Topic: How can I help? (UK) (Read 1140 times)

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You could take on the mess at Mt. Gox. Mt. Gox, which is a Bitcoin exchange in Tokyo, holds customer funds, acting as both broker and exchange.  Mt. Gox is believed to hold tens of millions of dollars in customer funds.  Withdrawing customer funds from them has been difficult to impossible since June of 2013. In June, they ceased most US dollar withdrawals.  Then euro withdrawals started to be delayed. Now Bitcoin withdrawals are delayed as well. Currently, the discussion boards indicate that only small withdrawals are processed. Mt. Gox is believed to hold tens of millions of dollars in customer funds.

The physical location and principals of Mt. Gox are known. They are incorporated in Japan (as "Tibanne"). They do not appear to be registered with the Japan Financial Services Agency, which regulates banks, brokers, and payment service companies in Japan. The JSA has authority over them and can inspect and audit them, and take enforcement action if necessary, but has not yet done so.

A useful thing you can do is to find out exactly how the JSA can be brought into action here. It may be that some UK agency needs to be involved first. In the US, the US SEC and the JSA have a formal cooperation agreement, and there's probably something similar in place in the UK.

I would offer some help to those ATM guys.  They plan to launch 2 way bitcoin cash machines which are really going to push existing laws to the limit in my opinion.  I would hate to see the ATMs launch and then be immediately withdrawn.  

I think it is a great initiative runam0k, one thing bitcoin need to solve on the med-long basis is to get away from being the "wild wild west", legal security is definitely needed.
Let me know if there is anything I can contribute with, my experience is mainly in mining hardware (both scrypt and SHA-256 development).

This is a great initiative unam0k.

Perhaps some general research in terms of running an exchange in the UK, and how to go about it would be a good start.

It seems like red tape is a showstopper for many trying to start such a business.

I think he's mature enough to make his own mind up whether he wants to work pro-bono or not.

you should MOST DEFINITELY steer clear of internet forums  
stick to accepting payment for your services. You will find an awful lot of 'interent formus' sufferers seeking your help, and trust me, it's a mad-house.

You might want to check out Ethereum as well. Their project gives rise to a sort of crypto legal system.

http://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/101/digital-common-law

I would suggest putting an [ANN] in the services sub-forum. Sure there will be people in UK queuing up for free advice from a real lawyer

In short, I've become very interested in Bitcoin and its enormous potential. I am a lawyer in the UK and I would like to get involved and provide assistance where I can (i.e. dedicate some of my spare time to research and providing advice on a pro bono basis).

Are there any groups in the UK I should contact (Bitcoin Foundation, for example, has some UK based members but no UK chapter as far as I am aware) or any other avenues I should be looking at?