relevance for retail payments.Although the term “virtual currency” is commonly used – indeed, it often appears in this report –the ECB does not regard virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, as full forms of money as definedin economic literature. Virtual currency is also not money or currency from a legal perspective.For the purpose of this report, it is defined as a digital representation of value, not issued by acentral bank, credit institution or e-money institution, which in some circumstances can be usedas an alternative to money. The term “virtual currency scheme(s)” is used throughout this report todescribe both the aspect of value and that of the inherent or in-built mechanisms ensuring that valuecan be transferred

The VCS “ecosystem” consists mainly of specific, new categories of actors which were not present in the payments environment before. Moreover, emerging business models are builtaround obtaining, storing, accessing and transferring units of virtual currency. Many schemes haveappeared and some have already disappeared again, but around 500 exist at the time of writing.This is in stark contrast to the situation of two years ago when it was only really Bitcoin that wasknown about. Some of these new VCS are designed with slightly different technical characteristicsthat could improve the functionality or some elements in the ecosystem. For many, however, itis unclear what their purpose is, as it seems that only a few are used, or are intended to be used,for payments. The acceptance of VCS for payments does not seem widespread, although some prominent e-commerce merchants did announce that they would start accepting payments withBitcoin. Data concerning the usage of VCS as a payment method are not readily available. Bitcoinis used for around 69,000 transactions per day worldwide, compared with a total of 274 millionnon-cash retail payment transactions per day for the EU alone

Τhe usage of VCS for payments remains limited for now, which implies that there is not yet amaterial risk for any central bank tasks, including promoting the smooth operation of paymentsystems. However, a major incident with VCS and a subsequent loss of trust in VCS could alsoundermine users’ confidence in electronic payment instruments, in e-money and/or in specific payment solutions. The ECB recognises that, besides their drawbacks and disadvantages, VCScould also have some advantages over traditional payment solutions and specifically for paymentswithin virtual communities/closed-loop environments and for cross-border payments. As such, itis not excluded that a new or improved VCS may be more successful in future. Therefore, theEurosystem will continue monitoring developments, notably for payments-related aspects of VCS