

U.S. Agencies to say Bitcoins Offer Legitimate Benefits - a3voices
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-18/u-s-agencies-to-say-bitcoins-offer-legitimate-benefits.html

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AshleysBrain
Isn't "we have no plans to regulate bitcoin" just the least embarrassing thing
they can say between that and "it is not actually possible for us to regulate
bitcoin"?

~~~
retube
No. Of course it can be regulated. Indeed it could be flat out made illegal.
Just because you can't physically stop people from doing stuff doesn't mean a
law can't (or shouldn't) be enacted.

Having a "no murder" law in no ways stops people from comitting murder.

As pointed out in the comment below you can certainly make it difficult to
participate in the market - e.g making it illegal for companies to provide
clearing into fiat currency. E.g in the UK right now altho there isn't
currently a law no UK banks will provide deposit or clearing facilities for
exchanges or market places for fear of reputational damage, e.g being at risk
of accusuations of faciliating crime or terrorism financing. (Barclays have
recently ended banking facilities with several hundred regular currency
exchanges for exactly this reason - including a Somalian remittance service
which has been in the news a bit [1])

1\.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24553148](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24553148)

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YokoZar
I would assert that there has been at least one murder prevented by the law
against murder.

~~~
andylei
and having a no bitcoins law would prevent at least one person from making a
bitcoin transaction

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spoiledtechie
What's the best and easiest exchange to get into? Lets just say to start
buying bitcoins?

also, what's the best API to use to start charging my customers with bitcoins?

both serious questions.

~~~
philfreo
Coinbase.com is by far the easiest in my opinion (and is a YC company). Unlike
MtGox.com (originally the most popular) the site is fast, stable, well
designed, and can connect directly with your US bank account. They've also got
a set of merchant tools and APIs.

Since we're throwing out referral links here apparently, this link will give
you and I both $5 in BTC:

[https://coinbase.com/?r=4fedfb2d6cbd3b0003000845&utm_campaig...](https://coinbase.com/?r=4fedfb2d6cbd3b0003000845&utm_campaign=user-
referral&src=referral-link)

~~~
ics
> this link will give you and I both $5 in BTC

 _If you buy or sell at least 1BTC on their platform._ Since that sets the
mark at, oh about $500 now, ... ;)

Edit: ...or $600.

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maaku
Did I miss something? Bernanke's comment basically boils down to "no comment",
phrased in the polite speech Senate committee hearings. What's the news here?

~~~
kine
The news is that the government isn't likely going to throw a shitfit and
freak out over bitcoin. Because it's money related, and they can tax and
regulate some piece of the transaction.

Doesn't really need to be said that Wall Street, Washington, and Lobbyists are
all in bed together. Wall Street types and some Valley people have clearly
told influential politicians in this that they should be cool.

Bitcoin gets another serious mark in the de-risk column

~~~
maaku
The Fed is not the government (its a private bank btw), and Bernanke's
comments do not apply to agencies for which virtual currencies are their
jurisdiction.

~~~
jnbiche
>its a private bank

Yeah, a "private" bank whose executive officers are appointed by the President
and whose authority was enacted by Congress.

~~~
dualogy
Precisely! Which is exactly what enrages so many people :)

(I must assume you haven't watched Sony Pictures' ca. 2010 documentary _Inside
Job_ yet?)

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Fuxy
I'm saddened that legislation in the UK is so awful that it's virtually
impossible to run a legitimate bit-coin business.

This is going to come back to hurt the UK economy in the end.

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bfell
There seems to be a common fallacy that is propagated by media that bitcoin is
untraceable. A visit to blockchain.info pretty easily dispels this myth.
Bitcoin is anonymous (in the same way that cash is) but it is not untraceable.
If money being exchanged to/from bitcoin is coupled with the same money
transfer regulations as standard currency it ends up being more traceable than
standard currency because there is a log of all transactions. This is likely
why there won't be much resistance to bitcoin from regulators as long as they
can control the endpoints.

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Aqueous
Yes, the opportunities for forensic analysis on BitCoin are much greater than
in a traditional currency where money can disappear into the void and re-enter
the economy somewhere else without any word on what happened in between. In
some ways I wonder if criminals of the future won't prefer the dollar to
conduct their illegal activity.

~~~
simplemath
Physically moving dollars is the hard part of conducting black market business
in dollars.

Obscuring a wallet address is far easier than physically smuggling cash.

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k2enemy
Has there been any clarification on the tax treatment of gains from trading
Bitcoins? If I bought at $100 and sold at $300 is the $200 gain treated as
income or capital gains?

~~~
TheCoelacanth
Well, the SEC said that bitcoins "likely would be securities and therefore
subject to our regulation", which would seem to indicate that it would be
considered capital gains, rather than income. It's too early to know for sure,
though.

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pa5tabear
Is BitCoin as secure as conventional currencies?

I've seen a good number of articles about wallets being stolen or exchanges
being compromised but I don't know enough to tell if it's negligent behavior
by the user/owner.

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walden42
Negligent behavior. Bitcoin implement bank-level security, so anything stolen
is negligent behavior. The vast majority of articles about wallets being
stolen is when bitcoins were held in a third party online wallet, which was
hacked. Keeping bitcoins in someone else's wallet defeats the idea of
decentralization and owning your own money.

As for whether it's as secure as conventional currency, even more so: no one
else has access to your money, unlike a bank account. In other words, no one
can withdraw your bitcoins without you explicitly sending them.

~~~
pa5tabear
Would it pass the Grandma test?

What would it take to trick Grandma into giving a person/program access to her
Bitcoin wallet?

I assume she would just need to reveal her password to a program and from
there it could steal her wallet?

