2013-08-07 Bitcoin Clampdown Continues As Federal Judge Says It’s A Currency

[zakoliverz]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/07/bitcoin-clampdown-continues-as-federal-judge-says-its-a-currency/

Wikipedia calls Bitcoin a cryptocurrency (a currency that relies on cryptography), but now it’s official. A federal judge in Texas has declared that Bitcoin is a currency and should therefore be regulated just like U.S. dollars or gold. The ruling represents yet another attempt to regulate Bitcoin transactions, threatening the original purpose of the currency.

[BCB]

Why would you call a judicial ruling a clampdown?  This just adds to bitcoin's legitimacy. Would you have preferred it was ruled pretend Internet Money that no one really cares about??

[zeroday]

If so, they also have to add that World of Warcraft gold, Eve Online credits, Linden dollars, etc.. are currencies and are subject to regulation as US dollar.
And all virtual currency users are criminals as they are not registered money transmitter.

[Foxpup]

The judge isn't saying Bitcoin should be regulated as a currency, he's saying it always was regulated, hence the validity of the SEC's case and the bogosity of Trendon Shavers' defence that "if it's not real money, it's not illegal". The SEC already knew that Bitcoin investments were subject to their regulation (they wouldn't have charged Shavers in the first place if they didn't), this court ruling merely confirms that fact. The saner folks on this forum also already knew that, and have trying for ages to get it through everyone else's thick skulls that just because you use Bitcoin, that doesn't mean the laws regarding monetary transactions don't apply to you. Some people insist on learning the hard way.

[sergio]

it is clear that there is a clampdown against Bitcoin, however Satoshi in the design of Bitcoin expected this sort of thing to happen thats why it is p2p.

The week links in the Bitcoin economy are the exchanges and they have been attaked  already, however as a result satoshi squares were built, and probable in the near future there will p2p exchanges. there are already p2p miner pools such as p2pool.

The government even though it wants to destroy Bitcoin, it knows that by doing so it will drive Bitcoin underground and it will not be able to collect any taxes if they do that, so to kill it they will try to tax it as much as they can.

Thailand really screw itself by outlawing Bitcoin, since it will not enable their citizens to save and generate welth, and the few miners in Thailand will not pay any taxes since it is not legal  there and will probably will be able to sell the coins for a markup.

I personally think there is nothing to worry, and it might be a good thing since now they are admitting it is a currency.

My personal opinion it would be best if the government left the Bitcoin alone, since they did nothing to help in the Bitcoin success, so far they only have done very bad things but they started doing all the bad stuff once Bitcoin grew, it was left alone the first 3 years.

Remember Bitcoin == monetary freedom.