bruce_fenton

In the hearings you said "The choice for the regulators is: permit money laundering on the one hand, or permit innovation on the other, and we’re always going to choose squelching the money laundering first. It’s not worth it to society to allow money laundering and all of the things it facilitates to persist in order to permit 1000 flowers to bloom on the innovation side.” To be honest this statement is rather concerning .....do you really mean this?

Surely you would not support the shut down Wall St. tomorrow to let those jobs move elsewhere, right? That would stomp 1000 flowers and also have a much bigger impact on reducing money laundering than Bitcoin.

It seems that part of what America is about is innovation and creation of jobs.

Couldn't you stop a great deal of money laundering tomorrow by simply regulating all the existing Wall Street banks out of existence?

The UN states that over a trillion dollars per year is laundered through mainstream financial systems....over 100 times the size of all Bitcoin in existence....is it worth so much effort to regulate a new fledging technology which could create jobs compared to focus on existing banking systems?

What do you think about Bitcoin from an economic and technical angle?

This isn't a question but a heartfelt comment. The whole world is watching. The downside of excessive regulation is significant and would see innovation stopped before it ever started. If you regulate to the point that it is too frightening or expensive for the next Zuckerberg, Gates or Brin to innovate then we will never know what we've missed out on. Please give us simplicity and clarity and let us have faith we will not lose property, reputation or freedom with legal violations....but behind that, please let us move forward on doing something which many of the best and brightest minds say could be transformative.

Thank you for the answer