One distinction it may be useful to make is whether the customer is simply a bitcoin holder versus being a bitcoin exchange. Many of the regulatory actions to date have involved bitcoin exchanges that are not registered as MSBs.

You can tell by whether or not your customer is suffering from a "denial of service" attack I think I will stick with a currency that I can actually withdraw from a bank and the value of which does not fluctuate by 50% in any given week.

^ Crazy talk Randy.

If you are following Bitcoins, this may be of some assistance.

Bitcoin Tracker

By the way, this is a good site. You might want to consider signing up for the newsletter.

Here is an interesting article about Bitcoins and liability.

Bitcoins and Liability

Interesting thread and interesting comments especially from my perspective- I went to work for a company back in 1999ish and I remember the old school banking crowd saying much of the same type of things about us that are now being said about bitcoin.

As I was building the investigations and fraud review teams for PayPal, I’d go to conferences and hear the same things that I now hear about bitcoin. I loved every moment at PayPal- I worked with the best and brightest, I was blessed to have 23 of the smartest and best people I have ever met, working for me and they honestly felt more like my family. I travelled the globe many, many times over- as we built our operations and product. We started the company with maybe 15 people and the financial industry, regulators and even law enforcement hated us. I think we turned that around really well.

We beat down 72 competitors to include Citi’s well-funded C2It product, we got a handle on fraud and built ground breaking investigative and analytics programs and processes.

I am now doing the same thing for what I know will be THE bitcoin company in this country. After all they have me 

Anyhow, folks I just hope you all give bitcoin a chance. I know change and technology is scary to some folks but it really is going to be big. It already is in fact. It is exciting and it will be a great journey.

It’s good to think outside the box and when you do that and get with a great start up the equity you get in the company is INCREDIBLE. So think about it.

Wish us luck

I'll take FDIC insurance over Mt. Gox's insurance any-day. I think that pretty much says it all. There are no controls and while there may be a future for digital currency, the creation of such an animal in the private industry is probably not going to work. It's like trading tulip bulbs in the 1600's. People are not using Bitcoin as currency, they are using it for speculation and a huge amount are used to move funds in the black market, therefor any quoted price of the currency does not reflect reality.

The Bitcoin operators said they are working to "re-establish the trust squandered" by the failings of Mt. Gox, which should not be considered a reflection of the value of Bitcoin or the digital currency industry.

If one of the first and most trusted Bitcoin Co. can not be used as a reflection of the industry, what should be used?

and the website is just shut down over night....

CNN - http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/25/technology/security/mtgox-bitcoin/

As I said to a colleague this morning "One botnet stole virtual currency generated by another botnet. Color me astonished."

What a pity...

I think most people would take FDIC over Mt Gox's insurance but that isn't the issue is it? Bitcoin isn't a bank account and some folks who have bank accounts also trade on the stock market. Mt Gox has been pathetic for a long time and anyone who dealt with a company that had a 5 million dollar seizure by the feds is a fool.

Same with the folks who saw Bernie Madoff's projections for growth as anything but a fairy tale.

Bitcoin is right now full of two bit players that don't get the idea that you cannot thrive as a business with a sophomoric idea that it is anonymous, cool and let's be different than others.

However, the companies out there that are using bitcoin wisely and are accepted by many merchants because it reduces or even negates charge back. Anyhow it isn't a bank doesn't pretend to be one and doesn't make any promises.

Regulators need to step up and stop sitting on the sidelines. There is a ton of value in the product and there are several companies that are tightly and well run.

I'd put the integrity levels of a few of these start ups against any of the big banks who have acted like jackals over the last 40 yrs. Pick a shenanigan that a FI can get involved with an one of our white pillared banks has done it.

So while FDIC might be a great comfort- I personally trust a core group of these btc companies more than I do some of the banks we all know and love.

I guess like many things in life, we'll need to see what btc looks like 5 yrs from now. It may be scorned and laughed at or it may thrive.

http://nypost.com/2014/02/15/welcome-to-21st-century-ponzi-scheme-bitcoin/

As a digital delivery system, perhaps bitcoin can be saved. But a currency built by hackers and anonymous code-writing anarchists offers a pretty weak alternative to cash, credit cards or PayPal.

Who declared them the most trusted btc company? After the 5 million dollar seizure and painful stories about them last year Not sure how someone could say that.

That is as goofy as calling JP Morgan Chase the most trusted which is a "whale" of an idea. Or saying Deutsche doesn't rig rates.

The interesting thing is when you look at Mt Gox compared to the global rate rigging that many banks were involved in it is teeny tiny.

Look at Citi- if I had a bitcoin for every time I have seen the "word" Citi and fine in the same article- I'd almost be able to buy a small house here in Nor Cal.

Fact is the banking community is not without faults. And just like the banking community there are some btc companies that are bad news. Biggest difference is there are fewer bad btc companies and the money they squander is far less.

I do not know who is trusted and who is not just going by articles
of which one below:

Under Karpeles' leadership, Mt. Gox became a trusted entity in the world of Bitcoin.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/bitcoin-mystery-mt-gox

But if you wish to believe that the one that you pick from this totally un-regulated industry is the correct one go right ahead.

Granted not as recent but MUCH juicier-

Another Banking Scandal

I'll agree with the PayPal bit the rest not so much-

Credit cards and hackers? As long as Visa and MC don't themselves lose money, who cares right?

How many banks have hired former black hats to protect their infrastructure? I know more than a few.

Ultimately- we'll have to see how this all shakes out. Could be terrible could be glorious.

Having said that- our biz dev guys don't make out bound calls because they are too busy hosting meetings with folks that you may be surprised to see walk through our door.

Might even be representatives of your employers. There are companies in btc that have significant support.

I am obviously not much of a PR guy- my job is to build them a program that is top notch and I am very fortunate to have a team of investigators, engineers and infosec folks that are far smarter than I will ever hope to be- with that said you good people keep warm- have a great day.

With all the banking scandals posted how much money has the bank customer lost?

ZERO

IF there is some regulation of the Bitcoin and some type of FDIC style insurance then we can compare apples and apples.

How Mt.Gox went down - CNN

"Bitcoin skeptics say the digital currency is doomed. They're wrong. But the failure of Mt.Gox shows the agony of an evolving industry without any government oversight and led by tech entrepreneurs with zero financial experience."

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/25/technology/security/bitcoin-mtgox/

Thought some of you might be interested in this article on doing business in Bitcoins

Doing Business With Bitcoins

Washington Post

another one

http://www.dw.de/canada-bitcoin-bank-flexcoin-shuts-after-hacker-heist/a-17476789

Overstock.com accepts Bitcoin. My family doctor accepts Bitcoin. Big publically traded companies and your mom-and-pop small businesses. The financial incentive for merchants to accept Bitcoin is certainly there (less than 1% fee on transaction and NO chargeback fears, versus 2-3% with Visa/MC/Amex). And I am keenly interested in watching innovation in the US with regards to our payment systems, which are slow, costly and inefficient. I do see the early day parallels to PayPal. I would rather educate myself and take a watch and see approach than be an alarmist. And if Bitcoin fails, a new contender will rise from the ashes. I think we are poised to see big changes with regards to payments coming from outside our industry, because we can't seem to innovate within the industry. Which makes me more than a little sad.

While I agree overall, some of that innovation can only come from areas that are not as heavily-regulated as ours. Can you imagine the regulatory agencies slamming the [censored] out of a bank that tried to implement something like bitcoin? Already the Japanese authorities are ready to regulate that industry and don't want banks to participate in it.