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CFPB Proposed Rules Relating to Prepaid Accounts Comment

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may apply rules meant for prepaid products to digital currency businesses. We recommend against it. 

On December 23, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a proposed rulemaking relating to prepaid products that briefly noted that some of its requirements may apply to virtual currency products. While...

The New York BitLicense and California’s Digital Currency Bill – A Comparison

Both approaches have their strengths but neither is perfect.

Last Monday, I testified before the California Assembly’s Banking and Finance Committee about the innovative potential of cryptocurrencies. And this coming Friday, we will be filing comments on the revised draft of...

Coin Center comments on CFPB proposal to regulate digital currencies

More study is needed before sweeping regulations are promulgated.

Today Coin Center filed a public interest comment in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent notice of proposed rulemaking relating to prepaid products. While this proposal is focused primarily on...

The UK plan for Bitcoin is a step in the right direction

We are pleased to see such a measured and reasonable response from a government.

As recently as two years ago there was an open question about how governments would react to Bitcoin. Some observers warned of a coming backlash from governments attempting to quash cryptocurrency. How...

Testimony before California State Assembly

The California State Assembly’s Banking & Finance Committee invited Jerry Brito along with other experts and industry leaders to give an overview of Bitcoin technology and answer questions from policymakers. ...

Bitcoin: Our Best Tool for Privacy and Identity on the Internet

Cryptocurrencies can improve security and grant users more granular control over when and how they choose to identify themselves. Here's how. 

Financial privacy is an umbrella term for both data security and privacy. We can think of security as the ability to hide information from all comers and privacy, following Nissenbaum’s...

How Bitcoin Will Change International Bank Payments

Correspondent banking can be made cheaper and faster using the type of peer-to-peer technology underlying Bitcoin.

Peer-to-peer technologies that allow parties to bypass intermediaries are bringing change, and competition, to a wide variety of industries—and banking is no exception. New companies like TransferWise and CurrencyFair, for...

Bitcoin May Be What Gets Us Real Net Neutrality

The recent net neutrality victory at the FCC is not a silver bullet. This article originally appeared in WIRED.

The recent neutrality victory at the FCC is not a silver bullet. We can expect costly court challenges, complicated enforcement, and the risks that come with entrusting a large government...

Apple Pay isn’t enough to fix a broken payment system

High levels of fraud show us that slick apps are only as good as the payment system they rely on.

The Wall Street Journal has taken note of an alarming level of fraud in Apple Pay transactions: [I]t’s not ‘an anomaly’ to see fraud accounting for about 6% of Apple Pay transactions,...

Report: Bitcoin enables unprecedented financial privacy and security

Traditional electronic payments require that we give too much access to our personal information.

The past year was frightening for consumers and retailers alike. Data breaches at major companies led to huge caches of personally identifying information becoming available to malicious actors. Breaches can...