07/12/2016
Let’s say you want to start a company in the U.S., chances are you’re going to need a Money Transmitter , or rather 51 of them, because 47 states three territories and the District of each have their own permitting process for any business that handles money on behalf of its customers.
This regulatory maze is thwarting the plans of many Bitcoin startups.
"Some [of our] applications have been in for over a year, and we're not able to determine the path forward because it's not a clear process," says Megan Burton, of the Bitcoin exchange firm , at a May 16, 2014 public hearing of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors' Emerging Payments Task Force.
Fred Ehrsam, cofounder of the firm , said at a public event in last month that becoming compliant in just half the states has so far taken his company "two years and cost $2 million."
But dealing with the states is just the beginning. also have to abide by the rules of the Federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which just sent a chill through the industry by fining the the startup Ripple Labs $700,000 for allegedly violating its rules.
"It takes lawyers in each state, criminal background checks in each state, bonds in each state," says Jerry Brito, who's the executive director of , an industry advocacy group. "It's a huge barrier to entry."
http://newyork.ozg.tv/p/bitcoins-regulatory-nightmare.html