https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataS...FTA00840767.pdfეფშტეინი ბიტკოინზე 2015 წელი
From: Bryan Bishop
To: Jeremy Rubin a>, Bryan Bishop <
Cc: Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacation(igmail.com>, Joichi Ito <
Subject: Re: CFTC to regulate bitcoin
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2015 17:29:05 +0000
Jeremy, thank you for the email. Joi -- always a pleasure to run into you in every context. And it is nice to meet
Jeffrey-- I noticed on your Wikipedia article that you and I share Ben Goertzel in common, wasn't expecting to
see him around these parts He and I share many motivations and beliefs about the future...
The open letter, that Jeremy mentions, is still in progress, but we've drafted some explanatory text that we're
going to be sending around to the other Bitcoin Core developers shortly. Please consider this explanatory text to
be private, but I would absolutely love to hear your feedback and thoughts on the approach here. We are pretty
close to the "end" here and it's very exciting. The explanatory email is as follows-- and please keep this
confidential.
We are writing this to you, confidentially, to explain why we have been inviting people to edit, provide feedback
and sign a proposed open letter from Bitcoin Core developers about a "currency-not-database" statement. The
draft can be found here, which we explain below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GpcLG-9...NiCm'ElkDSgWhile bitcoin the currency could continue to grow without correction of the significant, misdirected hype of
blockchains-not-bitcoin from the finance industry, an explicit clarification and statement from Bitcoin Core
developers as to the purpose of Bitcoin Core and which of bitcoin's applications will most impact the world
would be an excellent use of the following opportunity to fix how mainstream finance and US regulators look at
the bitcoin currency. This is probably the most effective way to drive mass adoption and financial inclusion that
is available to bitcoin developers.
To date, the only US regulatory approvals of bitcoin have come from licensing regimes, and FinCEN, which is
about mere money transmission and not holding bitcoin as a financial asset. These regulations are too
disparate, unpredictable and volatile for many mainstream businesses and financial institutions to even consider
holding bitcoin the currency on their balance sheets. This is why mainstream America is taking the 'forget bitcoin
because of the regulatory risk, so let's use blockchain technology instead' narrative to heart.
CFTC is a federal regulator - the top dog. What CFTC says often overrides state regulation (see Supremacy
Clause, US Constitution). Financial institutions that serve American businesses currently consider bitcoin
regulatory risk too high to hold bitcoin on their balance sheets. But this will change if CFTC gives the A-OK to
bitcoin by approving bitcoin products (in the same way that other commodities like oil are approved by the
CFTC), and the world's first regulated fully-compliant clearinghouse that makes bitcoin legally accessible to
mainstream finance.
This is exactly what LedgerX has been working on for 2 years now. LedgerX is a startup bitcoin derivatives
exchange and clearinghouse backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Google Ventures, among others. Our
Board of Directors includes Mark Wetjen, former CFTC Acting Chair under Obama, and Jim Newsome, former
CFTC Chair under Reagan.
EFTA00840767
The CFTC's decisions are for regulatory approval of our company, our internal policies and rules, and bitcoin as
a financial asset itself. LedgerX has one of the three approvals required to move Bitcoin forward--- approval for
temporary registration to operate as a Swap Execution Facility (exchange), and we are working towards
Derivatives Clearing Organization (clearinghouse) and product (i.e., bitcoin) approval. (Institutions will trade on
the exchange and settle directly to bitcoin via the licensed clearinghouse, which avoids the hedging
inefficiencies of current derivatives exchanges. This solves a major treasury risk issue for bitcoin corporates,
who currently don't have effective hedging mechanisms, and therefore can't take on that much bitcoin risk.)
Many of the details of CFTC regulation of LedgerX itself are public, and are available for reading at the following
links, although some documents have been marked confidential:
SEF -
http://sirt.cftc.gov/SIRT/SIRT.aspx?Topic=...iesAD&Key=30643DCO -
http://sirt.cftc.gov/sirt/sirtaspx?Topic=C...onsAD&Key=30998SEF approval-
http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7226-15Public Comment Period-
http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7115-15If CFTC can re-learn bitcoin and understand that the currency as potential - and that bitcoin is not merely a
SWIFT protocol replacement, which is what CFTC currently thinks - US regulators are poised to give their
official stamp of approval to bitcoin the *financial asset*. Ramifications for adoption would be huge, as banks
would no longer be advised by their accounting firms not to hold bitcoin, meaning many more American
businesses could start accepting it. This effect will eventually reach consumers and the broader public.
This may not happen if CFTC sees bitcoin as a mere back-office ledger replacement, which has been causing
some resistance due to misdirected hype lately. An upcoming planned CFTC Technology Advisory Committee
meeting totally ignores bitcoin as a currency, and focuses entirely on the blockchain as a back-office ledger
replacement. LedgerX will be presenting at this meeting as a member of the committee, but without prior public
statement from Bitcoin Core, it will be very hard to redirect the deluge of attention from blockchain-as-database
and successfully convince CFTC that bitcoin is a financial asset, commodity or even currency. While CFTC has
previously ruled that bitcoin is a commodity, this does not imply product approval - there are other criteria,
including spot trading volume and future direction of bitcoin. Time is of the essence because it's important to
CFTC's decision process that bitcoin the currency have enough industry focus to merit product approval.
