Bitcoin Ruled to be a Currency by US Federal Judge

Unarmed Gunman

Unarmed Gunman

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May 2, 2007
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Some guy in Texas was charged with running a bitcoin ponzi scheme. His defense was that Bitcoin is not a currency therefore, no ponzi scheme. Not so fast - according to the judge:

It is clear that Bitcoin can be used as money. It can be used to purchase goods or services, and as Shavers stated, used to pay for individual living expenses. The only limitation of Bitcoin is that it is limited to those places that accept it as currency. However, it can also be exchanged for conventional currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, Euro, Yen, and Yuan. Therefore, Bitcoin is a currency or form of money, and investors wishing to invest in BTCST provided an investment of money.
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You can read the entire ruling here
 


inb4 everyone who spent months and years trying to convince people that btc is money are upset that it's being considered money
 
Is this like when the US government decided it wasn't a war crime to nuke civilians?
 
I can use M&M's as money too, whats the fat fucking judges point?
 
mattseh said:
Fucking hell you're annoying.
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Annoying or not, the man has a point. Money is such a fucking abitrary scheme, I wish people understood how unnecessary it would be if greed was a foriegn idea to us humans.

We're just addicted to the drug, and the federal reserve is the dealer. Gotta eliminate the competition, you know?
 
20figures said:
Annoying or not, the man has a point. Money is such a fucking abitrary scheme, I wish people understood how unnecessary it would be if greed was a foriegn idea to us humans.

We're just addicted to the drug, and the federal reserve is the dealer. Gotta eliminate the competition, you know?
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lol no. M&M's are not fit as a medium of exchange as dictated by the public.

The concept of Money is not at all arbitrary, it serves a specific purpose to service the system of an economy.
 
blureach said:
lol no. M&M's are not fit as a medium of exchange as dictated by the public.

The concept of Money is not at all arbitrary, it serves a specific purpose to service the system of an economy.
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Chickens used to be money, cows, grain so on and so forth.

The point is anything that can be collected can be used as currency.

When the shit hits the fan you can bet Advil, pain killers, cigs, chef boy r d, everything will have a currency type of value.

Havnt any of you ever been to prison or seen it on tv.....jesus christ.

You know what is annoying. Fat fucking Judges creating judgements for obvious things to persecute the regular joe. I will enjoy breaking into his house when we are evolving from a nuclear winter and taking all his Advil.
 
Zaino said:
Chickens used to be money, cows, grain so on and so forth.

The point is anything that can be collected can be used as currency.

When the shit hits the fan you can bet Advil, pain killers, cigs, chef boy r d, everything will have a currency type of value.

Havnt any of you ever been to prison or seen it on tv.....jesus christ.
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i don't see an error in this logic, nor what's annoying about it.
 
Zaino said:
Havnt any of you ever been to prison or seen it on tv.....jesus christ
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We used stamps in prison as money. I think they were around .32¢ in the store back then but they were only worth a quarter on the yard. Guys used to mail home hundreds of dollars worth of stamps from gambling or whatever to be converted into real money, then have it put back into their account.

Then they took stamps away (to prevent gambling lol), so we immediately started using bars of soap (.50¢) or packs of cigarettes ($5) as our currency of choice. Packs of cigarettes were more convenient of course because lugging around $20 worth of soap is fucking retarded, but it was like trying to buy a burger with a $100 bill sometimes. We also used Ramen noodles for low ticket items 5 noodles = $1.

So money can be a lot of things. As long people accept it as medium of exchange and there is an agreed upon value. I don't know if that's how it would be defined in an econ textbook but I know how it works in real life.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zG8wp82bsQ"]The Wire - Money Be Green - YouTube[/ame]
 
guerilla said:
My friend, please take some time to study economics.
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Out of all people I did not expect that response from an anarchist who seemingly doesn't believe in the system and abstract idea's such as creating value out of nothing.

We could successfully replace paper money with anything that has a limited finite value thanks to supply and demand, all it would require is everyone similtaneously adopting and agreeing to use this de facto currency.

No, instead let's just trust the people with the unlimited printing press because you know, they are the only morally pure authority that won't abuse their powers. Any other currency where a central bank doesn't control and oversee absolutely EVERYTHING would be far to dangerous. Banks could you know, collude to manipulate interest rates and rig the market, right?

Sounds more like the mafia protecting their business to me, IMO.
 
Unarmed Gunman said:
We used stamps in prison as money. I think they were around .32¢ in the store back then but they were only worth a quarter on the yard. Guys used to mail home hundreds of dollars worth of stamps from gambling or whatever to be converted into real money, then have it put back into their account.

Then they took stamps away (to prevent gambling lol), so we immediately started using bars of soap (.50¢) or packs of cigarettes ($5) as our currency of choice. Packs of cigarettes were more convenient of course because lugging around $20 worth of soap is fucking retarded, but it was like trying to buy a burger with a $100 bill sometimes. We also used Ramen noodles for low ticket items 5 noodles = $1.

So money can be a lot of things. As long people accept it as medium of exchange and there is an agreed upon value. I don't know if that's how it would be defined in an econ textbook but I know how it works in real life.

The Wire - Money Be Green - YouTube
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this is a great example of something i have a problem with. here's a top-quality first person description of a phenomenon most of us don't know about and couldn't know about unless we'd lived it, which few of us have. yet folks like guerilla put UGs content on ignore because UG dared at some random point to contradict a viewpoint.

that's just silly, and a shame, imo. certain people need to relax their hyperactive sensitivities.
 
20figures said:
Out of all people I did not expect that response from an anarchist
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When you get a response you didn't expect, there may be something to it.

20figures said:
who seemingly doesn't believe in the system and abstract idea's such as creating value out of nothing.
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I'm very skeptical about everything.

Value is psychological. It exists wholly in our minds. If you think something is valuable, it is.

20figures said:
~~words~~
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Good rant. Have no idea what it has to do with economics though.
 
...and now the subpoena's hit.

Every Important Person In Bitcoin Just Got Subpoenaed By New York's Financial Regulator - Forbes

Declaring Bitcoin “a virtual Wild West for narcotraffickers and other criminals,” the New York State Department of Financial Services is stepping into the sheriff’s boots.

“We believe that – for a number of reasons – putting in place appropriate regulatory safeguards for virtual currencies will be beneficial to the long-term strength of the virtual currency industry,” said NYSDFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky in a statement.
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Here's a list of the subpoenaed parties:


  • BitInstant
  • BitPay
  • Coinabul
  • Coinbase Inc.
  • CoinLab
  • Coinsetter
  • Dwolla
  • eCoin Cashier
  • Payward, Inc.
  • TrustCash Holdings Inc.
  • ZipZap
  • Butterfly Labs
  • Andreesen Horowitz
  • Bitcoin Opportunity Fund
  • Boost VC Bitcoin Fund
  • Founders Fund
  • Google Ventures
  • Lightspeed Venture Partners
  • Tribeca Venture Partners
  • Tropos Funds
  • Union Square Ventures
  • Winklevoss Capital Management
LukeP, where you at dog?
 
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