WASHINGTON — Whether bitcoin is actual currency is at the forefront of a first-of-its-kind money-laundering case in Florida to be decided Friday.
In February 2014, Michel Espinoza was arrested in a Miami Beach motel for agreeing to sell $30,000 worth of bitcoin to an undercover police officer he had met on an exchange site called LocalBitcoins.com.Prosecutors charged that Espinoza violated Florida statutes on money laundering and for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.But the defense has argued that these laws do not apply to Espinoza's case, because he was not selling currency — he was selling bitcoin."It's just like you selling your own personal property," Rene Palomino Jr., Espinoza's attorney, said in a court filing. "Since bitcoins are 'goods,' Espinoza's alleged conduct is excluded from the definition of the term 'money transmitter' " under both state and federal law.
The case highlights a conundrum that has confused digital currency companies and state regulators alike: how to deal with a digital asset that is not a legal tender but can still hold value."Florida is dealing with the same definitional issues that many other states are dealing with, and that is how the terms currency, money, money transmission and even monetary value are defined," said Carol Van Cleef, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.The question is being addressed in various ways by the states' governing bodies. North Carolina's legislature on Monday passed a bill to modify the definition of money transmitters to account for virtual currency companies.
the underlying issue is why is this a case? well, we live in a police state that goes out of it's way to stick it's nose into the dealings of private individuals, and makes illegal activities that happen everyday. selling goods wouldn't be illegal under florida law (so this comes down to an entrapment test case), but under fed law it is a tax evasion. either way, the officer (undercover) SOUGHT OUT this interaction, with the blessing of the state. it is legal to pretend to commit a felony, or to pretend to be willing to commit a crime, to make criminals out of other citizens, so long a you have a badge.
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Tell the judge that I, Satoshi Nakamoto do not wish the trouble that follows if btc is recognized as money. I am quite ok with it being recognized as commodity which is already the case.
Regards.
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Like this 1
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We need more topical discussion threads like this. But this is not particularly timely. The news post is close to a month old.
On the other hands this directly impacts everyone in the cryptocoin and virtual currency space. To my mind money is anything you can trade directly for goods and services without resorting to a middleman to handle the conversion.
In this regard, money is more of a local thing than a global thing. With the exception of bitcoin and a handful of altcoins there is no "global" money, only commodities.
For example, if you're from Europe and visiting the USA then your Euros are not money because you need to exchange them to dollars before you can spend them.
But your Visa and Mastercard are.
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But why would we need more money
can't they just leave it be what it is.
an uncontrollable asset to move around value online.
what would a currency tag could be of any good for bitcoin if not just a straight forward downgrade.
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