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“My Taxes Pay Regulators, so I Expect Them to Treat Me With Respect”

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Interview with Aaron Greenspan, Harvard graduate, original creator of “The Facebook,” payments innovator, and autodidact non-lawyer.  (PART THREE)

Aaron was generous both in his time and in his responses, which led me to split the interview into three parts:  In PART ONE: REGULATION AND INNOVATION IN THE UNITED STATES, Aaron talks about United States money transmitters laws and identifies, with unusual clarity and depth, what he believes is wrong with them.

In PART TWO: BITCOIN, COMMUNISM AND THE SURVEILLANCE STATE, Aaron lays out his controversial point of view on Bitcoin.

Read on for PART THREE: A YOUNG FINTECH ENTERPRENEUR’S DAY OF RECKONING, the final and most controversial one, in which Aaron has no qualms about naming and shaming some of the individuals that have not “treated him with respect.”  Again, here is a brief intro on Aaron, for the benefit of those who haven’t read the previous posts.

Having been a teen tech entrepreneur, during college at Harvard in 2003 Aaron created the predecessor to Facebook, Inc., which also happened to be called “The Facebook.”  In 2009, he entered into a settlement Continue reading →

2014-10-01 Crypto-Timeline

Here is a log with relevant legal, regulatory, law enforcement and business risk milestones in the race of crypto-currencies to maturity with links to trusted sources.

September was also a very quiet month.  The number of crypto-events reached a 14-month low.

The  Key SEPTEMBER 2014 Crypto-Events were:

• 9/11/14 – Bank of England: Bitcoin could disrupt UK monetary policy
• 9/11/14 – Spain cracks down on bitcoin gambling loopholes
• 9/16/14 – Bangladesh Central Bank: cryptocurrency use is a ‘punishable offense’
• 9/21/14 – Spain considering Bitcoin as an electronic payment system
• 9/22/14 – Belgian tax body: Bitcoin trades not subject to VAT
• 9/23/14 – US government shuts down embattled mining firm Butterfly Labs
• 9/24/14 – Liberty Reserve IT manager pleads guilty to money laundering charges
• 9/26/14 – Swedish Central Bank research: bitcoin hasn’t affected the economy

Continue reading →