It's official! Ben Lawsky will do a Reddit AMA on Bitcoin

[BruceFenton]

He has officially announced this on his Twitter.

[BittBurger]

Bruce:  Thoughts on the relevance / ramifications of this?

[BTCisthefuture]

When will this be taking place ? Very interested in seeing what he's asked and what his answers will be.

[BittBurger]

He hasn't set the date.  Just calling it a future AMA.  Several asked him for it, so it was surprising (in a good way) that he agreed.  This is definitely not the regulatory scene of 15 years ago.  Honestly this is unheard of.  Andreas Antonopoulos even commented thanking him for addressing the community directly.   Although most are justifiably concerned he's going to get a shit storm of snarky rude comments.  I've never seen an AMA.  Is it a controlled, moderated environment?  Or a free for all where every Tom, Dick, and Harry can write any offensive thing while hiding behind their computers?   I am not a fan of the BitLicense, but I think encouraging Lawsky to remain open minded and adventurous in his policy making will only benefit Bitcoin, so I have thanked him as well.  There's a possibility he's a lot more agreeable to it than most people think.

He says his Reddit name will be "BenLawsky".

-B-

[instructor2121]

Very interesting that he is doing this.

[BruceFenton]

Bruce:  Thoughts on the relevance / ramifications of this?

The jaded and cynical side of me which has been hardened by 22 years as a regulated financial professional and supervisor says that this is a PR stunt designed by a career politician who will outwit or ignore every relevant question on Reddit other than a couple token "hardball" questions and that it will simply be spun as "proof" that "the community was consulted" before royally screwing us all with ham handed heavy regulation that crushes this thing before it gets started.

The eternal optimist in me hopes against all hope that he is genuinely somehow a man who cares about what is right and justice and that we can provide wise and thoughtful questions and comments and that a show of positive force will show him and other politicians that there are drawbacks to harming innovation and that he backs off of Bitcoin regulation seeing it as a losing game.   The markets and investors then respond and we see a golden age of glorious growth ahead!

[keithers]

IMO, this is pretty cool of him to do this, as he has no responsibility to directly address the public or answer our questions.   It goes to show that he is open to cryptos becoming part of our everyday lives, which is a positive thing.

I like the fact that anything can be asked, rather than all the questions being pre-screened...

[BittBurger]

Reading his "tone" in the NY hearings that I listened to on a podcast, I know he feels that a lot of Bitcoiners are wearing tinfoil hats, but he also seems to find it interesting and funny at the same time.  As for Bitcoin itself, he definitely seemed open to it, but kept reiterating that he will never, in any way, sacrifice the safety of Americans post-911 (his words) for the utopian libertarian world of zero regulation (my words).  

I think he knows a struggle is coming, but it was funny to see him on Twitter laughing at the meme someone made of the game controller with his name on it and the various buttons for "Kill Bitcoin" / etc ... the fact that he's goofing around on Twitter with all of us is not only strange, its potentially promising.  In a really, really weird way. 

Its somehow comforting to know that the guy you're about to fight with isn't some untouchable, robot-like "suit", but a down to earth human with real flesh and blood.

-B-

[nakaone]

he sees the potential for innovation by the bitcoin protocol, that is a very good sign. I am with him at regulating the downfalls of cryptocurrencies (fraud and laundering).

Even his announcement to design the regulation process in an open source manner can be seen very very positive. I also think that he knows how far reaching his design of regulation will be. My biggest concern is how much influence he personally has on the design of the regulation