Quote from: is4tomj on February 06, 2012, 06:42:25 PM

Quote from: jimbobway on February 06, 2012, 05:41:01 PM

I read your blog post and it seems what you have argued makes sense. It seems like by the letter of the law (U.S. law) bitcoin is not a currency. You also argued that bitcoin is not an investment contract.

To me it seems like if bitcoin is not a currency, and if it's not security (investment contract), then is bitcoin then a commodity?

You bring up a great point, I only argued what bitcoin is not. I will focus my next post on what bitcoin is. I do not know the legal definition of "commodity" off the top of my head, but I will find out and let you know.

You have also stated in your last paragraph that bitcoin can most certainly be regulated:
"The U.S. may also regulate other bitcoin organizations, e.g. banks and exchanges, through the Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering act and other securities laws. Even though bitcoins are not securities, trading bitcoins, or other bitcoin instruments, are still regulated by the U.S."

This is just not true. Maybe for a fund like www.ultimafund.com because that enters into SEC, but a fixed-rate exchange not holding any customer funds is decidedly not subject to any U.S. regulation. Because, if so, that would be like regulating the sale of air guitars or a QR code or self-created RPOWs that contain an embedded image of my dog urinating.