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0 pointsusaphp12y ago0 comments

> "the official currency of Russian Federation is rouble, Issue (introduction) of other currencies and currency surrogates is prohibited

How is that different from any other country? Its a generic law that every other country has, you can't start spreading a new currency in United States as well because "official currency of United States is US Dollar".

We all know what happened to a "Liberty Dollar" in United States [1]:

In 2006 the U.S. Mint issued a press release stating that prosecutors at the Justice Department had determined that using Liberty Dollars as circulating money is a federal crime. The press release also stated that the "Liberty Dollars" are meant to compete with the circulating coinage (currency) of the United States and such competition consequently is a criminal act.[2]

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Dollar#Federal_Governme...

[2]: http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=p...

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7 comments · 3 top-level

ripter12y ago· 3 in thread

I thought you could spread a new currency in the US, but no one has to accept anything other than the official US currency. Which was the reason why things like tokens and bitcoins can exist.

oillio12y ago

You cannot make your currency resemble official US currency in any way that would confuse a normal citizen. This has been interpreted rather broadly. The Secret Service has shut down a number of private currencies due to this rule, including silver/gold backed paper money and coins, Liberty Dollar, eGold, etc. I think they shut down the guy that was putting a bitcoin sticker on gold coins as well.

The reason they have not shut down Bitcoin is that they do not consider it a currency. It isn't money, it is a commodity at best.

baddox12y ago

That would be a more reasonable law, but that is not the law.

nullc12y ago

Except it is the law. Liberty dollars were intentionally similar in design with US currency— any random joe would confuse them. Literature from their maker encouraged (with indirect language) people to pass them off as US dollars and they were priced to make it profitable to do so (E.g. $8 in melt value silver, sold to you for $15 with a "$20" stamped on the front). (See: http://truthalliance.net/Portals/0/Archive/images/news/2012/... plus there are a whole _additional_ set of laws covering the minting of coins of precious metal in the US which aren't relevant for Bitcoin discussions).

The counterfeiting charges in the Liberty dollar case basically went uncontested.

To do otherwise rapidly runs into a mess of regulating every single private interaction people have.

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waterlesscloud12y ago· 1 in thread

You're ignoring the relevant part that is quite different from how most countries have thus far ruled on bitcoin-

"Anonymous payment systems and cryptocurrencies, including the most popular - Bitcoin, are currency surrogates and can't be used by physical persons and corporations."

taivare12y ago

All your Bitcoins are's belongs to us !

VladRussian212y ago

the difference is that Eric Holder hasn't yet made a determination that Bitcoin is a currency and thus violates the law (like they did to Liberty Dollar, etc...)

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