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I've been watching since about 20 minutes in; it is overwhelmingly positive. There seem to be 2 'groups' of testimonies, the first coming from law enforcement

by eof 13y ago

I've been watching since about 20 minutes in; it is overwhelmingly positive. There seem to be 2 'groups' of testimonies, the first coming from law enforcement and government bodies; the overwhelming consensus was that existing laws are satisfactory to prosecute bad actors using bitcoin. The second group is still talking; again extremely positive.. analogies to bitcoin being similar to the internet in the mid nineties; its scary but overall good. The lawyer from the bitcoin foundation is really driving home the idea that the main problem right now is that bankers are too scared to give bitcoin business bank accounts. I see overall nothing negative; and the chairman seems extremely reasonable and open to the notion of bitcoin and brought up the bitcoin-now <-> internet-in-the-nineties analogy himself. No one is asking for stricter laws, everyone is asking for clarity. Much, much more positive than I expected; only the secret service guy seemed to be very cautious; he never said the word bitcoin and mostly spent his time saying the secret service was awesome.

yeukhon 13y ago
That's my feel too. The chair seems to be really really interested in bitcoin and how bitcoin works. They [the panel] repeatably mentioning Tor Foundation, Bitcoin Foundation partnership on dealing on this issue. I think the government, at least from the Senate's perspective, what is absent in regulating virtual concurrency. I am all for government and business regulating if the regulation benefit the public consumer (not deep web consumers) in the long run. They also praise the pros and cons of the bitcoin protocol, history of bitcoin and etc. Chair: "You don't think it was Al Gore [created the bitcoin], do you?" laughers Chair: "I like this quote from Mrs. Einstein: 'I understand the words but not the sentences.' Thanks the panel." Side note: I thought I saw Snowden... http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx And the hearing record is only saved for 15 days...
- nateabele 13y ago
  > Side note: I thought I saw Snowden... http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx I actually thought he looked a lot more like Tucker Carlson (the bow-tie wearing talking head who was verbally bitch-slapped by John Stewart on Carlson's ex-show, Crossfire).
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    I think he means the man directly to the left of the man in the foreground of that picture. Blondish, square glasses, no tie.
    - yeukhon 13y ago
      Yes the guy in the background. It is actually funny but I am afraid getting downvote for saying that haha :)
    - bsgreenb 13y ago
      Haha, that's Ryan Singer https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ryansinger https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ryansinger
fat0wl 13y ago
I think the reason they're overwhelmingly positive is because they don't care about bubble-bursts and market volatility. They're approaching it from an amoral standpoint & just reviewing the tech. Once they get into the details of mining and supply rules set up by some anonymous benevolent individual I think it may get soured.
- ChuckMcM 13y ago
  Don't forget there are uses for a mostly anonymous currency to the governmetn too.
  - pablovidal85 13y ago
    This is true, but if we take on one side a group of consumers as one entity against the government as another, pseudonymity is way more valuable for the former than for the latter, for practical reasons.
  - mnsc 13y ago
    Campaign funding with Bitcoins would be interesting.
  - girvo 13y ago
    Man, that would've made the whole Contra affair a little easier, wouldn't it! ;)
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- crystaln 13y ago
  A benevolent individual who now has $2B in bitcoin.
Varcht 13y ago
I think a possible reason they're overwhelmingly positive is because the FBI has a pretty good cache of bc.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  They wouldn't care if those coins were worth $5 billion. The federal budget is silly compared to a few hundred thousand bitcoins. Or maybe that's the other way around.
  - Varcht 13y ago
    Maybe... or "The FBI can’t investigate terrorists and fraudsters due to budget cuts" http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/30/the-fbi-cant-investigate-terrorists-and-fraudsters-due-to-budget-cuts/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/30/t... The FBI budget iirc is ~8 billion, if they get everything from silk road it could be over 10% of their budget.
    - icebraining 13y ago
      The commissions earned by Silk Road were just shy of $80 million over more than two years. Where did you get $800 million from?
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
        dangrossman 13y ago
        There's a way to convey that information without the condescending tone.
        eloff 13y ago
        You are aware that the other definition of billion is even larger right?
      - 13y ago
derleth 13y ago
> only the secret service guy seemed to be very cautious; he never said the word bitcoin and mostly spent his time saying the secret service was awesome. To make it clearer for anyone who doesn't know: The Secret Service is the primary government agency charged with investigating the counterfeiting of American currency. Protecting the President and other dignitaries is minor compared to that. That's probably why they're testifying in the Senate now to begin with.
mtgx 13y ago
Perhaps, but I noticed something a little different. It seems that in these hearings, the chair has enormous influence to push the discussion in a certain direction, and even direct those opposing his views to be a lot more "neutral", instead of opposing him, if they truly do disagree with him. I haven't watched a lot of these hearings, but I know that with SOPA, chaired by the infamous Lamar Smith, the witnesses were 5:1 pro-SOPA, and the NSA hearings, chaired by pro-NSA people, were also NSA circle-jerks. So it seems the rule of thumb, more than anything, when you want something passed, is to get a chair that strongly supports your view - and then everything else will fall into place.

