Stumbled on the
UK FOI request here:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bitcoin_minutes_3#incoming-443667And the earlier USA one to compare:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103276.20"Bitcoin themselves are not a currency and therefore are
outside of the FCA’s regulatory remit"
^ this was their view... however... their view can change as we infer from the next section....
"Confidential information for these purposes is defined as non-public and
non-anonymised information which relates to the business or other affairs
of any person (without their consent) and which was received by the FCA
for the purposes of, or in the discharge of, any of its functions under
FSMA and which is not in the public domain."
"disclosure of the material requested would be likely to prejudice
the United Kingdom’s relations with another State"
^ The UK is probably working with the USA on this. The UK will probably follow whatever decision the USA takes. The UK did not see Bitcoin as a currency but if the USA does they will probably copy that stance.
All guesses, but better than nothing. If this is smoke and mirrors,
the FOI isn't always enforced so well. The key would be to leak info showing that it's flaunted to remind. An example of another fail:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/what_was_your_bas_observer_obser#outgoing-204061Looking at requests in general you see more refusals around financial subjects. The key could be to not ask directly but to investigate something around the subject and hope they mess up with info that allows us to confer the facts. We could divide requests up separately and cross-corrolate.
Remember, these are FSA requests, now it's renamed as the FCA.
