Bitcoin Forum

Fix the BitLicense

http://www.fixthebitlicense.org/

does lawsky really care about what bitcoiners think ?  i doubt that   ???

He might have to, if he doesn't want to exclude the US from the BTC Economy. Talent and innovation will move overseas.

We'll see how it plays out.  :)

He sounds like he cares. You should listen to this:

Aug. 7, 2014: Superintendent Lawsky, Billy Easton and David Sciarra, Stephen Shafer, Randy Credico
http://www.wcny.org/cpr080714/ (http://www.wcny.org/cpr080714/)

It is Ben Lawsky speaking, himself on the subject. He doesn't sound overly ill-intentioned and sounds open to making it work. Whether that is his true agenda I am not sure (I have my doubts because actions speak louder than words and so far his actions have been threatening harm in the name of good). He is a regulator so to me he is already in the "up to no good" box.

But still, interesting to hear it from him, himself.

our vote on this matter won't really count for anything.   That is the beauty of the United States "democracy."   You get to vote on issues that don't really matter, so it gives off the illusion of having a voice. 

there will be more of this kind of 'regulation' coming .. which is a thinly-veiled attempt to allow coinbase and circle to create a monopoly. Only the big companies can afford to 'play by the rules'

I see it the same way. Another give away to the banking industry. Small businesses can't compete with the hyper regulatory environment in New York. Hopefully other states either leave it alone or do something less damaging to the small business sector. 

Anybody else done with Coinbase completely? I can't believe they are pre-emptively collecting personal information on users ahead of legislation time, just to show Wall Street they are corporate suits first and foremost.

What needs to be regulated is THEFT and other already-illegal activities. If somebody gets scammed out of $$ trying to buy BTC with a credit card, we already have laws in place to prosecute the scammer. Its just that there's no resources to do this right now. We don't need legislation governing bitcoin to deal with this obvious a problem, we need better enforcement of our pre-existing laws.

who cares about some "license" that some people in some small state or city want to push? They are nothing, bitcoin is global

Yeah tell that to Coinbase, one of the biggest bitcoin vendors in the world. They are already fully-compliant with the legislation, which hasn't even been passed into law yet.

I mentioned this before, but my money is on Coinbase being the first Bitcoin company to start issuing 1099s to their users...

Bingo. And IMO we cryptocoiners should not care about what regulators think. The obvious thing here is that they are starting a fight that's impossible for them to win: what are their intention, to outlaw maths?

We can be sure that the Bitcoin is much stronger and don't really depend on them. If Governments bring abusive regulations on, they will be shooting their own feet, for investors, tax payers, and employment creators will simply avoid that specific state/country/city and will always choose BTC friendly places.

Unless we are too desperate about short term USD/BTC prices we should just let them make their mess... tant pis pour eux

some exchanges will comply, some will not. and another interesting part is, to watch the competition between countries when it comes to BTC regulation.

money is more liquid than it was ever before since there is bitcoin.


@nutildah

you are wrong. i saved your day  :D

The regulators will win, they will make money off bitcoin regulation, and the utility of bitcoin will be destroyed.

This is why the price continues to drop despite the millions of dollars of fiat being poured into bitcoin startup ventures.

Please God or somebody else prove me wrong.

errr did you edit this into your last post?

have you checked the price of BTC lately?

OK markets, I take it back, BTC will still have value independent of the U.S. decision to regulate it! You forgot about foreign markets! Also its harder to get now that Coinbase requires additional user info to purchase.

In time cryptocurrencies of all types will be adopted en masse, filling much-needed moneysaving niches worldwide.

The power of bitcoin's utility to mankind is limited only by the power of our own imaginations!!

Don't confuse regulation with legislation.

I don't believe, that this man can to change a position of US in btc economy. But i hope, that he will to do that in small countries.

I've signed it, whatever little it helps.

Like others have said, NYC can push whatever they like through, just means it'll set the US BTC companies back a little.

Is this "fix" like the NYC slang?
Guido da plumber gonna go fix them iffn day don pay.

That may be the only way to "fix" this.  It is broken in so many ways.

They are only different in HOW the come into being.

They are identical in what they are and the force behind them. It does not matter if it is a regulation or legislative law, if you do not follow either men with guns come and take your possessions, take your children and throw you in jail.

Can anyone summarize what's going on with this bitlicense.  I see references to coinbase (a california company) and some kind of state or local laws, also something about personal information.  Is this having to do with a software license?

Coinbase is pretending the bitlicense regulation has passed already and is voluntarily collecting all of their buyers' information (which is why I stopped buying bitcoin from them).

Put simply, BitLicense would make anybody who deals with bitcoin anywhere in the world have to register their personal information with the state of New York. Bitcoin merchants would have to pay a fee and apply for a license to exchange bitcoin, unless you're a giant megabank already, in which case you are exempt from having to pay the licensing fee.

Interesting.  However, the fact that apparantly it's a New York State law means that it would realy only be enforcable upon businesses located or headquartered in NY.  Right?

You would think so, but the way the legislation is currently written they are trying to extend their reach of authority to the entire world, hoping every single bitcoin user across the planet will just willingly go along with it. Even though there exists no legal precedent to do so.

The destruction of bitcoin value will be incredible to watch.

*pulls up chair, grins*

 :D

OleOle, I love the omg guys!

Nultidah, well NY can say "anyone in the world has to X" but obviously that's only enforcable on people reachable by the authorities of NY.  If for some reason coinbase or companies in California decide to go along, that's their decision.  I'm not too worried about NY taking over bitcoins, but then again I don't use coinbase anyway.  I can see why it's worth it to leave them because of this decision.

Its a proposal not a law, made by an unelected noob politico on the take from lobbyists.
The lobbyist writes the proposal, hands it to the noob politico over lobster on their yacht, and laskys job is to try to make it stick.
He gets out of doing any real thought on the matter, gets the press all riled up and makes a name for himself as the protector of TPTB.

Can you elaborate as to which rules would be costly to abide by?

What the NY regulations say in a nutshell is that companies that exchange BTC to and from fiat must identify people who they trade with (this should already be done due to AML rules), and that exchanges must have enough BTC in their possession to cover all of their customers BTC deposits (in other words they cannot operate on a fractional reserve system).