2013-05-08 New Statesman - To Regulate Or Not To Regulate?

MoonShadow

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1011

Quote from: Tirapon on May 08, 2013, 07:28:04 PM

Quote

In March, the world’s first Bitcoin ATM was opened on Cyprus after banks had been closed for a week. The ATM allows customers to deposit “real money” into a Bitcoin ATM in exchange for bitcoins and vice versa – making the virtual currency, a very real option for those who didn’t have access to money during the Cypriot crisis.

Huh

That's the most accurate part of the article.

MoonShadow

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1011

It's too late to regulate. The Bitcoin network is too big to suppress, the protocol is regulation resistant by design, and a large portion of the userbase would actively resist attempts by any government to annex bitcoin.

The only bitcoin users who are going to submit to regulations are the corporations that labor under such regimes already. The common user will actively evade regulations whenever possible. The common man already does so whenever he can using cash and barter transactions. Have you ever heard of anyone paying taxes on a yard sale? And the taxman hates the farmers' markets. Bitcoin makes such evasions commonplace, almost trivial in nature. Evasion of regulations and taxes within the bitcoin userbase will be more common than not.

Tirapon

hero member

Activity: 898

Merit: 1000

Quote

In March, the world’s first Bitcoin ATM was opened on Cyprus after banks had been closed for a week. The ATM allows customers to deposit “real money” into a Bitcoin ATM in exchange for bitcoins and vice versa – making the virtual currency, a very real option for those who didn’t have access to money during the Cypriot crisis.

Huh

kiba

legendary

Activity: 980

Merit: 1029

Quote from: kjlimo on May 08, 2013, 07:24:13 PM

the regulation will help traditional businesses get on board as well as remove confusion on how it works.

regulation will be a good thing.

There's regulation that's good, and there's regulation that's absolutely a killer.

kjlimo

legendary

Activity: 2128

Merit: 1031

the regulation will help traditional businesses get on board as well as remove confusion on how it works.

regulation will be a good thing.

and the people worried about it are probably the people who won't follow it anyway, so why would they care???

cypherdoc

legendary

Activity: 1764

Merit: 1002

the cat is out of the bag, Bart.

kiko

sr. member

Activity: 453

Merit: 250

http://www.newstatesman.com/business/2013/05/bitcoin-%E2%80%93-regulate-or-not-regulate

No new info, just an opinion piece on the absurdity of attempting to regulate a decentralised database.

Quote

With new regulatory scrutiny, proponents of the virtual currency might find themselves hard-pressed to maintain Bitcoins’ independence from the financial authorities.

But I can’t help but ask, are these latest moves by the American authorities, too little too late?

hat tip r/bitcoin.

Topic: 2013-05-08 New Statesman - To Regulate Or Not To Regulate? (Read 1279 times)