Bitcoin Forum

Homeland Security's US Citizenship and Immigration is now considering accepting bitcoin payment for US Visa application/payment fees

the documents from USCIS.gov (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Outreach/IPO_Division_Chief_Lori_MacKenzies_Remarks.pdf) website reads:
"USCIS is currently considering issues involving virtual currency such as Bitcoin." related to "the use of bitcoin to transfer investment funds to the new commercial enterprise".

http://www.coindesk.com/us-officials-weigh-bitcoin-payments-eb-5-visa-program/

Doesn't look all that promising to me.

Isn't Trump banning immigration? (I'm only partially kidding)

Anyone know of the phrase "follow the money"? I love that it's ringing true with Bitcoin. Governments and corporations and general public can be skeptical...but where there is currency or asset value, people will follow. Quietly at first, and then very very publicly.

I bet a significant motivation for the BTC price run up has been the awareness it received among Wall Street investors through the ETF denial. Wall Street loves to make money and they don't need the SEC to do it!

I don`t see anything about bitcoin adoption.
The USCIS see bitcoin as an issue ,because the ownership of funds can`t be verified.
Dirty money>bitcoin>money laundry...

One possible answer to this is, that they are using this to flag Bitcoin owners. You can expect them to look more closely at you the moment when you reveal that you are a Crypto currency user. You apply for a VISA and you pay for the application with Bitcoin and you are immediately added to "The List"

At this stage, they do not have a way to determine who is and who is not Crypto currency users. ^easy^

This doesn't sound any promising or big. Apparently, they are looking for ways to start capturing users of bitcoin and when the time comes, they can easily nab whoever their target is and they want to use this strategy to achieve that.

I don't know what you are talking about :)
all the exchanges that are accepting fiat are following the KYC AML and all that BS and your bank already knows and tells everyone you have made a deposit to a bitcoin exchange, so they already know you are a bitcoin user.
also exchanges like coinbase (One of the biggest exchanges currently) is working directly with the government, IRS and reports all the transactions that is made through them (I'm only partially kidding).

and these are the ways regular people use, and not-regular people who are using some other methods are not going to pay with bitcoin to go on "the list"

While that is a nice development, I bet this time next year they are still "looking into it". Government types have no incentive to anything.

So we're all going to end up in concentration camps? I do enjoy the persecution complex of Bitcoiners. It's very cute but a little heavy on the self importance.

I wonder if Donald Trump has something to do with this.

Trump also said he would consider re-implementing glass steagall to help keep investment bankers over-leveraging on depositors funds under wraps.

Lots of good policies and executive orders coming from Trump.

This is good.  We can all talk about being added to "the list", but the US government isn't openly targeting Bitcoin users.  Sure, if you're doing something illegal then by all means don't send Bitcoin to the US government.  In most cases though, you're pretty safe.

Especially if you're good at anonymous payments through methods like Shapeshift with Monero, sending through exchanges which don't take documents, mixers, changing addresses etc.

Well, for Visa programs I can see something like that being useful, but I don't know how much success the US government would be able to find elsewhere since there still isn't a huge (and I mean >0.1% of the population) following for Bitcoin within the US's borders. Other countries (like Venezuela) would be able to make use of this, and the US would likely prefer a system like this too.

Well, if they want to. I don't know where they're going to benefit from a program like this, but if Homeland Security is going to try and make something like this work then I don't know if it's worth trying to make an argument in favor or against something like this.
If they make enough off of the program to justify trying to make some of these things a reality, then who am I to complain?

Coindesk is such a bunch of spin doctor bullshit artists. Part of the EB-5 program is qualifying by having a new "commercial enterprise" (opening a business). Homeland Security in concert with the INS is considering not allowing Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency businesses to be used to fulfill the requirement because they are so corrupt and can be used to foster money laundering and other criminal enterprises. Too bad Coindesk isn't a printed newspaper. At least then it would have some value, you could wipe your ass with it.

Just a small case, not for everything. But for visa application, which means they seem bitcoin is valid and legal payment.

Yes it is a trap. The US government is thinking of cunning ways to collect Bitcoin and mark you as a potential enemy of the state at the same time. I cannot see how the OP is getting excited about this. We partially started to become involved in Bitcoin because we do not believe in the government did we not?

this may be a start though! i wouldn't get my hopes up but i do believe that after what Japanese did and accepted bitcoin as a legal way of payment many countries have become softer towards bitcoin and a couple of them even are considering doing the same. so it wouldn't be such a strange thing if US finally did that someday too.

It's a good start for Bitcoin though the article will not have any influence on the adoption of Bitcoin within the Government. Just because the immigration company accepts Bitcoin it does not mean that the price of Bitcoin will go up as well because they can just change their mind within the last minute.

yeah, i am not saying bitcoin is going to get adopted because of this or i say they may even end up deciding against it.
but the fact that government is thinking about these stuff and "is considering bitcoin as a payment" is a good sign in my opinion.

there are several ways to flag Bitcoin owners and users, specially if your have secret service tools in your hand.

this would be utterly needless

I guess the US government got interested in bitcoin after the recent legalization of bitcoin as a payment for services and well being used in trading.
The US government may be following the hype or mainstream rather were what people is using the most and they will start to create an strategy to gain profit about it.

If the US government sees enough value in having some sort of supply of Bitcoin available to them, why wouldn't they seek to have some? It makes sense, but chances are they're going to use this as a means of figuring out how they would manage Bitcoin wallets and accounts so that they can start to implement taxes on Bitcoin in the future, if they ever get that far. Right now it just has to be some "assistance to foreign entities to free up financial strain with their native currencies".

