<i>"Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto probably didn’t think that even the U.S. government would treat it as a currency and try to regulate it."</i><p>Citation needed.<p>From the opinion: <i>"The question currently before the Court is whether the BTCST investments in this case are securities as defined by Federal Securities Laws."</i><p>This case was about whether a dude who was <i>accepting deposits</i> of Bitcoins and <i>paying interest</i> on them was in the securities business. Of course he was.
This article is so confused, I don't even...<p>> The ruling represents yet another attempt to regulate Bitcoin transactions<p>Frickin' awesome. Finally they're going to get acceptance from the mainstream, and my investments will be worth something...<p>> Bitcoin was born on the idea that nobody could regulate it.<p>Really? I always thought it was born on the idea of making its creator rich. Either way, its value comes from the inability for players to unilaterally (and meaningfully) increase the money supply.<p>> The only real value of a Bitcoin comes from its users<p>Kinda like every other currency, then?
Declaring Bitcoins as currency is one thing. The other thing is how do people prove to the court that they don't own Bitcoins anymore because they've sent them to BTCST (the famous pirateat40 hedge fund), and even if judge accepts a blockchain transaction as actual evidence - that the receiving address actually belonged to BTCST. That will be fun to watch.
The security of currencies come from their underlying demand. Gold is used as a currency, first and foremost, because it has strong intrinsic value, and second because it has physical properties that make it convenient to divide and store. If gold had no independent demand it wouldn't be considered for a currency.<p>The US dollar has even more demand. All Americans are required by law to purchase it and own it for the purpose of paying their taxes. If they do not, the most powerful police and military will lock them in prison. This is the base upon which the rest of the system is built.<p>Bitcoin, to its good fortune, is also backed by independent demand: crime. Because of crime, and its adeptness at enforcing agreements, BitCoin has a strong tangible base upon which it can grow its ecosystem. The biggest threat to BitCoin is not a sudden loss of interest by the masses, but a competing currency that better serves crime and takes BitCoin's market share.
I wouldn't really call it a 'clampdown' as the word has negative implication. I would call it a 'legitimization'.<p>Federal judges have acknowledged that Bitcoin has the underpinnings that constitutes it as a currency. This is HUGELY exciting.<p>Disclosure: I work in financial regulatory reporting and am bullish on bitcoin.
declaring Bitcoin as currency is too narrow. FYI there's dozens of other digital currencies, collectively termed altcoins, such as litecoin and ripplecoin. See <a href="http://www.cryptocoincharts.info" rel="nofollow">http://www.cryptocoincharts.info</a>. Anyone is also able to create their own blockchain.