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

[mek300]

I don't see anything wrong with this.

Didn't everybody say bitcoin is like gold which has some kind of value?

Then is that true that you need to have a business or other license/permit to operate gold mining/gold trade?

[1715221724]

1715221724

[1715221724]

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[1715221724]

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[Musent]

Not so sure about this but will investigate more on the matter and get back.

[km4700ruda]

I personally am okay with working within the frame of the structure because to me that's the best way to enact acceptance and un-muddle the waters surrounding Bitcoins. I wouldn't be surprised if this actually supports the Bitcoin economy because there is a working legal structure tied to Bitcoin in some way

[marcus_of_augustus]

http://www.coindesk.com/market-based-reactions-new-bitcoin-regulation/

Ultimately, society can have hope that if privacy becomes disrespected, the market can and will provide cryptographic solutions to restore the balance. If Bitcoin is to succeed, that is the real challenge for the talented individuals and leading companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

http://irdial.com/blogdial/?p=3666

Some say that Bitcoin is money. Others say that it is not money. It doesn’t matter. What does matter are two things; that the Bitcoin network does what it is meant to do completely reliably, and what the true nature of the Bitcoin network and the messages in it are.

Bitcoin is a distributed ledger system, maintained by a network of peers that monitors and regulates which entries are allocated to what Bitcoin addresses. This is done entirely by transmitting messages that are text, between the nodes in the network, where cryptographic procedures are executed on these messages in text to verify their authenticity and the identity of the sender and recipient of the message and their position in the public ledger. The messages sent between nodes in the Bitcoin network are human readable, and printable. There is no point in any Bitcoin transaction that Bitcoin ceases to be text. It is all text, all the time.

Bitcoin can be printed out onto sheets of paper. This output can take different forms, like machine readable QR Codes, or it can be printed out in the letters A to Z, a to z and 0 to 9. This means they can be read by a human being, just like “Huckleberry Finn”.

At the time of the creation of the United States of America, the Founding Fathers of that new country in their deep wisdom and distaste for tyranny, haunted by the memory of the absence of a free press in the countries from which they escaped, wrote into the basic law of that then young federation of free states, an explicit and unambiguous freedom, the “Freedom of the Press”. This amendment was first because of its central importance to a free society. The First Amendment guarantees that all Americans have the power to exercise their right to publish and distribute anything they like, without restriction or prior restraint.

TL;DR unlikely any type of "BitLicense" or any other bitcoin regulation would survive First Amendment court challenge because it is, after all is said and done, just plain text, unencrypted bits.

[chufchuf]

He's doing it again.

https://twitter.com/BenLawsky/status/438335784358531072

I don't understand why he calls both the currency Bitcoin and companies like MtGox ''firms''.

[BCB]

He's doing it again.

https://twitter.com/BenLawsky/status/438335784358531072

I don't understand why he calls both the currency Bitcoin and companies like MtGox ''firms''.

Because that is who he regulates, "firms" or businesses that transact in virtual currency in or with citizens of the State of New York.

[keithers]

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.

I agree.   In a vacuum, the ideas for some of the regulations would really help for mainstream adoption, but just like any governing body, "regulations" is just government lingo for "control"

[chufchuf]

He's doing it again.

https://twitter.com/BenLawsky/status/438335784358531072

I don't understand why he calls both the currency Bitcoin and companies like MtGox ''firms''.

Because that is who he regulates, "firms" or businesses that transact in virtual currency in or with citizens of the State of New York.

Well it would seem so, most of the time he says firms are things like exchangers. But then if all he's regulating are the firms, why does he ask

''The question, then, is should regulators require that licensed virtual currency firms only use public ledgers?''

What's happening there, did bitcoin  suddenly become a firm, would he require cash to have a public ledger now, does he want to crap on the fungibility?

[BCB]

He's doing it again.

https://twitter.com/BenLawsky/status/438335784358531072

I don't understand why he calls both the currency Bitcoin and companies like MtGox ''firms''.

