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Bitfloor Indefinitely Suspends Bitcoin Trading
PerformanceDude writes "Bitfloor (a New York-based online exchange for Bitcoin) yesterday made the following announcement on their website: I am sorry to announce that due to circumstances outside of our control BitFloor must cease all trading operations indefinitely. Unfortunately, our US bank account is scheduled to be closed and we can no longer provide the same level of USD deposits and withdrawals as we have in the past. As such, I have made the decision to halt operations and return all funds. Over the next days we will be working with all clients to ensure that everyone receives their funds. Please be patient as we process your request. Roman — bitfloor.com" According to the company's Twitter account, money should be returned to users' bank accounts shortly.
Sounds like the govenrment finally decided they didn't like money outside their control.
Sounds to me like they were a US company not following already existing US Anti-Money Laundering regulations.
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Well in fairness to them, it sounds a lot better than "we decided to hop on the bitcoin-ponzi-scheme bandwagon and it bit us in the ass."
Never. Why on earth would it? Crypto-currencies are a fascinating concept and Bitcoin is one of the greatest experiments ever. Whether it ultimately succeeds or fails is irrelevant, it will be written into the history books forever.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
We prefer "Reptilian-American", thank you.
How would money laundering provide tax evasion? The point of money laundering is to convert dirty money (e.g. money gained from selling drugs, gambling, bankruptcy fraud) into clean money that you're "supposed" to have. Clean money by its nature is taxed.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
For another, most economists around are convinced ... that deflation is evil.
Those egghead economists have several good reasons to think that deflation is a problem:
1. It strongly encourages everyone to stuff their money in the mattress rather than spend it. This may seem like a great idea, but without people buying stuff, nobody is needed to make stuff, which means people lose their jobs, so they buy even less, and so on.
2. It means that anyone who is saving is more likely to stuff the money in the mattress than they are to invest it. For example, if cash is gaining value at 1.5% a year, you're less likely to take the risk on an investment with 4% return than you will if cash is losing value at 1.5% a year. Which again causes people to lose their jobs, so they buy less, so others lose their jobs, so they buy less, and so on.
3. Bank lending would grind to a halt, for two reasons: First, banks have to add the deflation into the interest rates of any loans, to account for their opportunity cost compared to just keeping onto the money. Second, borrowers know that they have to repay the loan using progressively more and more valuable dollars, and are rightly concerned that this is a really bad idea.
4. Behavioral research suggests that wages and prices do not deflate as they should - workers have a strong resistance to taking what appears to be wage cuts every year, and businesses have a strong resistance to showing what appears to be lower profits on the same product.
5. People, businesses, and governments who are currently borrowing money get crushed, because their debt becomes progressively more pricey to pay off. That's exactly the problem that was motivating the bimetalism movement back in the 1890's, after the dollar was in deflation for about 2 decades.
It's not just equations: There are several historical examples of deflation, and many of the theorized problems with deflation have in fact turned up.
I am officially gone from