I thought shapeshift requires no account. so is it going to do an ip geo lookup and tell New Yorkers to scram? and then, couldn't they just access it anyway via tor?
Yes, it checks the IP range and redirects to this site -
http://pleaseprotectconsumers.orgIt is great they are taking a principled stand and warning consumers and refusing to follow the guidelines. New Yorkers can use a VPN to use shapeshift, while having the privacy protected.
New York deserves the hate and distain that is soon to be directed towards it. This idea that the police can look around in your underwear drawer -
before you do something wrong is absurd. Ben Lawski thinks he is protecting customers. In fact, he is merely annoying entrepreneurs who understand there is no way a start up should be spending large portions of the budget preparing stupid paper for government regulators to put their stamp on. Fortunately, those entrepreneurs don't want to sit around and talk about it with them either - they rather just pack it up and leave.
California is next. $5000 to 'register' as a crypto company doing business. What kind of a 'register' (database) needs $5000 for an entry? This is just another stupid tax. So many really great start ups can move their project ahead pretty far on those $5000. To a government official, $5000 is nothing. To a bootstrap entrepreneur it is a load of money.
I am in discussions with my partners now. We decided we will not organize in California. Its not precisely the $5000 - it is whatever comes next that we don't know about.
The FinCen lady Calvary said it best: the laws against fraud and money laundering are pretty effective already. We don't need new laws. We can just use the old laws to stop bad actors. But some fools see a new 'denomination' and they jump at the chance to levy a new tax scheme.
Leave it to the government to smother a tiny spark of innovation with more tax. Lawski = idiot. I am glad he got fired. Now NY ought to throw his stupid crypto plan in the shitcan too - before ten more companies like ShapeShift cut NY out of the picture entirely.