So a government does the only sensible thing and treats Bitcoin as money or dare I say "virtual currency" and this is an attack on Bitcoin by a "parasitic" government. I do not think so. For many of us that is good news.
They've forbidden a group of people from making money together. No fraud or crime had happened. Leandro was not hiding his identity.
In what universe can such prohibition be good news??
If they decide to apply all their stupid and corrupt laws to bitcoin as they apply to "their money", they'll just make the bitcoin ecosystem almost as awful as the traditional financial system.
Maybe you should read this: http://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2011/11/air-guitars-and-bitcoin-regulation.html
I think the key to this whole event it this
Quote
Leandro was not hiding his identity.
, this is where he went wrong, or at least he didn't think it would matter. Had his identity been kept a secret then they could have done nothing, not knowing who he was they would have been unable to prosecute, or even send him a letter with angry words.I think we know the direction that needs to be taken regarding the identity of people doing things in bitcoin land.
Really I think this is a case of the right people not being bribed.
Doesn't that concern you in regards to GLBSE? You're also not anonymous. Far from it.
This is something I've also thought about and I don't think I'm in the same boat as this gentleman for a number of reasons.
Firstly I'm based in the UK (right now in China but that is temporary), which suffers a lot less from corrupt officials than the likes of Brazil (and especially China). Either what I'm doing is legal or illegal, running a stock exchange for a virtual curreny, good luck proving thats illegal.
Did they mandate that you cannot say that you operate out of brazil?
