White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said during a press briefing session on Thursday that bitcoin and other digital currencies are "something that is being monitored by our team."
In response to a reporter's question on whether the U.S. government is planning for digital currency regulations, Sanders mentioned that there is no specific announcement on the topic right now. She added that the topic had been brought up in a White House meeting earlier this week by Tom Bossert, a member of the Homeland Security team.
She continued:
I know it's something that he's keeping an eye on. And we'll keep you posted when we have anything further on it.The crackdown regs are coming, it is only a matter of time.
-RW
(via CoinDesk)
Precious metals and the black market, then?
ReplyDeleteWe should distinguish between two different impacts of any regulation.
ReplyDeleteThe first relates to adversely impacting the reasons why Bitcoin is so popular among its advocates (other than its meteoric rise in price). So regulations could impact the partial anonymity, speed or cost of processing, taxation leakage, ease of moving across borders, etc.
The second relates to positively impacting Bitcoin's credibility among the statist mainstream. Sadly, much of society looks for the state to give its approval to broad usage of something (e.g., pharmaceutical drugs, use of wireless spectrum, etc.). If the state moves to regulate, rather than eliminate, Bitcoin, this could be a boost to its usage among the less ideological mass market.