California governor signs bill legalizing bitcoin
California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill making alternative currencies, including bitcoin, lawful in the state.
READ MORE: The US Marshals Service auctioned off 30,000 confiscated
bitcoins.
The bill repeals the provision of the old legislation, which
banned the use of "anything but the lawful money of the
United States."
Authors of the amendment labeled the old regulatory regime as
“stagnant” and lagging behind Californian “growing
and innovative payments market.”
“This bill makes clarifying changes to current law to ensure
that various forms of alternative currency, such as digital
currency, points, coupons, or other objects of monetary value do
not violate the law when those methods are used for the purchase
of goods and services or the transmission of payments,” the
comments to the bill read.
While the analysis of the amendment focuses on bitcoin as a major
example of what’s being legalized, it also provides a list of
other digital currencies and mentions points models, which
various retailers use for rewarding consumers.
Thank you Gov Brown & CA legislature! "AB 129 allows Bitcoin and other digital currency to be legally used in transactions in California."
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) June 29, 2014
“In an era of evolving payment methods, from Amazon Coins to
Starbucks Stars, it is impractical to ignore the growing use of
cash alternatives,” Democratic Assemblyman Roger Dickinson,
the bill's author, said in an earlier statement.
Another type of a newly emerged payment system that the amendment
is meant to apply to are the so-called "community currencies";
these are created by members of a local area to boost small
business. Besides, as the explanation to the new legislation
reads, they have “also become a form of political protest as
some communities that use such currency do so in protest of US
monetary policies, or large financial institutions.”
California makes the use of digital currencies easier as the
world’s largest bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox Co., is going through
bankruptcy procedures in the US.
Earlier this year, the exchange lost around 850,000 bitcoins
($500 million at current prices), allegedly following a hacker
attack. Later Mt Gox said it had recovered 200,000 bitcoins.
In May, Tibanne, the holding company of the collapsed bitcoin
exchange, announced plans for selling its trademarks in Japan and
the EU, hoping to raise at least $1 million.
