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Several Small Countries and Territories Have Passed Laws, or Have Legislation in the Works, To Make Themselves More Welcoming To Cryptocurrency Companies (nytimes.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

The race is on to become the go-to destination for cryptocurrency companies that are looking for shelter from regulatory uncertainty in the United States and Asia, the New York Times reports. From the report: In Malta, the government passed three laws on July 4 so companies can easily issue new cryptocurrencies and trade existing ones. In Bermuda this year, the legislature passed a law that lets start-ups doing initial coin offerings apply to the minister of finance for speedy approval. "We are 65,000 people, and 20 square miles, but we have a very advanced economy," the premier of Bermuda, E. David Burt, said in an interview at a cryptocurrency conference in May in New York, where he was trying to pitch companies on the island's charms. "We want to position Bermuda as the incubator for this industry."

The competition for cryptocurrency companies is part of a broader rush by governments to figure out how to approach a new industry that took on outsize prominence over the last year. Becoming a crypto center has many potential upsides, including jobs and tax revenue. But the drive to be a crypto nexus also comes with significant risk. Hackings and scams have followed the industry everywhere it has gone. They have been aided by the underlying technology introduced by Bitcoin, known as the blockchain, which was built to make it possible to send money without requiring approval from government agencies or existing financial institutions.

48 comments

  1. Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We are 65,000 people, and 20 square miles, but we have a very advanced economy

    And by advanced economy, we mean most of their money comes from offshore baking and generally facilitating people hiding money from governments.

    Sounds like Bermuda is just trying trying to get a bigger slice of the shady-money pie.

    1. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We are 65,000 people, and 20 square miles, but we have a very advanced economy

      And by advanced economy, we mean most of their money comes from offshore baking and generally facilitating people hiding money from governments.

      Sounds like Bermuda is just trying trying to get a bigger slice of the shady-money pie.

      To be fair they are just trying to open up to the whales of cryptocurrency: criminal groups, tax evaders, and repressive state regimes. You know, their usual customers. Every bank likes to diversify their services.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 3, Funny

      And by advanced economy, we mean most of their money comes from offshore baking

      They must really suck at that. I mean I can find that other island baked goods - King's Hawaiian - everywhere, but those Bermuda baked goods are practically impossible to find!

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    3. Re: Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because it is made from a grass generally considered a weed.

    4. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Miners probably wouldn't be welcomed, on the other hand. There can't be much inexpensive power in a place like Bermuda without tapping on the currents of the ocean, Bond villain style.

    5. Re: Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Repressive state regimes: with more and more countries trying to track every payment by making it difficult to use task cash and placing ridiculous taxes on the middle class to benefit the rich, pretty much most å' tries qualify as Repressive.

    6. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Maybe they will only allow the first three well-known crypto-currencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin.

      They could call it the "Bermuda Trian..." - oh wait.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    7. Re: Advanced == offshore banking ... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      What do you mean? African or European weed?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    8. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Not all crypto-currencies are proof-of-work.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    9. Re: Advanced == offshore banking ... by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      What do you mean? African or European weed?

      They must have a pretty good textile industry if they can turn weeds into fiber that can be used to make those incredibly stylish and fashionable shorts.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    10. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Khyber · · Score: 1

      They're ALL still outright inefficient wastes of energy.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    11. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Videogames waste a lot more energy than proof-of-stake crypto-currencies.
      I'd even go so far as saying that even vending machines waste more energy than proof-of-stake crypto-currencies.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    12. Re: Advanced == offshore banking ... by denis.goddard · · Score: 1

      What is âshady moneyâ(TM)? Isnâ(TM)t that just money that you or others earn or spend, that isnâ(TM)t monitored, approved, and taxes by people who did not earn it and have no business involving themselves in your personal transactions?

    13. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Khyber · · Score: 1

      Most vending machines now days use almost nil power except for the LED lighting, which is again almost nil power. A kilowatt hour consumed every four days or so. I had one plugged into my kill a watt while repairing it for the liquor store across the street. Doing nothing, it sits about 10W consumed hourly. Vending something, that jumps up to 20W but that would only work if it were constantly activated for an entire hour, so it's really just a quick blip.

      Videogames waste more energy than POS crypto? Arcades have been dying left and right, I'm guessing you don't leave your keyboard to find good entertainment that often. To boot, newer arcade games that are released are using more efficient processes and such, and thus use far less power (power savings is a huge marketing thing for places like Chuck E Cheeses and other energy-sucking entertainment places.)

      Most popular videogames by active user count will run on laptops. doubt the energy waste is happening there. Maybe you're still thinking of Sega Game Gear days, but who the fuck even has one of those in operation in this day and age?

      ANY distributed database sucks up a ton of power, especially as each additional node is created and linked and verified by every other node (or a simple majority) on the network. People like you never bothered learning the lesson we learned in the 70s regarding this exact thing. Requirements begin jumping rapidly, bandwidth, energy power, processing power, and it jumps DRAMATICALLY at scale. Logarithmic power sort of dramatic, if you took such math.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    14. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "And by advanced economy, we mean most of their money comes from offshore baking and generally facilitating people hiding money from governments."

      In otherwords, the Federal Reserve. Privately owned with questionable reserves.

    15. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Arcades? Laptops? Game Gear?

      Dude, look up how much power the latest Xbox and Playstation consoles take.

    16. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Khyber · · Score: 1

      PS4 barely 100 watts hourly at full throttle, suspend mode 10 watts hourly (with a game on in background) and 70 watts hourly idling at main screen. My desktop eats more than all that combined just sitting idle. Xbox One uses less (but it is a lower-powered system.)

