Northern Ireland Government announced a new legislation on Bitcoin

[tyz]

What do you think about it? A step forward for Bitcoin to become mainstream?

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/technology/future-of-bitcoin-could-pay-dividends-31151756.html

[pawel7777]

Positive article, but that's only speculation. UK gov seemed to be rather Bitcoin-friendly so far, but words and declarations from politics don't mean much, especially in the pre-election period.

One thing is sure, "Belfast Telegraph" is pretty bullish on Bitcoin today, another one from them:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/technology/bitcoin-could-be-the-spanish-piece-of-eight-of-21st-century-says-us-academic-31152768.html

[coinableS]

Was it just me or did that article not mention much about this new legislation? On another note, government legislation is good as long as it's not a ban. The more and more regulations and legislation we see the more it legitimizes bitcoin.

[pawel7777]

...On another note, government legislation is good as long as it's not a ban. The more and more regulations and legislation we see the more it legitimizes bitcoin.

Sometimes over-regulations are a form of ban. Strictly forbidding something (in this case - Bitcoin) would make any government look like North Korea, so instead they try to 'help' with regulations, but if those are hard/impossible to comply with - the effect would be the same.

Would it be good if you were obliged to register your every BTC address with government institution, or declare every satoshi you have, or pay tax on hobby-mining etc?

[coinableS]

...On another note, government legislation is good as long as it's not a ban. The more and more regulations and legislation we see the more it legitimizes bitcoin.

Sometimes over-regulations are a form of ban. Strictly forbidding something (in this case - Bitcoin) would make any government look like North Korea, so instead they try to 'help' with regulations, but if those are hard/impossible to comply with - the effect would be the same.

Would it be good if you were obliged to register your every BTC address with government institution, or declare every satoshi you have, or pay tax on hobby-mining etc?

Would it be good?? It would be stupid. There is no way to enforce any of those things. The record labels and government thought they could stop P2P file sharing, they were wrong. What makes them think they can stop or even attempt to govern P2P money? Anyone who abides by those regulations would be self imposed and work like an honor system.

[pitham1]

Was it just me or did that article not mention much about this new legislation? 

There was nothing on the new legislation in the article.
OP could have just used the title of the article as the subject of this thread - "Future of Bitcoin could pay dividends"

[Slark]

It is funny how they announce that with new legislation the government, will measures to encourage safer use of digital currency. What exactly did they plan to achieve safer use?
They have to control bitcoin of course, because governments believe that people are dumb to the point they can't have bitcoins.