Wednesday, October 5, 2011

BitCoin usage rejected because they "could" be used for illegal activity.

Today's topic strikes right at the heart of my greatest concern for the way law is approached in the USA today.   It's the idea that we should blind the poor monkey because he "might" see something evil.  Not only do some people want to outlaw "Hip/Hop" music, they want to outlaw i-pods because they could be used to listen to "Hip/Hop" music.   This type of thinking not only leads to a lack of personal freedom, but it also leads ultimately to a state of economic servitude as well.  Unfortunately, people think like this in all sorts of situations.

I've been a big fan of a website that is a competitor of eBay.  I love the site, and I've plugged them here many times.  Alas, it has become apparent to me that the owners of that site think we should blind the monkey lest it see any evil.  Here is a email I got from the site administrator yesterday:

Title: 3 Foot Computer Power Cord ... Bitcoins Accepted

All of your items have been suspended due to the fact we do not allow Bitcoins as a form of payment on the site nor do we allow them to be sold. You will need to edit those items in order to relist them on the site.

You may relist the item only after the above items have been corrected. Any attempts to relist this item without making the above corrections may result in Webstore account suspension.

I'm always careful to peruse 'terms of service' whenever I open a new account with anyone, so I found the above note a bit curious.  They don't have any written policy against BitCoin anywhere that I could find.  So, I wrote them back:


Message:
Ok, I will remove references to BitCoin in all my postings. Can you give me any information about when this policy was enacted, or why?

To which they replied:


Message:
Hello James,

It was enacted shortly after Bitcoins became available. After researching this the owners of the site were not comfortable with them due to their use on the black-market and for the ease of use for illegal activity. Because of this we have banned them from the site. We do realize that some people may use them for legitimate purposes such as yourself, but unfortunately the risk was too great for us to feel comfortable allowing them on the site.

We appreciate your cooperation and understanding.

Best Regards,

########
Webstore Staff

 So, there you have it, their reason for not allowing BitCoin is because bitcoins could be used for illegal activity.  I don't quite follow the logic since any currency could be used for illegal activity.  Really, I think there are other reasons that they don't want to allow BitCoin, but still, it's this false logic they are trying to sell to justify their decision that I have an issue with.

That same logic is used by our politicians to push a lot of bad laws on us that are not in our best interest.  The laws are written to favor large corporations and wealthy individuals, and this false logic is used to get the people to accept it.   In Texas for example, it is illegal for an individual to own most basic chemistry glassware.  The reason is because the glassware "could" be used to brew illegal substances.  People accept the laws because very few care about having an awesome chemistry set in their garage, and drugs are really bad.

Well, I care.  As your resident money hustler, I've been racking my brain to figure out how to purify scrap gold without using any equipment or chemicals that are considered to be "the monkey's eyes" ... the other stuff that's been made illegal along with the drugs that the government wants to outlaw.  There are all kinds of cool businesses that people could start in their backyards if it weren't for so many regulations against accessory items.   There is one reason people don't have jobs, and that's because life is over regulated in the USA.   Try to see this connection next time you want to vote for a noise ordinance in your neighborhood.   Regulations kill jobs.   Do you want the right to work and buy food, or starve in peace and quiet?

The effect of a lot of regulatory laws, and financial policy, is to monopolize the labor force (us) for large corporations.  People generally don't care when times are good.  But, when times are bad, the myriad of regulations make life more difficult for regular people, and harder for them to find alternative ways to make a living.  We need more economic freedom.  One step in the right direction is to stop outlawing things like Bitcoin that are merely associated with some illegal activity.

Here's my take on this in video:

 Let me know if you all like the catchy tune at the beginning ... I played that myself.
For more information on BitCoin, please see my previous post:  http://mrmoneyhustler.blogspot.com/2011/06/future-of-banking-finance-and-monetary.html