Bitcoin, escape from New York. After the US authorities have highlighted the risks associated with transactions of this type, companies that use virtual currency could leave the border.
Launched in 2009, bitcoin is a currency that exists only online. And the web is the place where it can be exchanged for real money or used to purchase goods and services. The problem is that the currency in question is not regulated by any government.
“If the executive and law enforcement agencies adopt reckless behavior, this could make the relationship with the bitcoin sector difficult”. The threat of Patrick Murck, of the Bitcoin Foundation, is not even too veiled.
Murck spoke before a US Senate committee on virtual currencies. Evoking the prejudices against the new bitcoin and the words of those who wanted to link the virtual currency to the risk of narcoterrorism, Muck said that "such totally irresponsible statements made by the authorities made it probable that companies that use bitcoin would flee to more welcoming countries ”.
Murk then called for an "improvement in the tone and tenor of the statements of government officials and bank executives". "Bitcoin is not a magical system for carrying out illicit transactions", he specified after the closure by the FBI of a site, Silk Road, where drugs could be bought and sold in virtual currency. “Bitcoin goes far beyond the Silk Road – he defended himself – The question is, if anything, whether the economy of virtual currency will be integrated with American financial services and will generate jobs and growth or if the bitcoin economy will emigrate, together jobs and innovation”.
Mythili Raman, representative of the Justice Department, pointed out that a "growth" of these currencies "will be accompanied by a growth in illegal transactions" and called for greater "vigilance".
In a letter to the Senate in September of this year, then Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that these innovations could "carry risk" but also be promising "in the long run" thanks to their "faster" payment system safe and effective".
The judgment of the Internal Security department is more severe, which in another letter underlined the "need for aggressive behavior" against virtual currencies.
Government officials reminded the Senate committee that another virtual currency, the Liberty Reserve, created in 2006, was the vehicle for the largest laundering operation in US history ($6 billion). The payment platform made it possible to send money without leaving a trace, no matter who or where. Ernie Allen, president of the organization against pedophilia International Center for Missing & Exploited Children, recalled that "child pornography was created and developed using virtual currency".
But not everyone looks at bitcoin as the devil. This summer, Germany recognized it as a currency. And so Berlin is now able to tax virtual currency transactions. For the record, there are around $1,5 billion worth of bitcoins in circulation in the world.
Like all news, bitcoins travel in the balance between enthusiasm and the inevitable rip-offs. E-currency on Wall Street is over $540, up more than 500% from early October. After having touched, still today, the 619 dollars.
