On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 5:49 PM, OrionWorks - Steven Vincent Johnson < [email protected]> wrote:
> “Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) just sent a letter to federal regulators > calling for a ban on the virtual currency Bitcoin. The senator says Bitcoin > attracts and enables criminals even as its value to the US economy is > "suspect, if not outright detrimental." The letter is nonbinding.” > One thing to keep an eye on in this connection is the fact that Manchin is on the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs [1], formerly the Committee on Banking and Currency. The earlier name probably gives a sense of the committee's focus, scope and priorities. I assume that once banks start to take cryptocurrencies seriously as a threat to the fees they take in for various transactions, there will be a lot of behind-the-scenes lobbying, if it has not already begun. The nature of lobbying is to enter into the backdoor in pursuit of some vested interest (e.g., maintaining a monopoly on transaction fees) and to come out of the front door in the guise of something that is in the general interest (e.g., reducing the traffic in illegal drugs). Eric [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Committee_on_Banking,_Housing,_and_Urban_Affairs