Weeks ago, Greg Maxwell mentioned to Bryan Bishop that he has been considering making a "currency-only"
statement with the other Bitcoin Core developers. We have reached out and elaborated on these good reasons
to move that action forward to within the next few days or week and the sentiment has been positive so far, and
hopefully this letter will clarify the context for some. We have drafted a letter towards this end and we are
circulating the letter to Bitcoin Core developers for editing, feedback and signatures:
https://docs.google.com/docu ment/d/1GpcLG-9PrK8Z6ZPI0C2-u 1VDBQc7qI hOXvNiCm' H kDSg/edit#
The purpose of the letter is to clarify that Bitcoin Core developers are focusing their resources on the
comparatively huge potential and existing value of Bitcoin the currency, and that blockchain-as-a-database is
somewhat of a distraction from this primary mission. It's not really practical to let others feed on the hype and
success of Bitcoin for their own somewhat irrelevant projects and misdirection. We believe that this sort of
statement from the Bitcoin Core developers will convince regulators that bitcoin as a financial asset and
currency is worth approving.
EFTA00840768
On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 10:58 AM, Jeremy Rubin c wrote:
Hi Jeffrey, Joi,
Bryan (CC'd) is doing some work looking at how cftc is trying to regulate bitcoin options trading. See his note to me below
cftc is making a decision by the end of the month about whether to regulate bitcoin for options trading- and we need
them to say yes... but they are presently confused about jamie dimon's comments saying bitcoin is irrelevant, only
blockchain matters.
so to this end we are drafting an open letter that says why bitcoin matters and why database tech isn't the goal here
and i am passing around to core devs"""
the draft letter:
https://docs.gcsgIe.com/document/d/1GpcLG-9...=h.m151wtu6dr44What do you think of the letter? Is Bryan right to ask for regulation? Are there advantages to trying to stay unregulated?
Have you talked with Jamie about this stuff at all? (Bryan, feel free to add more questions)
My hunch is that regulation is bad, but option trading is good. Bitcoin accepting companies suffer because they can't
stomach the volatility without options. Are there orkarounds to get the best of both?
Best,
Jeremy
* * *
ეპშტეინი ძალიან დაინტერესებული ყოფილა ბიტკოინის თემით საინტერესოა იმ წერილების კითხვა როცა ბიტკოინი ჯერ კიდევ ახალი მოვლენა იყო. კიდევ ერთი საინტერესო წერილი. 2012 წელი
https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataS...FTA00713575.pdfFrom:
To: Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacation@gmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: [IP] Bitcoin & The End of State-Controlled Money: Q&A with Jerry Brito
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 07:13:08 +0000
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dave Farber
Subject: [IP] Bitcoin & The End of State-Controlled Money: Q&A with Jerry Brito
Date: July 9, 2012 12:07:05 AM PDT
To: Nip"
Reply-To
Forwarded message
From: Dewayne Hendricks
Date: Sunday, July 8, 2012
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Bitcoin & The End of State-Controlled Mone Q&A with Jerry Brito
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <
Bitcoin & The End of State-Controlled Money: Q&A with Jerry Brito
Bitcoin is the world's first fully decentralized, peer-to-peer (p2p) virtual currency. It allows users to make
anonymous and untraceable cash transactions anywhere in the world without any sort of real-world
intermediary. So unlike PayPal and other online services, it can't be squeezed in the same way by governments
or other control agents.
Created in 2009 by a shadowy figure who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, there are currently about 6
million bitcoins in circulation. That number will eventually rise, in regular intervals, to a total of 21 million by
2033. A money system without any sort of central bank? A currency whose supply increases at a steady and
predictable rate according to a concept elucidated by the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman?
Just how revolutionary is Bitcoin?
Reason.tv sat down with Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Jerry Brito to learn how Bitcoin operates and what
the implications are for traditional state-based fiat currencies. "Whether Bitcoin succeeds or fails is neither here
nor there," says Brito, who predicts that currencies in the future will almost certainly be deregulated and
decentralized - with or without governments' consent.
Read Brito on Bitcoin here (hp://techland.time.corn/2011/04/16/online-cash-bitcoin-could-challengegovernmentsi) and here (http://techliberation.corn/2011/04/16/bitcoin-imagine-a-net-without-intermediaries/).
For responses to his critics and more info on Sitcoin, go here (http://techliberation.com/2011/04/20/bitcoinintermediaries-and-information-contro10.
About 2.30 minutes.
EFTA00713575
Interview by Nick Gillespie; shot and edited by Joshua Swain.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYTqvYqXRbY>
Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>
ჯეფრი ეფსტინის სია, დღეს გამოქვეყნდება
