Conversation

Peter Van Valkenburgh
@valkenburgh
Folks have been asking about FinCEN's jurisdiction over peer-to-peer bitcoin or cryptocurrency exchangers in the wake of the recent civil penalty assessed against Eric Powers. As we wrote in 2017 It comes down to odd metaphysical musings about "location" in the digital age.
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Neeraj K. Agrawal
@NeerajKA
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How FinCEN’s definition of money transmission applies to “peer-to-peer” cryptocurrency exchange (from this report coincenter.org/entry/aml-kyc-)
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Jesse Powell
@jespow
They'd need to start regulating the transmission of information to be effective. You don't need to make a transfer on the blockchain to transmit value. The value is in knowing the location of the hidden treasure, i.e. the private key. It's enough that I tell you where to find it.
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Peter Van Valkenburgh
@valkenburgh
exactly, it gets absurd pretty quickly. Regulators will tell you that's why they have a "facts and circumstances" exemption from money transmission classification. But that sounds like an arbitrary power to not enforce the law whenever it's disadvantageous to the regulator.
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