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Are you sure it applies to speculators? Can you quote that part?


I'm not sure, no.

However:

In addition, a person is an exchanger and a money transmitter if the person accepts such de-centralized convertible virtual currency from one person and transmits it to another person as part of the acceptance and transfer of currency, funds, or other value that substitutes for currency.

Consider a common flow of:

speculator USD -> counterparty -> speculator BTC -> counterparty -> speculator USD

The transaction in the middle has the speculator exchanging BTC between two parties without any goods or services changing hands.


You can speculate in real currencies without adhering to any special regulations, so there is no reason to think they would try to twist the word 'exchange' here to mean that.


A user is a person that obtains virtual currency to purchase goods or services


As I said, you can buy real currency as a speculator and you aren't required to follow any regulations. Forcing speculators in digital currencies to meet the same requirements as financial institutions would be absurd.

I realize one could make a case that that is what they mean here but common sense dictates that was not the intent, and it is extremely unlikely speculators have anything to be concerned about.




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