Petition the government to declare the legal status of Bitcoin?

[Lethn]

I'm sure you guys will have already spotted this but have you heard of the We the people government website? It's actually quite a good idea to make the government more transparent, I wish more would do stuff like this, but if you don't know what the site does it's like many of those other petition websites except that if you reach a certain amount of signatures ( Last I looked it was 100,000 ) you get an official response from the Whitehouse.

I thought maybe this would be a great idea for publicity, I can't do a thing because I'm not a U.S Citizen but maybe someone who is could make a petition on there to get the attention of the white house since we have so many people now wondering what they're going to do about it.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/

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[The Fool]

It could only do more harm than good. The federal government has no incentive to endorse an alternative currency.

[Lethn]

LOL I'd still like to see their response, especially if they ask "What's Bitcoin?"

[sounds]

What The Fool said:

We don't want the US Federal government to come meddling. Do you know what it means to have official status with the US government?

You won't like it if they say yes.

Oh, by the way, at some point the government will start taking bitcoin seriously, whether we ask them to or not. I'd like to delay that as long as possible. When the government does start taking an interest in bitcoin things will get crazy!

"Be grateful you don't get all the government that your taxes are paying for!"

[Akka]

Well, I would expect such a petition to be signet by about ~12 People.

So it could have a positive outcome in the way that US Gov. recognizes Bitcoin as entirely unimportant.

[Dalkore]

No, once it has a declared status, hardcore regulations will follow.  Think about what you wish for.

[Snipes777]

Agorism is to Bitcoin as the Federal Government is to FRNs. Petitioning the government is a waste of time at best, and a terrible introduction of problems at worst.

[pipboy]

Avoid government involvement as much as possible in all things.  I was drawn to the concept of Bitcoins because I see it as the antithesis of a government controlled currency.  I would hope to see the use of Bitcoins spread as much as possible while staying out of the government's gaze.

[constitution]

I personally love the petition page the whitehouse has created, I've signed many including the one to deport Piers Morgan!

[Lethn]

We don't want him back, fuck off

[Richy_T]

I went to the site but you have to sign up. That immediately excludes a whole bunch of people.

[sounds]

At least this guy is saying Bitcoin will be shut down by the governments of the world in 2014. He thinks that will crash BTC to 0.

[myrkul]

At least this guy is saying Bitcoin will be shut down by the governments of the world in 2014. He thinks that will crash BTC to 0.

Highly unlikely. If Bitcoin is made illegal, it will simply become the de facto currency of the black market.

[Monster Tent]

The mistake is thinking the white house runs anything. The real government is the people who own J.P Morgan , Citibank , HSBC et al and sending them a petition gets you diddly squat. Welcome to fiefdom 101.

[xcsler]

I'm just hoping that Bitcoin isn't as reliant on centralized exchanges like Mt. Gox by the time governments figure out Bitcoin's threat to their fiat currencies. The later we can delay that day of discovery the better.

[Lethn]

Bitcoins aren't reliant on any central authority, that's what's so great about them, exchanges etc. are just convenient, they aren't really necessary.

[Richy_T]

It's possibly been discussed elsewhere but assuming bitcoin takes on, I wonder what the future of bitcoin exchange will look like. Little booths like you see in large European cities? Presumably banks would offer it as a service (at unreasonable cost most likely). Presumably there will be some online competition too.

[Third Way]

I personally love the petition page the whitehouse has created, I've signed many including the one to deport Piers Morgan!

You must be on so many FBI watchlists.

[wormbog]

The US Dept. of Justice is well aware of Bitcoin. When they will choose to weigh in is anyone's guess. I suspect they take comfort in the fact that they could destroy the network anytime with a few million invested in custom ASIC hardware. When that is no longer the case I suspect the gov't will ask the IRS to determine if bitcoin income can be sufficiently monitored to be auditable. If it's not, we'll start seeing articles in the mainstream media about how bitcoin is used to fund terrorism.

[Vandroiy]

Honestly, it's irrelevant what the government says. Hence the beauty of Bitcoin.

Sure, I know a lot of people say, "If it was declared legal so and so would jump on it." Who cares? Bitcoin is bigger than this ancient way of thinking.

Yes!

Dinosaur institutions doing things nobody cares about. Don't waste too much time with them.

All this government power stems from an illusion. People expect to be under some sort of large intelligent ruling structure that was never there in the first place. Legal is whatever people (and thus the police) perceive as normal.

Let's focus on expanding the Bitcoin economy. If it becomes a normal part of life, it's automatically legal, just because it would feel absurd to make it illegal. Until then, compare it with cash to counter money-laundering accusations and emphasize that it is the peoples' money to counter misguided politicians.