2013-03-21 National Journal "How Washington Plans to Regulate Your Bitcoins"

[mccorvic]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/how-washington-plans-to-regulate-your-bitcoins-20130321

In plain English, if you were to buy this man's house for 6,750 bitcoins like he's asked for, nobody will swoop down on you and tell you "no." On the other hand, if you're a middleman and you help transfer the currency as part of the transaction, you'll be treated just like any other intermediary using paper money

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[aigeezer]

if you were to buy this man's house for 6,750 bitcoins like he's asked for,

The house in question is in Alberta, Canada, so if Washington somehow finds a way to insert itself into the transaction it would be, umm, an interesting development.

[solex]

if you were to buy this man's house for 6,750 bitcoins like he's asked for,

The house in question is in Alberta, Canada, so if Washington somehow finds a way to insert itself into the transaction it would be, umm, an interesting development.

Indeed. Likely scenario: Canadian citizen buys house off another Canadian citizen, in Canada, with Bitcoins. No foreign government intervention is permitted under Canadian law!

[nimda]

if you were to buy this man's house for 6,750 bitcoins like he's asked for,

The house in question is in Alberta, Canada, so if Washington somehow finds a way to insert itself into the transaction it would be, umm, an interesting development.

Indeed. Likely scenario: Canadian citizen buys house off another Canadian citizen, in Canada, with Bitcoins. No foreign government intervention is permitted under Canadian law!

U.S. intervenes anyway, both citizens are unlawfully extradited to the U.S. in the name of the war on terror.

[Mike Christ]

if you were to buy this man's house for 6,750 bitcoins like he's asked for,

The house in question is in Alberta, Canada, so if Washington somehow finds a way to insert itself into the transaction it would be, umm, an interesting development.

Indeed. Likely scenario: Canadian citizen buys house off another Canadian citizen, in Canada, with Bitcoins. No foreign government intervention is permitted under Canadian law!

U.S. intervenes anyway, both citizens are unlawfully extradited to the U.S. in the name of the war on terror.

And then they both get evaporated by drones

[Sage]

Regulate Bitcoins?  Good luck on that one.

Decentralized systems cannot be regulated or controlled.

It's only central points such as the exchanges that can.

Once we get a viable decentralized exchange going any attempts of government regulation will simply be weekend armchair entertainment for Bitcoin users.

Programmers, developers, what's it going to take to create that system?

[aigeezer]

if you were to buy this man's house for 6,750 bitcoins like he's asked for,

The house in question is in Alberta, Canada, so if Washington somehow finds a way to insert itself into the transaction it would be, umm, an interesting development.

Indeed. Likely scenario: Canadian citizen buys house off another Canadian citizen, in Canada, with Bitcoins. No foreign government intervention is permitted under Canadian law!

U.S. intervenes anyway, both citizens are unlawfully extradited to the U.S. in the name of the war on terror.

And then they both get evaporated by drones

The plot thickens. Apparently the man who owns the house was born in the USA and lives near Nashville, so even though the house for sale is in Canada, Washington may take an interest after all.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/21/canadian-bitcoin-house-for-sale/

[Haole]

If he sells for Bitcoin he will not come under even FinCEN regulations unless he exchanges the Bitcoin for Fiat at some point.   Even if "Washington" is interested, all they can do is sit a watch regardless of his "citizenship" until such time as he potentially converts any Bitcoin to Fiat currency.

[cypherdoc]

If he sells for Bitcoin he will not come under even FinCEN regulations unless he exchanges the Bitcoin for Fiat at some point.   Even if "Washington" is interested, all they can do is sit a watch regardless of his "citizenship" until such time as he potentially converts any Bitcoin to Fiat currency.

Good luck trying to figure that one out.

[odolvlobo]

Decentralized systems cannot be regulated or controlled.

Each person is the U.S. is regulated and controlled by the U.S. government to some extent, and you can't get more decentralized than that. You can argue that the Bitcoin itself can't be regulated or controlled, but that is irrelevant if the people that are using it are regulated and controlled.

[jgarzik]

Fixed thread title to read "National Journal" (as opposed to "National Review")