A lot of libertarians and technology enthusiasts upset over the government have turned to Bitcoin (BTC) over the past couple of years. The virtual currency was seen as a way to use money without the Federal Reserve and other central banks and financial institutions. Essentially, it was an anonymous digital currency and the government couldn’t do anything about.
With bitcoin garnering mainstream attention each day and more businesses and central banks accepting the legitimacy of the digital currency, some bitcoin developers are now encouraging government involvement in the cryptocurrency market.
Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, spoke at an event held by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and argued the case that one way the government could be useful is to adopt consumer protection legislation, according to a report from The Hill.
“For me personally, I think things like consumer protection make sense,” Andresen said. “You should have some idea of who you’re interacting with if you’re trusting them with money or whatever. So you know, things like that make a lot of sense.”
Andresen did note, however, that there shouldn’t be any efforts to “control” bitcoins because a system like that would only work for “a government like North Korea” but not necessarily in democratic states, such as the United States.
The Treasury Department has laid out a series of rules for bitcoin exchanges, but the federal department as well as the Fed have held back on instituting excessive regulation – New York is one of the few in the U.S. to be working on bitcoin regulation.
The bitcoin leader realizes that advocates and promoters of the cryptocurrency haven’t been able to convince all governments in the world, but in the U.S. that has been a different story, according to Andresen.
“…at least here in the U.S., it feels like we’ve been successful in that message, that we really do think that the benefits of bitcoin are going to make the world a better place,” added Andrsen.
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