Bitcoin’s DC Debut: All Eyes Watch the US Government’s Response
Jerry Brito recounts the the first time policymakers in DC took a formal look at Bitcoin, back in 2013. This article originally appeared in CoinDesk.
On 18th November, 2013, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held the US Congress's first hearing on bitcoin. These days, such meetings hardly raise an eyebrow. Back then,...
Cryptocurrencies: Challenges, Disruption and Opportunities
Director of research Peter Van Valkenburgh gave a guest lecture at the University of Texas Center for Politics and Governance.
Overzealous AML enforcement doesn’t just harm innovation, it can also be deadly.
That’s what the conclusion of new research reported in the Washington Post today showing that the same kind of bank “derisking” that affects the deposits, wire transfers, and access to...
In a letter to congress, their industry group, Financial Innovation Now, explained how state-by-state money transmission licensing is a major impediment to innovation in financial services here in the US: Payment...
We reiterate and underscore the need for a Special Purpose National Bank charter that is suitable for digital payments companies.
A direct download of this letter is available here.
A coherent national approach to regulating fintech companies will boost American competitiveness, foster technological innovation, and improve financial inclusion.
A direct download of these comments is available here.
California is back at it; a new (old) virtual currency licensing bill is pending in the Assembly.
We believe that the ULC’s model Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Act will offer a better way.
The new bill is AB 1123. Over the last two years we’ve been discussing and studying an earlier bill, AB 1326, extensively. That bill went through several iterations: one that...
Bitcoin taxation is broken. Here’s how to fix it.
An exemption for small gains would take most of the headache out of using digital currencies like Bitcoin.
We recently described what a bill creating a federal safe harbor for non-custodial uses of cryptocurrency should look like, and we’re now advocating for just such a bill in Congress....
The Communications Decency Act, which protected the internet's early innovators, is a perfect model for protecting the people and companies building it's next level infrastructure.
As we wrote last January, We got lucky with the Internet. The net we’ve come to know, love, and rely upon owes much of its existence to two laws passed...
Here’s how the tax treatment of Bitcoin is broken.
I couldn’t have put it more succinctly than this piece in the Wall Street Journal today: One complication is that the IRS treats bitcoin as property, rather than currency. The...