Bitcoin Trade Group Bites Back at California
Bitcoin Aware | Aritcles | Bitcoin Trade Group Bites Back at California
By Robin SidelThe Bitcoin Foundation is defending the virtual currency to California’s banking department, explaining bitcoin doesn’t qualify as a payment instrument under the state’s money-transmission rules. In a lengthy letter addressed to Tara Murphy, an assistant attorney general in the California Department of Financial Institutions, the Washington-based group also stuck up for itself, saying it doesn’t sell or exchange the virtual currency. The foundation is one of several entities that recently have been called out by state regulators who are trying to sort out the bitcoin conundrum. They are taking their cue from federal regulators, who in March said that bitcoin exchanges must follow the same anti-money laundering rules that apply to the likes of Western Union Co. California is known to be particularly aggressive in enforcing money-transmission rules. In the letter, the foundation made it clear that it doesn’t even operate in California. Instead, it says, its main job is to standardize the use of bitcoin, protect the integrity of the bitcoin protocol, and promote bitcoin through technological investment in bitcoin infrastructure, public education, and initiatives in law and policy. вSpeaking of education, J. Dax Hansen, a lawyer at Perkins Coie LLP in Seattle, advises California in the letter that bitcoin shouldn’t even be considered to be a payment instrument under state law, which defines it as a check, draft, money order, traveler’s check or other instrument for the transmission or payment of money or monetary value, whether or not negotiable. в He goes on to say that although bitcoin may be described as a medium of exchange,в it shouldn’t be defined as having stored value. The foundation is seeking an official opinion that it doesn’t need a money-transmission license and that the sale of bitcoin isn’t a regulated activity. There’s no word yet on how California will re… blogs. wsj. com/moneybeat/2013/07/05/bitcoin-trade-group-bites-back-at-california/