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Regulator Examines Bitcoin Practices

• vessenes 13y ago
  The Foundation will have some comments out shortly on this.
• betterunix 13y ago
  I think the fears about black market Bitcoin/etc. use are unfounded. Criminals need to pay rent and buy food like anyone else; they even pay taxes. The black market adoption of Bitcoin should more or less track the legal adoption of Bitcoin. People get hung up on The Silk Road. That is not even a blip on the radar of recreational drug trafficking or any other black market activity.
• Havoc 13y ago
  Seem kinda futile, no?
  • betterunix 13y ago
    How is it futile? Bitcoin exchanges and related services do all their business in broad daylight, which makes their business much smoother. If Bitcoin exchanges were black market services they would be forced to charge much higher fees (due to the higher risk) and their business would suffer. There would also be substantial damage to Bitcoin's perceived legitimacy if exchanging Bitcoin money for USD involved dealing with criminals. The truth is that Bitcoin would be a toy if there were no exchanges. Regulating Bitcoin can be reduced to regulating exchanges, and the government knows how to deal with that sort of business. You are talking about a couple dozen currency exchange businesses; this is not at all difficult for the government to regulate. Even offshore exchanges would have trouble doing business in the US if they failed to comply with regulations; many world governments cooperate with the US government on that sort of law.
    • Havoc 13y ago
      The genie is out of the bottle as far as I'm concerned. Even if the US freaks out & kills all the exchanges over which it has jurisdiction BC will still continue. Sure it would be better if they didn't shut it down, but BC is designed to circumvent exactly this type of interference.