While there are countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia showing a ton of support towards Bitcoin integration, there are also certain regions which seem to be against it. One example is New York, where recent legislative framework requires all bitcoin-related business to pay the sum of $5,000 for what’s known as a Bitlicense.
In response to this abusive law, two of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world have decided to halt their services instead of complying with the state’s newly imposed laws. You may be thinking that $5,000 isn’t a lot of money for these companies and you are right. However, this is more of a protest move, as both Kraken and Bitfinex are strongly against laws imposed upon digital currencies. Regardless of this, the sum might still turn out to be a lot for start-up bitcoin-companies; therefore action should be taken against this framework.
In a press release, Kraken said: “While we’re sure that the protection from New York law enforcement is valuable, it comes at a price that exceeds the market opportunity of servicing New York residents”. CoinDesk also went ahead and reported that a couple of well-capitalized Bitcoin exchanges such as itBit, Bitstamp and Gemini will opt for the BitLicense, whereas smaller businesses have stated that they will halt their efforts of reaching customers over in New York.
What are your personal thoughts on the oppressive anti-bitcoin measures that New York is adopting? What if other states started following this negative example? Will Bitcoin companies stand down and let themselves be controlled by the government? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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