I Watched both days of the hearings in New York (You can watch them here:
http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=nysdfs ). I wasn't too concerned with the hearings. To me I walked away with the imrpession that yes bitcoin will be regulated but not over regulated to the point that it hurts innovation or the growth of bitcoin.
Why because a regulator, on TV said so?
A regulator's idea of not over regulating and the entire rest of the world's idea of not over regulating are two different things.
I'm no expert on obtaining a money transmitter license but sure that sounds pretty harsh... with that said, as bitcoin becomes more mainstream and more people use it. The days of a regular joe with little finincal backign being able to start up an exchange are long gone. You want to be something like an exchange that handles hundreds of millions in transactions then youll need quite a lot of finincal and business bakcing to do so (see coinbase or circle for example).
Is it perfect...of course not.
Neither coinbase nor circle have a money transmitter license in any state. I am not saying they need to (that is for their legal counsel to decide) just pointing out they don't have one.
Did it occur to you that regulation often is used by big entities (think banks, PayPal, WU) are a very cost effective mechanism of killing innovation? The same entities which donate heavily to the campaigns of public officials, who then appoint the regulators who write the regulation and make sure to not "over-regulate". With the right "donations" the Chases, Western Unions, and VISAs of the world could put the barrier so high that it takes licensure off the table for entities with less than a billion dollar market cap. That would make the only legal players in the US Bitcoin space ... the exact same players in the US financial space. Regulation hard at work protecting ... the bottom line of old money enterprises.
Will that happen? Who knows however I wouldn't be so naive to think NY is looking to pass "smart regulation" just because a suit said so on TV. Look at the rest of the licenses in NY to get an idea of their track record on smart regulation (liquor license?, taxi medallion?, etc). Also what would he say "
most likely we are clumsily going to set the bar so high as too kill off innovation in NY and the United States and drive the revenue, jobs, and innovation overseas"?
I will leave you with words from the horses mouth
"We're always going to choose to squelch money launderers...even if it prevents 1,000 flowers from blooming"