Does anyone happen to know what kinds of regulations are in place for people who buy and sell unofficial digital currencies such as Bitcoin? I'm particularly interested in United States regulations, but please mention any regulations of which you are aware.
Registering a business or non-profit organization gives the advantage of being able to do transactions in the name of the business and forming a corporation limits liability. But it seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth to incorporate or register a business until the profits are large enough to hire employees.
I noticed that in the United States, financial institutions are required to submit a currency transaction report for all transactions over $10,000 and a suspicious activity report for suspicious transactions. I don't think a private citizen would be required to submit either type of report. In any case, so long as the official currency part of the transaction is passing through a registered financial institution, the institution would already be submitting those reports for such transactions.
I have read about money laundering and it seems that so long as a person is not knowingly laundering money, then the person is not committing the crime.
Profits would need to be tracked for tax purposes but that can be accomplished easily enough using accounting software such as GnuCash.
Am I missing anything? Are there any regulations prohibiting me from sending money to and receiving money from random strangers who may be criminals unbeknownst to me?
BitcoinTalk
#1From:
NewLibertyStandard
Subject:
Money Transfer Regulations
Date: