UK.gov mulls what to do about digital currencies

FFS

You can't regulate all crypto-currencies. If you crippled Bitcoin, Litecoin would take over, then dogecoin ... etc. And as with a lot of new regulation, you're only going to end up criminalising otherwise honest people; said drug dealers and terrorists are already breaking existing laws, so adding 'using unregistered crypto-currency' to the rap sheet isn't going to worry them too much.

Around £60m worth are circulating

Does this mean that the EU paymasters will be increasing their demand, or has it already been included in estimates of the hidden economy?

Can you tax regulate virtual money?

yes, yes, yes!

think of the terrorists! you know, that having made billions through peddling stolen movies and mp3, they have moved on to virtual currencies?! We have got to act NOW!!!

p.s. we want the finger in the pie too!

I can haz refund?

Yeah because the regulation of traditional "physical" currencies is ever so effective in stopping organised crimnals, terrierits and pedifiles. Noone has ever committed massive scale fraud or other financial crimes since regulation of the financial services industry has been around either.

I presume I can claim a refund for someone deciding to waste my tax money on this inquest/consultation/quango or whatever these gatherings of chubby UKgov blazer-wearing eunuchs are called these days?

I despair at the people who make these decisions. I despair even more at the people who just nod their heads in total gormless agreement.

You might as well try to regulate BitTorrent, or cash-in-hand transactions.

Like any technological asset, Bitcoin will succeed or fail of its own accord, and there's nothing any government can (or should try to) do about it.

The fact the government have nothing to do with it is one of the attractive things about it to many.

The lack of incompetent handling, the fact its value is linked to a supply NOT in the hands of management style bureaucrats, the fact the government appear not to like it much, all are considered pluses by the discerning technophile, and increasingly, by Joe and Josephine Public who are just beginning to awaken to the fact that the government is acting as if it views THEM as the enemy

Isn't unregulatability part of the point?

One of the factions advocating bitcoin are the crypto-anarchists, who like it largely because it is very difficult to regulate on a technological level. You don't need banks. No payment processor agencies. Trivial to hide, trivial to transmit, and it allows for creating disposable wallets at such a rate as to render money laundering very easy indeed.

Horsesh*t

Chancellor George Osborne said: "I want the UK to be the world leader in financial technology. That will bring jobs here and give new services to British customers."

Cryptocurrency is global - how would George supporting it bring jobs here when there are cheaper places and the stuff is doomed to failure anyway? Let's hope the consultancy people advise him similarly, or he is voted out before he can do any damage.