by eof 13y ago

yeukhon 13y ago

That's my feel too. The chair seems to be really really interested in bitcoin and how bitcoin works. They [the panel] repeatably mentioning Tor Foundation, Bitcoin Foundation partnership on dealing on this issue. I think the government, at least from the Senate's perspective, what is absent in regulating virtual concurrency. I am all for government and business regulating if the regulation benefit the public consumer (not deep web consumers) in the long run. They also praise the pros and cons of the bitcoin protocol, history of bitcoin and etc. Chair: "You don't think it was Al Gore [created the bitcoin], do you?" laughers Chair: "I like this quote from Mrs. Einstein: 'I understand the words but not the sentences.' Thanks the panel." Side note: I thought I saw Snowden... http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx And the hearing record is only saved for 15 days...

nateabele 13y ago
> Side note: I thought I saw Snowden... http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx I actually thought he looked a lot more like Tucker Carlson (the bow-tie wearing talking head who was verbally bitch-slapped by John Stewart on Carlson's ex-show, Crossfire).
- jlgreco 13y ago
  I think he means the man directly to the left of the man in the foreground of that picture. Blondish, square glasses, no tie.
  - yeukhon 13y ago
    Yes the guy in the background. It is actually funny but I am afraid getting downvote for saying that haha :)
  - bsgreenb 13y ago
    Haha, that's Ryan Singer https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ryansinger https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ryansinger

fat0wl 13y ago

I think the reason they're overwhelmingly positive is because they don't care about bubble-bursts and market volatility. They're approaching it from an amoral standpoint & just reviewing the tech. Once they get into the details of mining and supply rules set up by some anonymous benevolent individual I think it may get soured.

ChuckMcM 13y ago
Don't forget there are uses for a mostly anonymous currency to the governmetn too.
- pablovidal85 13y ago
  This is true, but if we take on one side a group of consumers as one entity against the government as another, pseudonymity is way more valuable for the former than for the latter, for practical reasons.
- mnsc 13y ago
  Campaign funding with Bitcoins would be interesting.
- girvo 13y ago
  Man, that would've made the whole Contra affair a little easier, wouldn't it! ;)
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
crystaln 13y ago
A benevolent individual who now has $2B in bitcoin.

Varcht 13y ago

I think a possible reason they're overwhelmingly positive is because the FBI has a pretty good cache of bc.

maxerickson 13y ago
They wouldn't care if those coins were worth $5 billion. The federal budget is silly compared to a few hundred thousand bitcoins. Or maybe that's the other way around.
- Varcht 13y ago
  Maybe... or "The FBI can’t investigate terrorists and fraudsters due to budget cuts" http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/30/the-fbi-cant-investigate-terrorists-and-fraudsters-due-to-budget-cuts/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/30/t... The FBI budget iirc is ~8 billion, if they get everything from silk road it could be over 10% of their budget.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    The commissions earned by Silk Road were just shy of $80 million over more than two years. Where did you get $800 million from?
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
      - dangrossman 13y ago
        There's a way to convey that information without the condescending tone.
      - eloff 13y ago
        You are aware that the other definition of billion is even larger right?
    - 13y ago

derleth 13y ago

> only the secret service guy seemed to be very cautious; he never said the word bitcoin and mostly spent his time saying the secret service was awesome. To make it clearer for anyone who doesn't know: The Secret Service is the primary government agency charged with investigating the counterfeiting of American currency. Protecting the President and other dignitaries is minor compared to that. That's probably why they're testifying in the Senate now to begin with.

mtgx 13y ago

Perhaps, but I noticed something a little different. It seems that in these hearings, the chair has enormous influence to push the discussion in a certain direction, and even direct those opposing his views to be a lot more "neutral", instead of opposing him, if they truly do disagree with him. I haven't watched a lot of these hearings, but I know that with SOPA, chaired by the infamous Lamar Smith, the witnesses were 5:1 pro-SOPA, and the NSA hearings, chaired by pro-NSA people, were also NSA circle-jerks. So it seems the rule of thumb, more than anything, when you want something passed, is to get a chair that strongly supports your view - and then everything else will fall into place.