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DHS Shuts Down Dwolla Payments To and From Mt. Gox

Posted by Soulskill on from the plot-thickens dept.

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from BetaBeat: "The Department of Homeland Security appears to have shut down the ability to use Dwolla, a mobile payment service, to withdraw and deposit money into Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin trading platform. ... A representative for Dwolla told Betabeat that the company is 'not party' to this matter and encourages those with questions to reach out to Mt. Gox or the DHS. 'The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a 'Seizure Warrant' for the funds associated with Mutum Sigillium's Dwolla account (a.k.a. Mt. Gox),' he said. 'In light of the court order, procured by the Department of Homeland Security, Dwolla has ceased all account activities associated with Dwolla services for Mutum Sigillum while Dwolla's holding partner transferred Mutum Sigillium's balance, per the warrant.'"

11 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. It's started... by curunir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The government finally decided to care and used the one achilles heel of BitCoin...conversion to and from dollars. If BitCoin had some innate value, it wouldn't be a problem, but since it's primary use is as an exchange currency for dodging taxes and selling goods on the black market, this change is going to seriously impact the value of the currency.The government can't control BitCoin, but it can control US financial institutions and other companies that need to interact with those financial institutions.

    We'll now see how well the BitCoin market can operate as a completely stand-alone entity.

    --
    "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
    1. Re:It's started... by fredprado · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No modern currency has innate value.

    2. Re:It's started... by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's rare. It doesn't rust. It barely reacts with anything at all. It's highly malleable. It's ductile. It conducts electricity. It has plenty of desirable properties. The fact that it's a rare metal that will never corrode makes it perfect as a store of wealth. You can argue all you want with thousands of years of human history. You're still wrong.

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      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    3. Re:It's started... by reve_etrange · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Boom.

      Seriously, I am tired of the circular logic underlying much of these arguments. Whatever initial condition led to acceptance of gold, etc. in lieu of in-kind payments, it was not "because I can buy stuff with it."

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      .: Semper Absurda :.
    4. Re:It's started... by philip.paradis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Referring to the DHS as a legitimate member of the intelligence community is beyond laughable. They're effectively a domestic secret police outfit that operates at the behest of the executive branch, and they can't seem to get most of that right, let alone serious intelligence work. The CIA, NSA, and FBI comprise the effective intelligence apparatus of the United States, and with any luck DHS activities will be severely curtailed in coming years. Incidentally, the TSA is a child agency of the DHS.

      --
      Write failed: Broken pipe
  2. Re:guess they already know by anagama · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, it is more correct to say that the Obama administration can be as GWB-like as it wants, and its reputation will remain amazingly high with Democrats. It's proof that Democrats didn't hate GWB's policies, they just hated GWB personally.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  3. Re:guess they already know by superwiz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I had no love for Bush, but I think it's quite a smear to compare him to Obama. Bush's administration wiretapped suspected terrorists. They never sank so low as to wiretap reporters. And you'd have to reach back to Nixon to find an administration using IRS to target political opponents. I also don't recall Bush starting any wars without Congressional approval (albeit approval obtained under very, very questionable auspices).

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  4. Re:guess they already know by anagama · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Love it -- hope you get a plus 5 insightful. That was a nice reworking of the "calling him an idiot is an insult to the wider idiot community" type quip.

    I totally agree that Obama has been worse than GWB but what is even more disturbing is how Democrats don't even want to know about it and have gone totally silent now that it is their guy doing the abuses.

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    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  5. Re:Bound to happen. by adolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You must be joking. Competing currencies would be a lot better than the current theft through inflation carried out by the US government.

    You mean "theft through inflation carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank."

    (Pro-Tip: The Federal Reserve, despite its name, is not a government entity.)

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    Kid-proof tablet..
  6. Re:guess they already know by rahvin112 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Up to the GWB administration wire tapping was a case by case basis, after 911 the Bush administration asked for direct links to all the telecom operators. ATT, Verizon and all the others provided direct fiber optic connections to their networks and funneled copies of everything going across their network directly to the government. This is the reason Congress was forced to give them immunity because if they didn't the class action suits would have sunk the phone companies. The need for immunity alone should point to just how serious of an expansion in wire taping occurred under the Bush administration.

    In fact as the previous poster said, it was those very links that caused the creation of the Data Center in Utah. I live in Utah and I can tell you that Data Center was already planned and sited in 2008 when Obama took office. The formerly 2-lane highway leading up to Camp Williams (where the data center is) was upgraded in 2008 in anticipation, new power lines were installed at the same time (the data center uses more power than the entire salt lake city valley). Though Obama has done nothing to stop this massive expansion of federal power it most certainly did start under Bush. And though I agree that the government's been spying on people for a long time, the passive acceptance of full monitoring of every single communication didn't start till after 9/11/2001. You are arguing that tapping a few phones here and there is no different than recording every single phone call/text/internet traffic going across the network. And there is a very big difference.

  7. Re:Is this really a surprise? by pantaril · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The likelihood that Mt Gox was complying with the "Know Your Customer" anti-money-laundering rules that apply to all financial institutions that handle currency was approx. zero.

    Mt.Gox is not US company. This is not mt.gox account being closed, this is Dwolla account being closed.

    What japanese anti-money laundering regulations does Mt.Gox violate? I don't know about any. I read that they are fully compliant with japanase KYC laws. But you probably have more information if you could write that they have almost zero probability to be compliant. Please share it, otherwise, it's just FUD.