Bitcoin at the US Senate

[ijjed]

This is very interesting to follow the development of this situation at the moment.

I hope and believe that this is only good for bitcoin.

[NewLiberty]

99.9999% of Americans do not watch the channel this is being broadcasted on. However, the news will probably do soundbits focusing on child porn, money laundering, terrorists/

These are the branches of law enforcement talking to the law authors.  All they will talk about are the criminals and their ability to catch them.  This testimony will not be watched by anyone unless they are VERY interested in bitcoin.

So far it has been VERY good for bitcoin.  All these folks are bragging about how great they are at getting the bad guys.  The folks holding the hearing are the ones that author the laws.  The main issue is whether they need to write new laws to help the law enforcers stop bad things from happening... so far the law enforcers are NOT asking for new laws or more power, with the exception of maybe more funding for their current programs (but those should be well funded already by the seizures made this year), the lawmakers also get to decide on spending.

This is 100% positive for bitcoin so far in that there is no new damaging output requested.  
There may even be some positive effect if there is a more structured refinement of the FINcen pieces which are currently overreaching depending on how they get interpreted.

its funny, i learned a lot about government today. there is little to no organization, no cooperation, definitely no interest in "bringing down bitcoin" the only thing these department heads are interested in is panhandling. They seriously couldn't care less about digital currencies, they are just trying to use this as an opportunity to say "look we have done such a great job, look how many bad guys we caught, please either A) give us more money or B) increase the scope of our bailiwick.

This is pretty apt.

Consider the "silk road takedown".  DPR can do anything he wants so long as he is increasing his bitcoin hoard on USA ground, he even allegedly hires a hitman, the government doesn't stop it even though they are on the Silk Road server and can see everything happening.

When do they step in?  When he orders forged travel documents that might jeopardize their ability to seize the 170K bitcoins by being outside their jurisdiction.  Someone more cynical might have some questions about that.

[deepceleron]

Consider the "silk road takedown".  DPR can do anything he wants so long as he is increasing his bitcoin hoard on USA ground, he even allegedly hires a hitman, the government doesn't stop it even though they are on the Silk Road server and can see everything happening.

When do they step in?  When he orders forged travel documents that might jeopardize their ability to seize the 170K bitcoins by being outside their jurisdiction.  Someone more cynical might have some questions about that.

When do they step in? When they can grab his laptop while he is logged in using a public wifi. After they have created some evidence of him "hiring a hitman" so they can say "look, a criminal" instead of "look, ebay without draconian rules".

[freedomno1]

Foundations turn

[ijjed]

Foundations turn

Whose turn is next?

[NewLiberty]

Consider the "silk road takedown".  DPR can do anything he wants so long as he is increasing his bitcoin hoard on USA ground, he even allegedly hires a hitman, the government doesn't stop it even though they are on the Silk Road server and can see everything happening.

When do they step in?  When he orders forged travel documents that might jeopardize their ability to seize the 170K bitcoins by being outside their jurisdiction.  Someone more cynical might have some questions about that.

When do they step in? When they can grab his laptop while he is logged in using a public wifi. After they have created some evidence of him "hiring a hitman" so they can say "look, a criminal" instead of "look, ebay without draconian rules".

No, you missed the point.  He was doing those things all along, public wifi, allegedly hiring a hitman was long before.
They didn't nab him until he had bought documents that would let him travel.  They even waited until just the moment he received them... That was the line they couldn't let him cross.
Its about the money.
They let him generate more income long after the hit was ordered (whether or not he actually ordered any hit or not, they didn't intervene in that).

[Wilikon]

The Asian lady behind Murck is pretty hot.

[freedomno1]

Foundations turn

Whose turn is next?

Jeremy Allaire
Circle Internet Financial CEO now

[PinkBatman]

The Asian lady behind Murck is pretty hot.

Who was that? She seemed very excited by what we was saying.

[Ringheim]

I think it's Jinyoung Lee Englund... Director of Public Affairs BTCFoundation

[phelix]

I like what I hear from Murck and Allaire. Even what the Child porn guy said was reasonable. Now Brito is on...

[freedomno1]

Jerry Brito seems like an interesting speaker
I can see a real rally to 1K now
Bit technical but well its ok

[PinkBatman]

I think it's Jinyoung Lee Englund... Director of Public Affairs BTCFoundation

Thank you!

[Arksun]

Feeling a bit better about it all now, started off on the negative, but now it seems like most are in agreement that the existing systems in place are for the most part good enough as they already are.  So I'm less concerned about some extreme clamping down on Bitcoin now.

[gjgjg]

Feeling a bit better about it all now, started off on the negative, but now it seems like most are in agreement that the existing systems in place are for the most part good enough as they already are.  So I'm less concerned about some extreme clamping down on Bitcoin now.

same, from what i heard today, btc is not going away, ever

[TKeenan]

Did Brito just call Spain 'the third world'?!  lol

[NewLiberty]

They are referring to the application of the FINcen guidelines as applying only to the exchanges, rather than to the miners and exchanges.... interesting.
There hasn't been any application of that guidance yet to enforce.  It seems that now that the US DOJ has been able to nab almost 1% of all bitcoin into their coffers, they want to keep it in the US.
A historical footnote Silk road saves the USA by getting caught within it.

[beenyce]

The Asian lady behind Murck is pretty hot.

  i was wondering if anyone else noticed that

[wtfvanity]

The Asian lady behind Murck is pretty hot.

I'd bang her.

[Arksun]

Ya know, one thing people haven't talked about.  As Bitcoin increasingly becomes stronger and stronger competition, we might even see the added benefit of charges being made by Banks and credit card companies getting reduced!.  This would become a win-win situation for the everyday consumer.