Because that is who he regulates, "firms" or businesses that transact in virtual currency in or with citizens of the State of New York.

Well it would seem so, most of the time he says firms are things like exchangers. But then if all he's regulating are the firms, why does he ask

''The question, then, is should regulators require that licensed virtual currency firms only use public ledgers?''

What's happening there, did bitcoin  suddenly become a firm, would he require cash to have a public ledger now, does he want to crap on the fungibility?

Good questions.  No easy answers. (unless you are a crypto-anarchist Libertarian!).

[ISAWHIM]

Prudent state regulation it the next necessary step in the evolution of decentralized virtual currency.

+1 for a New York BitLicense.

Agreed, if it is free to get. For those operating in NY...

Doesn't mean squat in any other state/country.

[chufchuf]

He's doing it again.

https://twitter.com/BenLawsky/status/438335784358531072

I don't understand why he calls both the currency Bitcoin and companies like MtGox ''firms''.

Because that is who he regulates, "firms" or businesses that transact in virtual currency in or with citizens of the State of New York.

Well it would seem so, most of the time he says firms are things like exchangers. But then if all he's regulating are the firms, why does he ask

''The question, then, is should regulators require that licensed virtual currency firms only use public ledgers?''

What's happening there, did bitcoin  suddenly become a firm, would he require cash to have a public ledger now, does he want to crap on the fungibility?

Good questions.  No easy answers. (unless you are a crypto-anarchist Libertarian!).

Very easy answers, in fact. There is no firm, no company, upholding bitcoin. It's decentralized. It's evident to the eye.

[E.exchanger]

Sorry but iam not throwing up any of my personal information without knowing where it is going !!

[marcus_of_augustus]

Sorry but iam not throwing up any of my personal information without knowing where it is going !!

Oh, I can tell you exactly where it will be going. Straight on to massive databases sitting on insecure govt. servers. Big fat, centralised ripe targets of personal ID information that criminals and espionage agencies (are they different?) salivate over and spend all their efforts changing/breaking laws and trying to hack into ....

[Armis]

Sorry but iam not throwing up any of my personal information without knowing where it is going !!

Oh, I can tell you exactly where it will going. Straight on to massive databases sitting on insecure govt. servers. Big fat, centralised ripe targets of personal ID information criminals and espionage agencies (are they different?) salivate over and spend all their efforts changing/breaking  laws and trying to hack into ....

I need you to talk to my neighbor who thinks the whole bunch are lazy do nothings.  That should be fun to watch.

[Bit_Happy]

I don't make the laws.

I just try to obey them.

Every time you post I get flashbacks to the Nuremburg trials...

Never seen that before, ouch.

[BruceFenton]

Sorry but iam not throwing up any of my personal information without knowing where it is going !!

Hi,

I can personally vouch for it.  We will never share the info of anyone who signs the letter or who signs up as a member of the association.

If you don't know me then my personal voucher doesn't mean much but we have several members who are easily verifiable.

[kellrobinson]

The U.S. has balkanized money transmitter laws.  Operating legally in the U.S. imposes the same regulatory burden as operating legally in fifty different countries.
We need a single federal money transmitter license, not many State licenses.
We don't need NYDFS coming in and offering to help.  We need all fifty states, including NY, to get together and find a way to clear a path for bitcoin startups to grow. NY will help bitcoin only if it takes the lead and sets an example by getting out of the way.  As it stands, regulations which New York already has prevent companies like Kraken from operating here.  A company like Coinbase operates at significant risk -- risk from the State, not money launderers or thieves.
Promulgating further regulation on the State level is useless.  After New York, there is a line of forty-nine more states coming right behind, with their own regulatory bodies.  
The best thing anybody could do is just lock Lawsky in the bathroom until we make it legal for companies to buy and sell bitcoin in this country without fifty money transmitter licenses.

[Taras]

How do they think they can control our homeworld and domain, the blockchain, in the first place?