How Coinbase Helps the Government Monitor Bitcoin Transactions

Coinbase's associate counsel Sarah Hody urged entrepreneurs to follow the firm's "proactive" stance in front of a packed audience at bitcoin developer meetup in San Francisco’s South of Market district, reports CoinDesk.

Hody listed in her presentation a number of federal level agencies that have talked about jurisdiction over bitcoin.

FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, was used as an example.

Hody pointed out that FinCEN information already gets passed down to over 350 law enforcement agencies, many at the state level.

Hody, reports Coinbases, "made it clear that the purpose of regulation in the digital currency industry is about protecting consumers, restricting money laundering and making sure taxes are properly collected."

Because these are issues regulators are concerned about, Coinbase keeps records about customers, and must ensure that developers using its API are operating in a legal manner.

The company also keeps a list of activities users of its services are prohibited from participating in, and maintains a watchful eye on its platform.

According to CoinDesk, Hody said:

"We have to keep records in compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act. The less you do with our system, the less we need to know about you."

Some great tool this Bitcoin thing is for libertarians,who advocate a non-surveillance state,

-RW