July 23rd 2017, in the name of “protecting consumers”, Washington State became one of the largest states to put a stop to the digital currency marketplace aka Cryptocurrency. The bill (SB 5031) establishing the regulations, was passed by the state legislature in April 2017.
Most of you probably don’t know this issue (don’t own Cryptocurrency) and that is why we’re bringing this to the people’s attention. That state has placed such high regulations on them that many of the exchanges that are used to buy Cryptocurrency won’t be participating in Washington State. If you try to sign-up, you’ll be denied service for this reason. The state punished these exchanges with so many rules they simply can’t participate and that means you won’t be able to either. These include making them agree to third-party security audits of their systems, and post surety bonds of between $10,000 and $550,000, which work as security deposits in the event customers deserve compensation from an exchange.
The reality this is just a measure to keep digital currency away from the easily traceable payment options (ie credit cards, cash in checking accounts). The state wants to make sure they are keeping tabs of all your money and if that means kicking in the teeth and bullying any new or innovated ideas – they will do just that to get their way.
After the bill passed, the exchanges started to leave Washington State and they told their customers they will need to kick sand and take their business elsewhere. These include: Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Kraken, and Poloniex.
On Reddit, people have accused the state of having a “cryptohating legislature” and being “a very sorry state for any forward-thinking, technology enthusiast individual to reside in.”.
Sponsors of this bill included Senator Jan Angel (R) and Senator Mark Mullet (D). Recently, Senator Jan Angel sponsored Angel bill raising awareness of heating-oil tank insurance. I didn’t read to much into it as the surface of it seems like a waste of time and energy. In short, it’s an “awareness” bill… that raises awareness of an insurance program for residential heating-oil tanks. According to them, “The bill helps make residential homebuyers aware of the Washington Pollution Liability Insurance Agency’s Residential Heating Oil Insurance Program, which provides insurance coverage at no cost to owners of active heating-oil tanks. The program provides up to $60,000 of insurance coverage for cleaning up contamination caused by a leak from a heating oil tank.” They lost me when they said it was an “awareness” bill to raise awareness about an issue. Are we really creating “awareness” laws now to let residents just know about information? How about we stick to just making real laws that are enforceable instead of wasting money on marketing campaigns disguised as laws which this appears to be. This combined with the cryptocurrentcy ban and you’re about two strikes out sitting at home.
As for Senator Mark Mullet, he sponsored and passed legislation for increasing health care cost transparency. He must of failed with that goal because Washington State is living on the cash hog when it comes to pharmacy drugs, hospitals, fees, and the tax revenue they get from those items. They are not going to change a thing and still think obamacare is “affordable”. Heath care cost and transparency is one if not the biggest scams in the state. Hospitals are ripping people off so transparency obviously isn’t in place either.
There wasn’t much news about slapping down Cryptocurrency. I first investigated this due to Microsoft partnering with the Ripple Cryptocurrency. Ripple unlike Bitcoin offers faster processing and has a business model behind it. They leverage customer information to make a profit. I wanted to invest as well and downloaded one of the exchanges only to be denied when I entered my Washington State address. Ripple was priced at .29 at that time and now it’s over a dollar.
Thanks for keeping the people down Washington State.
