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Japan Considers Treating Bitcoin As Conventional Currency (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the it's-real-money-already dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Regulators in Japan are considering officially recognizing bitcoins and other digital currencies as valid methods of payment. The Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) is in the process of deciding whether to make legislative revisions to regulation that currently regards virtual currencies as objects rather than traditional forms of payment. Under the new proposal, consumers will be able to purchase goods and services using bitcoin and other digital currencies, and also use them as an alternative to legal tender through purchases or trades. The new definition will be submitted during the current session of the Diet, Japan's legislature, which concludes on 1st June this year.

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Wasn't the whole point of digital currencies... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wasn't the whole point of digital currencies to avoid the need for a government to bless (and therefore control) a particularly unit of money?

    >> consumers will be able to purchase goods and services using bitcoin and other digital currencies

    I believe this is already possible - no government blessing necessary, thank you.

    1. Re:Wasn't the whole point of digital currencies... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wasn't the whole point of digital currencies to avoid the need for a government to bless (and therefore control) a particularly unit of money?

      But, seriously, whoever believed that it would be magically exempted from government attention?

      I always thought the whole "yarg, it's digital therefore free from teh government" to be ridiculous. Sure, smear yourself in unicorn poop, it has magical properties.

      There was simply never going to be a scenario in which governments went "well, dammit, it's digital and they say it's exempt from us, guess there's nothing we can do".

      Anybody who believed that was delusional.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Wasn't the whole point of digital currencies... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >> like gold, makes a terrible currency

      You lost me there. For most of recorded history, gold has made a terrific currency - the kind you can power regional empires on.

    3. Re:Wasn't the whole point of digital currencies... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >> try buying a Snickers bar with gold buillon

      Well that's a bad example, since I'm pretty sure I could walk out of my office and find dozens of people who would trade any amount of bullion for a single Snickers bar. A better example would be "try to buy something from Amazon with bullion"...but the statement "try to buy something from Amazon with crumpled dollar bills" would be as equally ludicrous.

      Are we at least agreed that only digital currencies (whether Bitcoin or dollars) are the only real/complete currencies today (due to fungibility)?

    4. Re:Wasn't the whole point of digital currencies... by slashping · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Bitcoin fixes the biggest problem with gold: gold is hard to divide into smaller bits, and hard to make sure it's real and the correct amount.