I've never quite been able to figure out what was going on with BC, this may be a missing party of the puzzle.

"Every Important Person In Bitcoin Just Got Subpoenaed By New York's Financial Regulator

Things are getting serious for Bitcoin this month: a federal judge declared it real money, Bloomberg gave it an experimental ticker (XBT), and New York’s financial regulator announced an interest in regulating it. Declaring Bitcoin “a virtual Wild West for narcotraffickers and other criminals,” the New York State Department of Financial Services is stepping into the sheriff’s boots.

“We believe that – for a number of reasons – putting in place appropriate regulatory safeguards for virtual currencies will be beneficial to the long-term strength of the virtual currency industry,” said NYSDFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky in a statement.

The department is starting out by subpoenaing 22 digital-currency companies and investors to get a lay of the Bitcoin land. They sent letters to the major Bitcoin players asking them to hand over information regarding their money laundering controls, consumer protection practices, source of funding, pitch books (for Bitcoin start-ups) and investment strategies (for Bitcoin investors). The recipients of the subpoenas are nationwide and include everyone on the “people making real money on Bitcoin” list, such as Bitcoin exchanges and processors, “ mining equipment” maker Butterfly Labs, and major investors, such as the Winklevosses, Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz, and Google’s venture fund. (Full list below.)

A subpoena doesn’t mean criminal activity has taken place. A person familiar with the matter says the two-year-old department wants to make sure Bitcoin isn’t a conduit for illicit activities and is gathering information in order to decide whether to issue regulation for virtual currencies. The department has the authority to create regulation if there is no other primary regulator. Liberty Reserve — a virtual currency recently taken down by the feds for its use in money laundering and child porn rings — is on the mind of the department as it investigates Bitcoin.

In addition to rooting out illegal activity, the department says it wants to make sure Bitcoin company customers’ funds are “safe and sound,” expressing concern about consumer complaints “about how quickly virtual currency transactions are processed.” On the same day the inquiry was announced, some Bitcoiners with Android wallets for their digital coins discovered their banks are not so sound: they are at risk of theft thanks to a flaw in a number of Android apps, reports BBC News.

The virtual currency Bitcoin has already been getting lots of attention on the federal level. The IRS has been encouraged to make sure people pay tax on it. The FBI realizes it’s useful as a currency for illicit activity. The SEC has argued that it is indeed money and that people should go to jail for using it in Ponzi schemes. And the Department of Treasury has issued guidance for Bitcoin money transmitters. State regulators paying attention will help to further legitimize the currency, but it will also increase the start-up costs for Bitcoin money transmitters. The NYSDFS notes in its statement that “virtual currency exchangers may be engaging in money transmission as defined in New York law, which is an activity that is licensed and regulated by DFS.” That means ponying up bond money, as pointed out in the Wall Street Journal:

Although a growing number of bitcoin exchanges have registered their businesses with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, they have moved more slowly at the state level. In part, that is because the process of getting a license in each of the 48 states that require them is complicated and lengthy. In addition, states also typically require companies to put up a bond that could run as much as several million dollars.

“We look forward to working with the virtual currency industry and other stakeholders as our inquiry proceeds, and we move to put in place appropriate regulatory guardrails to protect consumers and our national security,” said NYSDFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky in a statement.

In addition to responding to the subpoenas, a few of the Bitcoin companies below are likely going to need to register as money transmitters in New York. And New York is not the only state paying attention to Bitcoin businesses. Earlier this summer, California sent out at least one warning letter to the Bitcoin Foundation.

That will be a hassle but it’s better than being a Bitcoin business in Thailand. According to a Bitcoin exchange based there, the country’s central bank has declared the virtual coin illegal for now.

