Bitcoin is built on a distributed consensus technology – the blockchain – which allows transactions to be verified and securely stored without a centralized authority authenticating the transactions. In its current form, the blockchain serves as a ledger for digital currency. However, developers with a sophisticated understanding of cryptography seek…
Tired of paying state taxes in dollars? If bills recently introduced in New Hampshire and Utah pass, those states’ taxes could eventually be paid in bitcoin. The New Hampshire House of Representative’s Ways and Means committee is considering a bill that would allow New Hampshire to accept bitcoin payments beginning…
Report Analyzes New “Pieces to the Puzzle” of Causes Behind Mt. Gox Collapse On February 14, 2015, WizSec, a Bitcoin security firm based in Tokyo, published a report that claims to shed new light on the causes for the infamous 2014 collapse of the bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. It has…
On January 20, 2015, President Obama delivered his State of the Union address: an annual report on the condition of our country. Overall, the President concluded, while it is still “a hard time for many,” “the shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.” In…
While some regulators are struggling to fit bitcoin’s innovative peg into preexisting holes—is bitcoin a currency or a commodity or something else entirely?—the novelty of digital currencies falls squarely within the regulatory purview of some agencies. One example is the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, the unit within…
In the effort to bring digital currencies into the mainstream, companies are making concerted efforts to let consumers know that they are operating by the rules and with regulators’ blessings. One such company recently announced a bitcoin exchange. The exchange allows users to trade bitcoins and plans to first focus…
After months of doubts regarding the viability of Bitcoin due to concerns on everything from fraud and security to the currency’s volatility, the virtual currency recently got a healthy boost to its legitimacy. Last week, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss announced plans to develop a fully regulated Bitcoin exchange based in…
Since the turn of the century, exchange traded funds (ETFs) have grown from an industry of less than $100 billion to a $2 trillion behemoth. And as virtual currencies such as Bitcoin continue to permeate the mainstream — Overstock.com now accepts payment in Bitcoin, as do thousands of other online…
Happy New Year! With the bottles popped and the confetti descended, we take a look at the some of the most important legal and regulatory developments in the U.S. this past year. Federal Money Transmitter Law The most prolific regulatory actor in 2014 was by far the Financial Crimes Enforcement…