What is going on with cryptocurrencies past 2 month, everyone seems to become a fan and showing interest. could this be the thing that we were all waiting for?

Are the miners seeing these trends and still refuse to upgrade?

It's like the people currently running Windows XP and refuse to upgrade to new versions for their own stupid or maybe logical reasons.

They are regulating exchanges one after another why not start accepting it?

I really miss the times of Ghash trading GH/s back then network was too weak and anyone could manipulate it with enough hash power which comparing to now it was nothing really just a few millions or less, but fortunately now that network is big and extremely hard maintaining the top player position they are leaning our way.

How could they not?

This is just the beginning though, fasten your seat belts mates as I can see the Jupiter in horizon.

This could be huge for Bitcoin if they actually start doing it. I just have 1 question though. Is it viable for the US Government? It seems that with the volatility of Bitcoin it won't actually be a viable option to use as a form of payment. Correct me if I am wrong here guys.

Yes this kind of rumor will be big if it will become a true news because we all know that US is one of the powerful country and they have a lot of businesses there and if they truly accept bitcoin as a payment then it will be a very big rocket fuel for bitcoin to skyrocket again and it can help to make the price of bitcoin to be stable at 2000 USD.

This is what I am thinking when I read the article.  There is nothing special about it, like the US supporting Bitcoin start-up project etc.  Though this may probably give a positive impact to Bitcoin since it is clear that the US look at Bitcoin as payment method, and may trigger a bit of hype on how we translate the action positively.

If its true,then its a good start.In future,all countries would start to recognize that bitcoin payments could not be further avoided.Japan starting to accept bitcoin as legal payment has changed the way which the world looked bitcoin before.

It is a step but not that big.
There is a price for doing that and it is US currency. If bitcoin moves just for a second then there will be a lot of problems with the payment. Either they will ask for more because bitcoin went a little down or they wont give you back the excess.
It is a win for then but not for the consumer. If you thought it through it is actually a bad idea.

US government won't​ make regulations in a short. I don't think this to be a positive growth for bitcoin to grow and reach a better level of adoption. It have been considered as an issue as most users quoted. Now the one who use it might get trapped under the surveillance of the government, so that in future bitcoin transactions can be traced.

It is the government not a merchant. They will not risk even just one cent for a loss.
Bitcoin volatility will not work with them since they want the exact fees all the time. They wont give up a loss and users will have problems with that.
Sudden waves could change anything.
If they are acceptig bitcoin they should price it with the same, not converting all of a sudden when bitcoin price changes in USD.

if people start thinking like this then we need to kiss bitcoin goodbye as a currency! and all the businesses working with bitcoin have to close down shop because bitcoin price is going to change for the timebeing since it is still volatile.

Call me skeptical but as a rule of thumb it should be safer not to attach your real identity to your Bitcoins or your Bitcoin wallet. It goes against the anonymous or pseudonymous nature of the cryptocurrency. All the beauty and brilliance of the design is gone the moment you surrender your real identity just because the US government requires you to do so.

Probably just a way to track down funds of immigrants as they can't do that for non bitcoin users due to governments of other countries hiding that information.

Either way, a government taking this kind of action has me worried. I see absolutely no reason for them to have any incentive to start accepting bitcoin.

Same. Our gov shouldn't really be interested in btc outside of criminal activity/ money laundering. I'd much rather citizens that affic in the native currency, rather than a foreign/exotic currency, using the domestic scrip guarantees its value. If the gov starts trying to associate people with addresses, watch out. It is the beginning of the IRS cracking down on tax avoidance.

Observe the current IRS/Coinbase situation. We don't talk about it as much, but it's still in progress ;)

I was thinking the same thing, its just their way of collecting intell and pinning down the people using the currency.
But this could actually happen and will definitely be a boost to the bitcoin value and market nevertheless.

What is the worst case scenario if the government of the United States connects your Bitcoins from a money launderer or a dark market user? Will they then now order you to surrender all your other Bitcoin wallets until the matter is resolved?

What other bitcoin wallets? I dont have any other wallets! Im not sure what you are talking about mr. govt investigator. ha ha

Really? Ok we will have to hold you in a cell and find them before we can let you go. We will be using only a block explorer so it might take at least 5 years before we are sure that we know everything about your Bitcoin activities. It would be faster if you tell us now.

i agree but at the same time i don't get "why".
because we are already using banks and our identity is attached with each money transaction that we make and this has been the way for years.
now bitcoin is also money, so even if our identity is attached to one of our many bitcoin addresses linked to a small portion of our bitcoin holding, separate from the main stash i don't see any problem with that.

You do not really get it, do you? The United States government could find some things in the blockchain that could put
you in a terrorist watchlist. What if the Bitcoins you hold are a few transactions connected to a wallet that is active in the dark market or a wallet that bought weapons. Not only is this bad for you but also because of public perception on the US government's actions, it could also hurt Bitcoin's fungibility.

no i really don't get it.
because with that logic 90% of the users of coinbase platform should already be on a terrorist watchlist because at some point some transactions linked to some shady activity can be received in their wallets and they spend it.
or worst, buy from from coinbase and spend it somewhere which then it goes to some shady activity!

and the same goes for fiat. the dollar bill you have in your hand could have been involved with some illegal drug cartel so should you really be on a terrorist watchlist because you have a "dirty money" in your pocket?