Bitcoin News
Daily diary of what's happening with Bitcoin.
Forbes contributor and Bitcoin Foundation (@BTCFoundation) board member Jon Matonis (@JonMatonis) considers the impact a government ban on Bitcoin would have on the fledgling currency. Excerpts:
“The demand for an item, in this case digital cash with user-defined levels of privacy, does not simply evaporate in the face of a jurisdictional ban.”
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“Ironically, the ban would create something like the Streisand effect for Bitcoin generating an awareness for entire new demographic groups and new classes of society.”
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“[Bitcoin is] a bet that career mobility and independent contractor businesses will eventually outstrip the growth of the corporate wage-slave population.”
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“[The government’s] best response to Bitcoin is irrelevancy, or failing that, extreme gold-like market manipulation for as long as possible. The end game for the State is perpetuating the fiat myth — their fiat myth not the populace’s cryptographic Bitcoin myth. They have always known that faith in money is a mass illusion, however they never considered that they wouldn’t be in charge of the illusion.”
- http://onforb.es/112nF0u
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=139516.0 (Further discussion of this article)
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ShadowLife, a community focused on the protection of privacy, has a post describing what Bitcoin needs to succeed in the long-run. Excerpts:
“If you combine all black markets of the world together you’ll get a 10 trillion US$ economy, second only to the United States of America. In many developing countries it already comprises large parts of the economy and it is growing faster than the officially recognized gross domestic product (GDP).”
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“One has to note that Crypto-Anarchy is not a philosophical utopia, but the attempt to shape life and society in the presence of disruptive technologies. The corresponding technologies have already arrived and we are facing a great divide: we will either live in the total surveillance state or in a Crypto-Anarchist libertopia.”
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“A free society needs a free market and a free market needs sound money. […] The use of Bitcoin is a huge advantage compared to a barter or cash-only economy, because developed economies need money transfer, at the very least for B2B transactions.”
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“So what does Bitcoin need to succeed in the long-run? In short, it needs no state, no banks, and OTC. The three hypotheses in more detail:
1.) The Bitcoin community should not try to get legality for Bitcoin, we should not ask the state to resolve conflicts in the community.
2.) The Bitcoin community should not focus on interoperability with the traditional banking system.
3.) Widespread availability of over-the-counter (OTC) Bitcoin exchangers is crucial for Bitcoin to succeed in the long-run and give us more freedom.”
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“If the Bitcoin economy depends on the traditional banking system it is doomed to fail. Just imagine what would happen to the Bitcoin economy if Mt.Gox, which currently is responsible for about 80% of all Bitcoin exchanges, suddenly would have to close down.
In my opinion, this shows the second hypothesis: The Bitcoin community should not focus on interoperability with the traditional banking system.”
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“A widespread network of OTC exchangers is the system most resilient against state attacks, because it is heavily distributed and the banking system is skipped entirely.”
- http://bit.ly/RKV7WV
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=123143.0 (Further discussion of this article)
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Timothy B. Lee (@BinaryBits)’s latest post on Bitcoin explores a frequently raised topic regarding Bitcoin and the law. Excerpts:
“Nothing like Bitcoin existed when current laws were written. A wide variety of laws regulates banks, money transmitters, currencies, and securities—but none of these categories are a good fit for bitcoins.”
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“Nikolei Kaplanov says ‘so long as you are purchasing legal things and you’re conducting yourself in a manner where you’re making regular exchanges in person or through a company online, there are no legal hurdles whatsoever.’”
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“Kaplanov said it was ‘not a laughable argument’ that Bitcoin miners are money transmitters, though he did think it was a ‘huge stretch.’”
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“Bitcoin exchanges need to register as money-transmitting services with the relevant state or federal authorities and comply with regulations governing money-transmitting services, Kaplanov said.”
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“Bitcoin products keep arriving, and if their popularity grows, states may take a more active interest in regulating the currency than they do now.”
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“Shutting down the network in one country is unlikely to have much effect. It will continue to operate in other jurisdictions, and users in the jurisdiction where the technology is banned can easily participate in Bitcoin transactions via VPN.”
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“[Kaplanov] thinks it would be a bad idea for the US government to do anything dramatic, such as try to outlaw the cryptocurrency.”
- http://bit.ly/T4c3WT
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103022.0 (Further discussion on the articles)
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Forbes columnist Jon Matonis (@JonMatonis) describes essentially how Bitcoin and its community are managing through setbacks that would otherwise devolve into law enforcement actions, lawsuits, and government regulation. Excerpts:
“Bitcoin entities and their customers currently operate under their own brand of lex mercatoria to enforce accountability.”
“We are actually in the midst of such a case right now as the leading Bitcoinica parties attempt to sort out the claims process to the best of their abilities with limited account records. There is no court. There is no judge. Bitcoin is not defined as legal property.”
“It is clear that a sort of ‘digital’ lex mercatoria is emerging — one that recognizes the complete voluntarist nature of the bitcoin protocol in commerce. We don’t have to imagine The Enterprise of ‘Law: Justice Without the State’ because we are living through it now.”
“The beatings will continue until security improves.”
