Legal Troubles Barely Subdue a Bitcoin Evangelist’s Sermons – NYTimes.com
Trending February 7, 2014 Comments Off on Legal Troubles Barely Subdue a Bitcoin Evangelist’s Sermons – NYTimes.com 97The 24-year-old Mr. Shrem, who went through millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin over the years, is not the first person in the virtual currency world to end up in handcuffs, but he is the most central player to face charges. His recent reversal of fortune — and the meteoric ascent that led up to it — makes him a living symbol of the peaks and valleys that have so far defined the Bitcoin experience, as the value of all the outstanding coins has shot above $10 billion.
The virtual currency — digital money that can be traded between online wallets using virtual keys — has given rise to world-changing ambitions, new-money fortunes and global jet-setting. But all the high living has often seemed just a hairbreadth away from a police raid or government crackdown.
In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Shrem said that, particularly during the early days of Bitcoin, it often was not clear what was right and wrong.
“You had so many bad things going on, and so little good, that you had to dive down into it to bring it up,” he said. For his own part, he acknowledged, “back then I wasn’t as educated on what was legal and what was not legal.”
The uncertainty stems, in no small part, from the lack of clarity about what laws apply to Bitcoin transactions — and the relative lack of interest from law enforcement. But in addition to that uncertainty, Bitcoin’s troubles have arisen from its tendency to attract maverick characters who want to test the established order. Before his arrest, Mr. Shrem talked about his difficulties with traditional banks.
via Legal Troubles Barely Subdue a Bitcoin Evangelist’s Sermons – NYTimes.com.
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