California Looking To Make All Bitcoin Businesses Illegal

An anonymous reader writes A new law has been proposed in California that would effectively outlaw all Bitcoin-related businesses that don't first get "permission." The details are vague within the bill itself, which is part of what makes it dangerous. If you're doing anything with virtual currency, you may have to go line up in Sacramento to get permission first.

Comments

Is it sad that it is old hat

[Anonymous Coward]

To do something like this and then either never issue said permissions or arrange it in such a way that getting said permission purposefully violates some other law that they can then hit you with.

Re:Is it sad that it is old hat

[ShaunC]

Yes, it's sadly common. Ask anyone who owns a strip club or an adult bookstore or a pawn shop, or even a bar in some places. The government doesn't usually make them illegal outright*; instead, they make them regulated. Then they draft regulations stating that those businesses can only operate in a certain zone of town. Oh, and you need a license, but it's going to run you half a million dollars, and they'll only grant one license every 10 years, or one license per 250,000 citizens (in a town of 30,000), or some other hurdle that's insurmountable enough so as to make your business effectively illegal.

Your second point reminds me of the marijuana tax stamps that are still law in 20 or so states. You incriminate yourself just by asking to buy the stamp in the first place.

*Because then the mayor couldn't accept an enormous campaign contribution in exchange for issuing a special license now and then.

Re:Is it sad that it is old hat

[drinkypoo]

In many of THOSE cases its government functioning as it should -- representing the will of the people in the community.

No, commerce represents the will of the people in the community. If you put up a strip club and nobody shows up and it goes out of business, that is the will of the community. If you want to put up a strip club and the government says no, that may or may not be the will of the community. I live in a town where government generally does the opposite of the will of the community. They imported a shitload of derelicts some decades ago (literally deliberately moving criminals and wingnuts into Clear Lake, CA) and now the political scene is completely boned here... and it's meth central, per capita anyway. The only thing that's improved that situation in a long, long time is MMJ, which has brought some greener money into the county.

Re:IANAL ...

[PopeRatzo]

And therein lays the rub. Bitcoin wants to establish itself as neither fish nor fowl, yet seeks to become both.

Banking laws historically have been among the most useful of all laws. We only have to look back to what was going on before there were comprehensive banking laws, and what happens when we try to have "reform" of the banking laws (the 2008 worldwide crash).

If you can't trust bankers to behave, why would anyone trust a bunch of skeevy ubercoin types?

Re: "line up in sacramento first"

[geekforhire]

You nailed it. Been here for over 40 years and have owned several businesses. Each year the state comes up with new taxes and restrictions that seem aimed at killing new businesses. Hell, even Hollywood doesnt do business here anymore. Some irony in that at least. If anyone wants to know why its so jacked up here just watch the video feed of the morons in Sacramento while they are in session and just passing laws with zero input or discussion. Their standard nice is to pass a law that won't hold up in court just so they can say they did something. And of course the legal challenges cost the taxpayers millions if anyone has the money to challenge them. Boutique legislation at its finest.

Re: "line up in sacramento first"

[drinkypoo]

Hell, even Hollywood doesnt do business here anymore. Some irony in that at least.

There's even more: the money is going from CA to .ca! It's not just leaving the state, it's leaving the country. Thanks, California, for helping to make the USA grate. California is fractally corrupt. From a distance, it looks corrupt. Then you get your nose really up into it, and it's corrupt all the way down.