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    17. Re: Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Us 1%ers have to hedge against the failure of us gov't to disarm it's population. Please..dont interfere with expatriating ill-gotten gains...sheeple might wake up and cause serious trouble for us.

    18. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are 65,000 people, and 20 square miles, but we have a very advanced economy

      And by advanced economy, we mean most of their money comes from offshore baking and generally facilitating people hiding money from governments.

      Sounds like Bermuda is just trying trying to get a bigger slice of the shady-money pie.

      To be fair they are just trying to open up to the whales of cryptocurrency: criminal groups, tax evaders, and repressive state regimes. You know, their usual customers. Every bank likes to diversify their services.

      What if I'm evading the taxes imposed on me by a repressive state regime?

    19. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're ALL still outright inefficient wastes of energy.

      More time and energy is wasted enforcing AML legislation, gathering ID, reporting suspicious activity, and generally hijacking the financial system for mass surveillance. If the adoption of cryptocurrencies renders AML unenforcable then the event will yield a net gain in efficiency.

      The popularity of a system which pisses away vast amounts of energy is a beautiful testament to how untrustworthy humans are.

    20. Re:Advanced == offshore banking ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have a shitty desktop.

  2. why not? by ole_timer · · Score: 1

    traditional banks are scrambling...

    --
    nothing to see here - move along
    1. Re:why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol sure

  3. ELBONIA! by Zorro · · Score: 0

    Cryptocurrency meshes well with the Elbonian currency called the Eye-Crud!

  4. Just what we need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More support for Pedo-Pesos~!

  5. In Soviet Russia, establishment seeks you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kind of funny in a way. A currency that was originally meant to getting away from the establishment, is now being smothered by the establishment.

  6. It's over luddites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bitcoin has won.

    1. Re:It's over luddites by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      If Bitcoin won, then by association Litecoin and Dogecoin also won!

      Dogecoin to the moon!

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:It's over luddites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what'd they win? a trump?

  7. and the local cops can force bribes! Drugs by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    and the local cops can force bribes! You know that bitcoin deals with Drugs and if you don't give me $$$ I can take you in where you can sit in jail for 1-2 years before you even get to see the court room.

    1. Re:and the local cops can force bribes! Drugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Running drugs through Bermuda would be an absolute waste of time, especially with so many other islands with looser law enforcement.

    2. Re:and the local cops can force bribes! Drugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and the local cops can force bribes! You know that bitcoin deals with Drugs and if you don't give me $$$ I can take you in where you can sit in jail for 1-2 years before you even get to see the court room.

      This scenario isn't too likely and, were it to become commonplace, there are many different ways the prepared bitcoiner could kill the cop. Those who strive for freedom must be willing to kill their oppressors.

  8. Cryptonomicon by AlanObject · · Score: 1

    Neal Stephenson seems to have had a vision into this last century

    First published 1999

    1. Re:Cryptonomicon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was more about online privacy than cryptocurrency. The Baroque Cycle was more about the formation of centralized banking and the desire to escape the issues created by non-central currencies. Though honestly I'd bet USDs to donuts his next novel will be entirely about cryptocurrency.

  9. WELL I'M CONVINCED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Quick Mod-Whores, tell me where can I invest all my monies in this amazing bitcoin revolution?!?

    Fucking whores.

  10. it is eroding the power of the US PetroDollar by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    how much in debt is the USA? and how much deficit spending keeps getting piled on the debt every year? that debt has basically turned the USA and its massive military-industrial complex in to the slaves of the global banking cartel, so this will only invite more wars for the banking cartel since they want to control all the worlds money with a central bank in every nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:it is eroding the power of the US PetroDollar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how much in debt is the USA? and how much deficit spending keeps getting piled on the debt every year? that debt has basically turned the USA and its massive military-industrial complex in to the slaves of the global banking cartel, so this will only invite more wars for the banking cartel since they want to control all the worlds money with a central bank in every nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      I think it's quite inaccurate to refer to the USA or the military-industrial complex as slaves. It's true, there is a lot of jockeying for position among the elites of the world given the quickly evolving mechanisms of data gathering and oppression, but the more acute case of domination is by the elites (taken as a whole) over the masses (taken as a whole). Those that murder thousands with their bombing, oppress millions with their regulation, and enslave billions with their taxation are the true terrorists, the true criminals, the true predators of mankind.

    2. Re:it is eroding the power of the US PetroDollar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how much in debt is the USA? and how much deficit spending keeps getting piled on the debt every year? that debt has basically turned the USA and its massive military-industrial complex in to the slaves of the global banking cartel, so this will only invite more wars for the banking cartel since they want to control all the worlds money with a central bank in every nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Ah, another one of those Americans that despises Jews, but literally wants to have sex with the apartheid nation of Israel.

      So, what's the end-game for this shit exactly?

  11. Berrmuda banking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Bermuda Triangle was an area where many planes went missing, now it's where money disappears.

  12. APKoin most welcoming cryptocurrency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

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  13. pinballs still a bit of power to drive them! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    pinballs still a bit of power to drive them!

    1. Re:pinballs still a bit of power to drive them! by Khyber · · Score: 1

      Nope. I have a Pinball Machine manufactured 2010, plugged in and set to Attract Mode it eats 40W hourly. In actual play, surprisingly, it starts lower (not as many lights lit up until deep in gameplay.)

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    2. Re:pinballs still a bit of power to drive them! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      the newer ones and older ones with leds installed do use less.

  14. Tax heavens by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    In other words, tax heavens make sure they maintain their lead.