Bitcoin Forum

Private organization: U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau spying on Bitcoin
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-26/bitcoin-to-get-more-attention-from-u-s-consumer-bureau.html

What they call consumer protection translates to banker protection. If they want to help consumers start by paying more attention to the federal reserve.

Go around these assholes.

It can be done.

Isn't this a good thing?

Its a consumer group that helps people out with protecting themselves/recovering from fraud and such...  That's good right?

Or is there something that the tin foil had brigade thinks it knows about consumer groups?

Neil

Pardon me but fuck those people.

I guess they added it to their spy network of things to watch
I don't think they need to be everywhere and see what everyone's transactions is but it should be easy enough if they build a blockchain targeting app.

Innocuous enough for now though its the future implications that scare people.

“We’re looking forward to increasing our involvement in formal working groups as they engage on specific issues relating to consumer protection,” William Wade-Gery, CFPB’s acting assistant director for card and payment markets, wrote in a May 6 letter to the GAO.

While the GAO report didn’t specify the issues that should be addressed by the CFPB, fraud and security have been serious problems for some bitcoin users. For example, an exchange based in Tokyo went bankrupt in February after losing most of its users’ accounts to hackers.

Assume every government organization and every private organization is spying on any/every Bitcoin organization. Information, like all other tools, becomes a weapon in the hands of a capitalist.

It's not capitalists who worry me.  What I fear is loss of control of crypto due to over-regulation by big government types and people who do not understand the idea of virtual currency.

consumer protection groups have nothing to do with financial laws. its all about business ethics and product sales.

the only consumer rules i want to see are
1) BUSINESSES cant claim a pre-order as being a pre-order if the product does not launch within a month, and businesses should be fined if they exceed a month and not refund customers

2) BUSINESSES should have high level security to protect customers data and funds, and as such if they want to hoard $1mill of customer funds, they have to have insurance liability insurance to match such amounts (premiums for that amount are actually cheap so wont stifle innovation)

3) BUSINESSES should practice 'fair trading' principles.

4) if a customer pays $500 500Euro or 1 bitcoin, the refund should be the same form and same amount. it should not matter about international exchange rates. if a business is afraid of losing out due to refunds, then they should not sell bogus crap to need to offer refunds

in short. consumer laws that exist today to protect customers should be followed by bitcoin businesses, and law enforcement should not shy away from getting involved just because its bitcoin.. no consumer laws need changing as 1-4 are normally in most countries the back bone of existing consumer laws. and this will not in any way mess with bitcoin.. just the businesses ethics

This should backfire on them. If anything, it will bring more light to bitcoin.

Go cry some more.

It isn't capitalists that people should be worried about. It is the government that you should be worried about. When you spy on people like this people are often prosecuted simply because they associate with a certain group of people.

They'd better spy on their moms' asses, idiots

It is not good to have a government agency protect you from yourself

100% agree with this statement!

Seems to me that this is just a limp federal agency that will probably be ineffectual in regards to bitcoin and other crypto. As a consumer (and not a business owner/operator) in the crypto realm, this doesn't worry me personally.

its just a way to create more regulations and, therefore, barriers to entry.  This will curtail innovation by ensuring that only VERY big players (ie, large corporations or VC-backed companies and Wall St) will be able to enter the Bitcoin sphere.

The government already holds a monopoly on the banking system, which is why we had the 2008 Credit Crisis, S&L Crisis, etc.  New innovators cannot compete with the banks because of the barriers to entry in that market.  Government wants to apply the same template to Bitcoin ...

And it's all under the deceptive aegis of 'protecting the consumer'

You think the MtGox fraud was big?  Hell, that was only $500 million!

How about the 2008 credit crisis, in which the US taxpayer got jacked for FOURTEEN TRILLION?  That was directly DUE TO REGULATIONS preventing competition with those fraudulent banks!

America, wake the hell up.