Bitcoin Forum

Farewell New York

There has been a torrent of activity over the last few days over the August 8 deadline for declaring corporate compliance with New York’s infamous BitLicense regulation.

Many companies have chosen to opt-out of the regulation and the New York State market altogether. This verdict seems to also apply to the popular Bitcoin wallet provider and peer-to-peer exchange LocalBitCoins.com, who has posted a message on their site regarding this lightning rod legal issue.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115114/localbitcoins-stops-service-for-new-york-residents

"This new regulation would require anyone selling Bitcoins through our service to acquire the BitLicense if they sell Bitcoins to residents of New York.”
It's just insane!?!

It is. That is why Bitlicense is total bullshit and oppressive law. From my point of view Bitlicense was prepared by and for financial elites of Wall Street and old blood.
In theory it prevents bitcoin to be used as it meant to be - efficiently making bitcoin bad choice over normal FIAT.

explicitly! USD is gonna take over the currency! if i had money to appeal, i would battle with the law to overthrow this garbage law regarding the bitcoin.
protocol of fiat is just bullshit and zero-value; since government could just do something, and the currency? dead.

It's not exactly 100% restrictive is it. I'm not from the US so I don't know what states have a border with NY but all localbitcoin users have to do is arrange a person to person meeting with a bitcoin trader in a state nearby to NY. Obviously that wouldn't make sense economically for somebody buying a small amount of coins but somebody who e.g. wanted to buy 50 bitcoins can just travel to a nearby state & do a cash transaction - easy FUCK YOU to the Bitlicense.

I honestly don't know how they came up with this law in the first place.
Seems like there would be no legal base for a law like this.

yes, this is crap, this is just sounds like they are trying to put all obstacles to avoid it, i mean to dont let ppl use it "before" them or something like that.

maybe they smell the end of the money?

Actually we should be proud of our achievements. Bitlicense is a sign that the Wall Street elites are running afraid of Bitcoin. Despite the slump in the exchange rates, they are increasingly viewing Bitcoin as a mortal rival to the banking sector.

That said, I was saddened by the fact that already some 22 Bitcoin-based ventures have applied for the Bitlicense. We should have stood united, and rejected the Bitlicense.

So does this mean if I from France am to sell someone in the state of New York bitcoins, I have to obtain a BitLicense as well. If it does, than this is insane!

What are they trying to do with this license? Are they trying prevent normal people to get some bitcoins and leave it available just for the big players or are they trying to limit bitcoin completely in the whole state?  

It's very beneficial to the Bitcoin ecosystem if large companies like LocalBitcoins cease operations on New York. It's the best way to show them we do not approve BitLicense. The best way of protest, in my opinion. NY loses ;)

I think you're right, it's a bad thing if companies just accept these new draconian regulations, opens the door to more nonsense like this.

Its a good thing that they are taking the necessary steps to protect their sellers.

Lets not forget that localbitcoins doesnt actually sell any coins themselves. Therefore the onus is on the sellers to have a bit license to sell to NY residents.

When doing wire transfers lbc sellers dont necessarily know where their buyers are from and so Im sure that many were worried they may be falling foul of the new law. This protects them and shows that this market is maturing in general.

Bitcoin related companies should stands up against these laws and they should show unity to apply not for even a single license.These draconian laws are effective when business companies split into two.If they raise their voice unitedly they will be more powerful.After all these laws are against the idea on what Bitcoin was invented.LocalBitcoins was easy way to deal with Bitcoin ,it is so sad what happened.

Lol it's just nonsense. Why would anyone use Bitcoin if they have to go through so many annoying loops and holes to get some currency? What was this Lawksy guy expecting? I hope everyone leaves NYC.

I'm glad that so many companies left NY because of these licenses. It just goes to show that when you try to regulate something that's fairly benign, you'll end up hurting yourself more than you'll get out of it.

New York is a big state, so it might be difficult to travel to another state nearby. Also, I think the law applies to anyone operating in New York, which would include residents even if they aren't in New york (their base of operations, e.g. home, is in new York).

How has it hurt the regulators though? The only people its hurting are the users. The regulators are happy because they're making money that they wouldn't have been before.

On a side note, is the expectation that if other states also start trying this that the bitcoin business providers are supposed to have a licence for each state they do business in?

I do not really use LBC. I have before, but it was all online txs. I would assume NY was a large part of their American business. This will probably hurt them as well.

I have not used LBC in a while but this really hurts since I am in NY and it affects me. It was always nice to be able to sell some bitcoin when I wanted through LBC.

Not lbc only, there are some company which leave new york too, like bitquick and ect, bit there are some company which survive too, like bittrex. for more details: https://coinreport.net/bitcoin-companies-drop-new-york-service-due-bitlicense/