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A Tuesday hearing about the anonymous digital currency bitcoin turned into a forum on the shortcomings of the traditional banking system.
The hearing was called by New York State’s top financial regulator, Benjamin M. Lawsky, which provided five bitcoin advocates the opportunity to discuss the advantages of bitcoin
“Solutions don’t really come from the current industry,” said Cameron Winklevoss, who, with his twin brother, Tyler, has invested in Bitcoin companies.
Then came the criticisms of the banking sector. Winklevoss noted that it often takes three days to make wire transfers through a traditional bank.
The meeting does come at a precarious time in the digital currency’s short life span. Just this week, an executive from one of the leading bitcoin exchanges, BitInstant, was arrested at JFK Airport and charged with money laundering. Charlie Shem was released Tuesday on $1 million bond. He is accused of helping to facilitate money transfers with the controversial website Silkroad.com for which authorities claim deals in the sale of illicit narcotics and gun trafficking.
“We need to think internally about how we can be a more modern, digital regulator,” he said. Mr. Lawsky has proposed the creation of a BitLicense for virtual currency firms, but the concept rarely came up on Tuesday.
The average price of bitcoin on all exchanges was 819.84 USD as of 6 pm EDT Tuesday evening. That is up 771.35 USD from 24 hours previous.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
