EFF: Bitcoin Is Free Speech

[hsz]

As many other comments have pointed out, the BitLicense threatens to stifle the use of blockchain technologies, not just Bitcoin’s illegal and legal uses. The EFF “notes that digital currency protocols are used for more than just payments – they have expressive and associational uses, too.” EFF’s Special Counsel Marcia Hofmann wrote eloquently on the topic of free speech and Bitcoin in the full comments provided to the NYDFS and available for public perusal here:

The courts have long recognized that code is speech protected by the First Amendment. At their core, digital currency protocols are code. Attempts to regulate code must include robust protections to ensure constitutionally protected speech is not stifled, and the BitLicense proposal would undermine those First Amendment principles.

Internet users around the world should visit the EFF’s action site regarding the BitLicense. The EFF has a pre-written email that users can send to the NYDFS directed at both Superintendent Lawsky and General Counsel Syracuse. Lawsky has promised to have a revised BitLicense proposal by the end of October, something that everyone is looking forward to.

[ANTIcentralized]

Although I would like to see the proposed NY regulation to be watered down a little bit, I would say that the logic the EFF is using is flawed. The proposed regulations are not trying to mandate the code be changed nor is it proposing that people use the code in a different way.

The supreme court has also ruled that spending money is a way to "speak" however it has not struck down AML laws/rules as laundering money is not a form of speech. The proposed regulations essentially are trying to make it much easier to launder money with bitcoin. The rest of the proposed regulation is aiming to protect customers from another MtGox