Regulation is stunting the growth of digital currency businesses that pose a long-term competitive threat to banks.The latest to get caught in the regulatory thickets is TradeHill, a Bitcoinexchange that has suspended trading until it can get licensed as a money transmitter. Its reasons for retreating echo the concerns of Facebook Inc., which has been pursuing money transmitter’s licenses to legitimize the social network’s Facebook Credits.
That TradeHill, which shut down its service and returned its clients' funds on Feb. 13, and others like it would run into regulatory challenges was almost a given. Bitcoin, a digital currency with no central issuing authority, is touted by its users and admirers as being outside the control of any government.
Read it at American Banker | Bank Technology News
Bitcoin Exchange's Crisis Bodes Ill for Payment InnovationWho couldn't see this coming?
13 comments:
Right, we had a discussion of this several months ago.
My personal view is that, as much as people tend to hate the government these days, it is extremely important for the American public to do everything within their power to preserve their public monopoly over money.
The bitcoin path might look like a road to freedom, but like most of these private startups created by rebellious young go-getters, it will eventually be bought up and co-opted. And then what we'll have is "Sachs/coin" or "Chase/coin" - private sector currency oligopolists competing with the public sector for control of the payments and banking system, generating financial instability as a result, and vacuuming up completely unnecessary profits in the process.
Interesting that this appears on American Banker. "They" are watching it.
right dan, which is why libertarianism is a sham. government is supposed to protect everyones rights, not enable the rich and powerful to continually screw the people. orwell "some people are more equal than others"
"it will eventually be bought up and co-opted"
BitCoin can't be bought up anymore than the internet can be bought up. Everyone that installs the software acts as the central bank. No one controls it, no one owns 'it'.
The monopoly on currency was only relevant if government policy makers understood how the monetary system operated and used it for good. By over taxing and under spending the monopoly has been used to oppress the populace and maintain control over the direction of international law. Quite destructive really.
Dan that's absurd, as if the political and monetary systems were not co-opted now. They are, and big.
Currency freedom is not bad, if the government and banksters knew what they are doing -or maybe they know it very well but it's their plan or don't care-, destroying the people, they would not have to fear private currencies.
Private or alternative currencies are not enforced by anyone to anyone, so let them be and stop the bullshit. During the GD in the XX cent. in Europe (and maybe in the USA too, don't know) floruished some alternative currencies, but the fascist regimes (states & central banks + bankers) were always ready to crush them.
Maybe we should start asking the right questions if we ever want to fix this, otherwise we are on the way to a nightmare, which is what the elites are 'preparing' (consciously or not) for us.
truthsquad we are already in a plutocracy, the politicians are nothing but tools, the half term from alaska was right about taking our country back, only we need to take it back from people such as herself. for being so religious, they sure do alot of lying.
Who writes the software TomatoBasil?
I think that alternative currencies will run up against the monopo that governments hold. The purpose of regulation in the exercise of this monopoly in the interest of public purpose is, e.g., prevention of money laundering. That alone would be reason enough for governments to impose regulation.
The global wars on international organized crime, tax evasion, drugs and terrorism have also made governments keenly vigilant about controlling money transfers. Governments will come down hard on anyone attempting to circumvent their jurisdiction.
> Who writes the software TomatoBasil?
I believe there are several open-source implementations. They implement a published algorithm.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the founder of Bitcoin and initial creator of the Original Bitcoin client. Little is known about him. He vanished into thin air a couple years ago. He put the ownership of the source code into the public domain under the MIT license. The public owns it. Many many people contribute to it and anyone can use it and modify it and distribute it as they wish.
@ TB
Most of what governments do has a hidden agenda, which is why policy does not change substantially when administrations change. The changes are only superficial in the sense that they do not affect the hidden agenda. The war on drugs, the war on terror, etc. are subterfuges for this control activity. Similarly, the war on crime is used to prevent people from setting up independent networks that circumvent government control.
I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but this is how the thinking on the inside goes. Governments are naturally suspicious of anything that they cannot control. They aren't concerned about trampling anyone they perceive as a threat either. This is way the abrogation of constitutional rights due to an (unending) war on whatever is concerning. These folks know exactly what they are doing.
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