List of companies subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services

BitInstant
BitPay
Coinabul
Coinbase Inc.
CoinLab
Coinsetter
Dwolla
eCoin Cashier
Payward, Inc.
TrustCash Holdings Inc.
ZipZap
Butterfly Labs
Andreesen Horowitz
Bitcoin Opportunity Fund
Boost VC Bitcoin Fund
Founders Fund
Google Ventures
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Tribeca Venture Partners
Tropos Funds
Union Square Ventures
Winklevoss Capital Management"

From Forbes.com

Exactly aye... freeworld, free market and here we are talking about regulating currency again lol

Fucking commies eh? :p

Reptired wrote:
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/evelyn-robert-d..._1089806.html?ref=uk


Jeopardising the banks sovereignty? No we dont want that, its not good for the 'public'

andyh wrote:

Fot the children Comrade!
Don't you know Emmanuel Goldstein is selling herbs in secret on the internet!

If BC was an independent venture then this was a very cunning hand to play by the Collectivists.

Reptired wrote:
Yeah, 'cause that never happens with 'real' money..

If they were capitalists then they wouldn't be regulating currencies.
Thats a fact by the way, total hardcore fact.

I should have been a bit clearer to exactly what part I was replying to, which was:

"the two-year-old department wants to make sure Bitcoin isn’t a conduit for illicit activities"

mild_peril wrote:
Isn't all money?

Which was exactly my point

https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/08/19/bitcoin-is-recognized-as-legal-tender-in-germany/

"Bitcoin is Recognized as “Legal Tender” in Germany
Posted on August 19, 2013
We should have competition in the production of money. I have long been a proponent of Friedrich August von Hayek scheme to denationalize money. Bitcoins are a first step in this direction.

- Frank Schaeffler, member of German parliament’s Finance Committee

The story of the German Finance Ministry stating Bitcoin is essentially “legal tender” has been making the rounds all over the virtual currency and technology world this morning and for good reason. This is a very, very big deal. Not just because some bureaucrat seemingly “legitimizes” the crypto-currency, but because it is the first commonsense approach from a major economy to-date.

While the U.S. government runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, issuing subpoenas and launching Senate investigations on Bitcoin, Germany is merely accepting the obvious. This is the wave of the future, you can either act like an incorrigible child and fight it, or you can accept reality and pave the way to the future. I’m pleased to see Germany, home to the most dynamic Bitcoin community on the planet, in Kreuzberg, taking a reasonable approach. Not to mention the fact I could never see a U.S. bureaucrat ever endorse Hayek or Austrian economics. The times they are a-changin’. From CNBC:

Virtual currency bitcoin has been recognized by the German Finance Ministry as a “unit of account”, meaning it is now legal tender and can be used for tax and trading purposes in the country.

Bitcoins is not classified as e-money or a foreign currency, the Finance Ministry said in a statement, but is rather a financial instrument under German banking rules. It is more akin to “private money” that can be used in “multilateral clearing circles”, the Ministry said.

“We should have competition in the production of money. I have long been a proponent of Friedrich August von Hayek scheme to denationalize money. Bitcoins are a first step in this direction,”said Frank Schaeffler, a member of the German parliament’s Finance Committee, who has pushed for legal classification of bitcoins.

Schaeffler said the new ruling showed German authorities were preparing regulations on how to tax bitcoin transactions. According to German newspaper Die Welt, the government has stated that the legal classification of bitcoin means that commercial profits that stem from using the currency may be taxable.

Kathleen Brooks, a research director at FOREX.com, told CNBC that classification by the German government gave bitcoin legitimacy to be used as a settlement currency in one of the world’s largest economies. She said this was a big step forward for the bitcoin movement.

“Sooner or later, depending on the success of private currencies, authorities will feel the urge to ban or regulate private currency. A free country should resist and not intervene in citizen’s private choice of money. In my opinion the production of money is none of the government’s business,” Schaeffler said.

A lot of people will state this is merely a veiled move of support in order to make sure the government can install a system of taxation on Bitcoin. While that is no doubt part of it, do not underestimate Mr. Schaeffler quoting Hayek. More than anything else, I believe this represents a psychological and cultural step change toward the realities of the future. A more decentralized and freer world.
"

interesting...