NY just announced a MANDATORY Bitcoin license - if this concerns you sign this.

[BruceFenton]

In general once they start regulating the government grows the regulatory bodies....perhaps a dozen people will be at first tasked to oversea Bitcoin regulation, then it grows and grows. 

 In the not too distant future we could see Bitcoin regulated in a manner similar to FINRA financial services with thousands of regulators and thousands of pages of regulation governing everything from personal email usage to social media to political contributions etc etc. 

[justusranvier]

In general once they start regulating the government grows the regulatory bodies....perhaps a dozen people will be at first tasked to oversea Bitcoin regulation, then it grows and grows. 

 In the not too distant future we could see Bitcoin regulated in a manner similar to FINRA financial services with thousands of regulators and thousands of pages of regulation governing everything from personal email usage to social media to political contributions etc etc. 

...and nobody starts a traditional Bitcoin business in the US ever again.

[FeedbackLoop]

In general once they start regulating the government grows the regulatory bodies....perhaps a dozen people will be at first tasked to oversea Bitcoin regulation, then it grows and grows. 

 In the not too distant future we could see Bitcoin regulated in a manner similar to FINRA financial services with thousands of regulators and thousands of pages of regulation governing everything from personal email usage to social media to political contributions etc etc. 

Those thousands of pages are there to serve as a barrier for newcomers and a protection from justice, not sure Government is interested in protecting Bitcoin from newcomers.

[traderman]

edit.

[BruceFenton]

Yes, the regulations tend to grow because this increases the power of the regulators.   If you were a regulator would you want to have a staff of three and no one know who you are or a staff of 500 and a whole industry quakes at your every word?

Also, the regs tend to be protectionist policies for the existing businesses who are large and well connected.

[BruceFenton]

This would almost certainly cover things like local Bitcoin transfers and sales by individuals to others

[grimlock]

If the regulation of Bitcoin concerns you, please sign this letter to regulator Ben Lawsky


http://bitcoinfinancialassociation.org/regulation/

I thought the whole point was to get Bitcoin finally regulated

There are different opinions. I, for one, do not want bitcoin to get regulated, at least not the way most people want.

As someone put well. Gov can control the exits, but what people do inside the cryptocurrency ecosystems will be impossible to regulate.

Well, it looks like they are considering trying to.  The URL below was mentioned in an earlier post, and in it the article it states that Mr Lawsky's agency is still wrestling on whether to restrict or ban the use of "tumblers".  I think that tumblers are needed because as soon as someone ties you to a bitcoin address they then can possibly figure out how much money you have.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/11/us-usa-bitcoin-idUSBREA1A20X20140211

Just imagine a scenario 5-10 years in the future: You have most of your money in BTC, including being paid in BTC by your employer.  Tumblers are not allowed by regulation.  You then pay for your dinner with BTC.  Someone at the restaurant sees your address.  Well, if they know one of your addresses, it only takes a perusing on blockchain.info to potentially see a few more levels of addresses and how much money you have.  That is creepy and very useful information for criminals, for example.

And if you think that looking at the blockchain won't give you this kind of information, I can guarantee you that within a number of years there will be web sites that will do wealth analysis on a given bitcoin address.  With accuracy probabilities and everything.  Just wait.  Anything tumbled and the probabilities of that wealth calculation goes way, way down towards 0%.

That is just one example of what a tumbler can prevent.

[BADecker]

If the regulation of Bitcoin concerns you, please sign this letter to regulator Ben Lawsky


http://bitcoinfinancialassociation.org/regulation/

I thought the whole point was to get Bitcoin finally regulated

There are different opinions. I, for one, do not want bitcoin to get regulated, at least not the way most people want.

As someone put well. Gov can control the exits, but what people do inside the cryptocurrency ecosystems will be impossible to regulate.

Well, it looks like they are considering trying to.  The URL below was mentioned in an earlier post, and in it the article it states that Mr Lawsky's agency is still wrestling on whether to restrict or ban the use of "tumblers".  I think that tumblers are needed because as soon as someone ties you to a bitcoin address they then can possibly figure out how much money you have.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/11/us-usa-bitcoin-idUSBREA1A20X20140211

Just imagine a scenario 5-10 years in the future: You have most of your money in BTC, including being paid in BTC by your employer.  Tumblers are not allowed by regulation.  You then pay for your dinner with BTC.  Someone at the restaurant sees your address.  Well, if they know one of your addresses, it only takes a perusing on blockchain.info to potentially see a few more levels of addresses and how much money you have.  That is creepy and very useful information for criminals, for example.

