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Why bother, when they can just use existing laws? Classify bitcoin users as banks, then fine them for violating existing transaction-reporting laws. Tax violations. I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of regulations that someone can be charged with.
Not reporting income or profit. Not reporting what you paid to other people that should be counted as their income, and so on. The US seems especially hostile to this sort of thing, what with the number of post-9/11 financial regulations added. I daresay they won't be happy that anyone can just become their own bank and not fill out any paperwork at all... let alone the relative impossibility of remotely freezing someone's account or seizing their assets, without first involving every third party they might trade with.
I expect that some clever lawyering and accountancy will be necessary to protect bitcoin users from legal harassment in the future, and that the only thing protecting them now is the relatively low-key nature of the stuff. But it's only a matter of time until the media begin the blitz to portray Bitcoin as a tool of terrorists, druggies, black-hat hackers, gunrunners, money launderers, and whoever else will scare their viewers via guilt-by-association. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention pornographers, and by extension, human traffickers and child molesters. That'll be enough to get political support for a crackdown, I imagine.
IANAL but I think that a court might not look kindly on an argument that turns every person who is using something into a bank. The decentralized nature undermines that argument.
As to reporting, there's no reason in principle that bitcoin users can't report the money they owe for taxes and the like. More of a problem if you pay an anonymous individual for some service, but that's less of an issue if you ar... (read more)