“We have sought to strike an appropriate balance that helps protect consumers and root out illegal activity – without stifling beneficial innovation” We should all be fortunate that the statement above was ‘never’ made by Ron Brown; the former chairman of the Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Those were the words of the Benjamin M. Lawsky on July 17, 2014 in a statement introducing the proposed BitLicense regulation. But what if 20 years earlier on July 17, 1994 a document known as the IntLicense was released to the world for a 45 day review …

FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada) is working on a regulation plan for Money Services Businesses (MSBs) dealing in virtual currencies, a series of rules that will most likely come to force in 2015. The Canadian financial regulator said that changes to the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorism Financing Act, a list of rules that facilitate combatting the laundering of proceeds of crime and combating the financing of terrorist activities, "will aim to cover entities such as virtual currency exchanges, not individuals or businesses that use virtual currencies for buying and selling goods and services," according to …