Tag Archives: Bitcoin Foundation

Top Bitcoin News Last Week: DEA Seizure, Africa, Bitcoin Foundation

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Bitcoin news

Bitcoin News

A roundup of the top Bitcoin news from July 5 to July 11.

Friday, July 5

Sunday, July 8

Tuesday, July 9

Wednesday, July 10 

Thursday, July 11

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Bitcoin Foundation Appoints Jon Matonis as Executive Director

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Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director Jon Matonis

The Bitcoin Foundation has appointed Jon Matonis as Executive Director. Matonis is an e-Money researcher and author of The Monetary Future at Forbes. Matonis is also a board advisor to startups in Bitcoin, gaming, mobile & prepaid, and was previously CEO of Hushmail.

Below is the letter of acceptance he published on the Bitcoin Foundation blog:

I am proud to have been associated with the Bitcoin Foundation since its launch just nine short months ago. A nonprofit organization for Bitcoin can add greatly to the political and economic discourse for cryptographic money and monetary freedom. As Executive Director, I welcome the new challenge.

The Foundation has never claimed to represent all of Bitcoin nor all of its users because that would be impossible for any organization. Rather, the Foundation has consistently attempted to fill the gap where market-based incentives may not have produced the same outcome, such as in the areas of specialized grants and compensation transparency for volunteer developers as well as legal challenges to bitcoin usage and the sponsorship of aggressive legal defense.

For instance, we made our “cease and desist” correspondence with the State of California publicly available which can assist bitcoin exchanges and other bitcoin organizations in the future. Also, we intend to file amicus briefs in significant bitcoin-related legal cases and to offer pro bono legal defense where appropriate. In the next 30 days, we are scheduled to submit comments to FinCEN’s guidance and request for industry feedback on rulemaking. This will be made publicly available too.

The Foundation is not pro-regulation as some have claimed, but it is pro-education. I fully support across the board bitcoin education for legislative and regulatory entities. Proper education is not anti-market and I also agree with economist Peter Šurda who stated that lobbying on behalf of Bitcoin is not necessarily anti-market. However, constructing barriers to market entry and being complicit in certain crony capitalism regulatory outcomes is anti-market. I will steadfastly oppose a crony capitalism direction for the Bitcoin Foundation.

One of my primary near-term objectives for the Foundation is to become more inclusive of the various constituencies within the global bitcoin community. This will involve being more responsive to and communicative with member requests. It will also involve being more open to internationalization. Currently, 60% of the Foundation’s membership is non-US based and we need to do a better job behaving like a global organization. To this end, we will hold the next Bitcoin conference outside of the United States and we will sign on local Foundation chapters in several countries where interested parties have taken the lead on expanding the principles of Bitcoin in their region.

The bursting of Bitcoin technology on the scene at this time in history is not a mere coincidence. It is a reaction to three separate epochal developments largely emanating from the developed economies: (1) centralized and oppressive monetary authority (2) a dominant and complicit legacy banking system, and (3) the eradication of financial privacy.

Future generations will not be very forgiving if the Foundation fails in its mission to standardize and protect Bitcoin worldwide. The youth of today, including the youth of the legislative and ruling classes, certainly grasp this movement and the demographics clearly bear that out. Choice in currency is the free speech of commerce.

Just as those against file sharing and BitTorrent technology were on the wrong side of history, so too are the institutional forces opposed to unfettered bitcoin growth. The great challenge and mandate for our time is in encouraging them to see it that way. Please join us.

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Bitcoin Foundation Responds to California: Respectfully, You’re Wrong

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Bitcoin Foundation letter

Bitcoin Foundation Fires Back to California

A few weeks back, the California Department of Financial Institutions sent a cease and desist letter to the Bitcoin Foundation for engaging in the “business of money transmission without having obtained the license or proper authorization required by the California Financial Code.”

Attorneys for the Bitcoin Foundation have responded with a 7-page letter outlining why they believe the Bitcoin Foundation is not subject to regulation under the California Money Transmission Act.

Here are the key points:

  • The Bitcoin Foundation does not engage in money transmission in California
  • The Bitcoin Foundation does not maintain business operations in California
  • The Bitcoin Foundation does not sell or issue payment instruments
  • The Bitcoin Foundation does not sell or issue stored value
  • The Bitcoin Foundation does not receive money for transmission

In other words, California, respectfully, you’re wrong.

The wrap up the letter with a request for the cease and desist letter to be withdrawn and ask that an opinion be issued that officially states that Bitcoin is not regulated under the California Money Tranmission Act

For the foregoing reasons, the Bitcoin Foundation has concluded that it does not engage inactivities for which a California money transmitter license is required. Furthermore, the Bitcoin Foundation respectfully submits that the sale of bitcoin is not a regulated activity generally speaking. The Bitcoin Foundation therefore respectfully requests that your office issue an official opinion or administrative letter ruling confirming that the Bitcoin Foundation is not required to obtain a license for the reasons explained above and affirming that the May 30, 2013 warning letter has been withdrawn. Further, the Bitcoin Foundation requests that your office issue an opinion that, for the reasons explained above, the sale of a bitcoin is not regulated under the California Money Transmitter Act.

Read the full letter below.

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States Targeting Bitcoin Companies for Money Laundering (Video)

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Bitcoin

According to a Wall Street Journal report, state regulators have issued warnings to a handful of Bitcoin-related companies, alerting them that they may be running afoul of money-transmission laws.

As the video below explains, because you can be largely anonymous in these transactions, there is concern that virtual currency can be used for money laundering or other illegal activities.

One of the companies identified as having received a warning is BitInstant. We also reported last week that the State of California issued a cease and desist letter to the Bitcoin Foundation.

We’ll be following this story closely.

 

CC image by by zcopley

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Top Bitcoin News: CA v Foundation, Mt. Gox Halts Withdrawals, and More

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Top Bitcoin News

Bitcoin News

A roundup of the top Bitcoin news from June 17 to June 23.

Tuesday, June 18

Saturday, June 22

Sunday, June 23

 

 

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