US companies offer customers the possibility of paying in Bitcoins and other virtual currencies but, since the currency is not regulated by the government, the paying process goods acquisition is subject to a series of rules applicable throughout the 50 states.
The task force was hoping for a clearer definition of which operators needed to be regulated and which ones did not.
David Cotney, head the new Emerging Payments Task Force, a group of nine members of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, stated that the body also takes into account additional payment methods and technologies, such as mobile phone payments, and PayPal, an online money transfer service.
In January 2014, Task force member Benjamin Lawksy, the New York Superintendent of Financial Services, said his department was working on a BitLicense. California is another state that has shown interest.
In 2013, the Department of the Treasurys Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) classified administrators or exchangers of Bitcoin as money transmitters, which puts them under the remit of state regulators.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is studying whether it has jurisdiction, given that some companies are considering offering Bitcoin derivatives. The US Internal Revenue Service has designated Bitcoin as property, not currency.
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