And if you think that looking at the blockchain won't give you this kind of information, I can guarantee you that within a number of years there will be web sites that will do wealth analysis on a given bitcoin address.  With accuracy probabilities and everything.  Just wait.  Anything tumbled and the probabilities of that wealth calculation goes way, way down towards 0%.

That is just one example of what a tumbler can prevent.

Money Laundering is simply a term that people who want control of other people use to try to make their control look good in the eyes of still other people.

The trick is, how to anonymize your Bitcoin addresses for real, without having a central authority for Bitcoin, and preventing both, double spends and forking the blockchain.

It's beginning to look like we will be NEEDING a quantum computer for Bitcoin.

It has been said that a quantum computer that is truly operational could hack Bitcoin successfully. But it has also been said that a quantum computer running Bitcoin would be harder to hack by another quantum computer than a supercomputer trying to hack another supercomputer.

Until then, maybe we need Bitcoin credit, just so that we don't ever have to make Bitcoin payments on the spot, like at a restaurant, for example. It could be done in advance via some form of Bitcoin credit built into the Btc client.

[MWNinja]

I guess this is going to turn out about the same way as it did with the gun industry; we pretty well wrote NY off and nobody wants to do business there.  Thanks regulators!

[BruceFenton]

I guess this is going to turn out about the same way as it did with the gun industry; we pretty well wrote NY off and nobody wants to do business there.  Thanks regulators!

One serious drawback of this is the massive influence NY has on not just US financial regulations but globally.

[5thStreetResearch]

A mandatory Bitcoin license? Ooooooo scary and just how are they going to enforce this? ^_^

p.s. They can't, everyone in America would just start renting virtual private servers and you'd have companies outside the U.S specifically offering these services in return for Bitcoins and they'd simply move everything overseas

lol bitcoin is struggling to get mass adoption in the US as is, you think people are going to spend money to rent VPNs so that they can use Bitcoin?  How delusional are you?

[bitpop]

.

[Raize]

This is fud they never said that.. yet ?

Unfortunately, they did:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/11/us-usa-bitcoin-idUSBREA1A20X20140211

[bitpop]

This is fud they never said that.. yet ?

Unfortunately, they did:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/11/us-usa-bitcoin-idUSBREA1A20X20140211

I don't think so. This is being spun and that word is being used carelessly. It's just something he said in the hearings, I watched all 7 hours.

Tldr, the stupid media is using a word he used once to refer to the regulation. No bitlicense is officially announced.

[IsaacGoldbourne]

I will never trust an association that doesn't have an alpha channel on their logo.

[bitpop]

Regulation yes, bitlicense no.

[Keyser Soze]

We don't yet know specifically what NY regulators will do. From that article:

Lawsky said last month that his agency plans to issue rules for businesses handling virtual currencies, including a "BitLicense", which could make New York the first U.S. state to regulate virtual currencies such as bitcoins.

Lawsky expected to release the regulations in the spring or the summer of this year, and said the agency would seek public comment once it had published the plan in a so-called notice for proposed rule making.

[bitpop]

,

[BruceFenton]

We don't yet know specifically what NY regulators will do. From that article:

Lawsky said last month that his agency plans to issue rules for businesses handling virtual currencies, including a "BitLicense", which could make New York the first U.S. state to regulate virtual currencies such as bitcoins.

Lawsky expected to release the regulations in the spring or the summer of this year, and said the agency would seek public comment once it had published the plan in a so-called notice for proposed rule making.

Yes, unfortunately it seems very clear that this is the way they are going.

It is NOT likely a coincidence that this announcement came yesterday during the exchange issues any more than it's a coincidence that Charlie Shrem was arrested a couple days before the hearings.

[BruceFenton]

I will never trust an association that doesn't have an alpha channel on their logo.

Don't worry Issac there is a good reason for the clunky logo....it has to do with a very generous donation and a new logo we will have up within a week.

But if you are a graphics whiz, anything you can offer in other graphics is appreciated!