Quote from: MSantori on July 22, 2013, 09:23:41 PM

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on July 22, 2013, 05:02:33 PM

Quote from: coin2013 on July 22, 2013, 04:53:19 PM

Can an individual (non-miner/or miner dealing with coins not mined) in the USA, buy & sell bitcoins on an exchange without needing to register with FinCEN? I still haven't found a clear answer with this question.

Per FinCEN guidance I already answered. If it is done infrequently and not for profit then that exemption applies otherwise registration is required for ALL exchangers.

Tragically, the guidance does not literally exclude non-business miners. By its terms:

a person that creates units of convertible virtual currency and sells those units to another person for real currency or its equivalent is engaged in transmission to another location and is a money transmitter.

Note the use of the word "person" not "business". It's my reading of it, given the context, that there is some argument to be made that persons not engaged in mining "as a business" are exempt. But my opinion is in the minority, and it is contrary to the plain text of the guidance.

Here's an interesting question: A miner set up a VPS in another country and mines with a pool here, the pool sends all of the bitcoins to a wallet located on the VPS in another country; then the miner exchanges those mined units on an exchange located outside of the country. Since the bitcoins were never located in a state that licenses "money transmitters", would this be possible and not violate the guidance?