Re: FYI: US authorities throw the book at Ripple Labs

p.s. To emphasize my first point, a quote from the article above: "Ripple
Labs will improve the tools being used to analyze transactions on the
protocol — but the protocol itself remains unchanged."

On 7 May 2015 at 14:55, Adrian Hope-Bailie <adrian@hopebailie.com> wrote:

> Joseph,
>
> I agree with you that the legalities surrounding payments are important to
> our work but I would only say so to the point that the technology should
> not intentionally circumvent laws and regulations and provide mechanisms
> for regulators to be able to do their jobs.
>
> Wrt the Ripple Labs case, I think this article provides a more balanced
> view on the matter than many of the click-bait headlines that have been
> doing the rounds:
> http://www.americanbanker.com/news/bank-technology/what-ripples-fincen-fine-means-for-the-digital-currency-industry-1074195-1.html
>
> Personally, I think the first (and only when I looked) comment on the
> article Tim linked to above says it all.
>
> In many respects, this is a sign that the traditional finance and payments
> industry is waking up to the reality that digital currencies and the
> amazing technologies that are emerging on the back of them are not just a
> passing fad and are starting to take them seriously (either as threats,
> opportunities or both).
>
> Adrian
>
> On 7 May 2015 at 14:19, Joseph Potvin <jpotvin@opman.ca> wrote:
>
>> RE: "“Innovation is laudable but..."
>>
>> Official notices here:
>> http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/nr/html/20150505.html
>> http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/nr/pdf/Ripple_Facts.pdf
>>
>> For a W3C context, it's worth considering that this involves just one of
>> the multitude of legal jurisdictions. This is why, in my post to this list
>> yesterday entitled "Ongoing alignment of W3C Web Payments specification
>> development to other in-scope global standards",  I referred to the fully
>> global multi-jurisdictional forum which works at the 'root' level of
>> e-commerce law, maintaining a set of so-called model laws:
>> UNCITRAL WG IV: Working Group IV: Electronic Commerce, United Nations
>> Commission on International Trade Law
>>
>> http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/commission/working_groups/4Electronic_Commerce.html
>>
>> It's not a matter of going-all-legal, so to speak. It (usually) not very
>> difficult just to take the legal parameters as business architecture
>> documentation. Not doing so creates deep architectural bugs that inevitably
>> result in cases like this one against Ripple Labs. These scenarios suck
>> valuable resources and mindshare out of otherwise brilliant initiatives.
>>
>> Joseph Potvin
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 4:57 AM, Timothy Holborn <
>> timothy.holborn@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> FYI...
>>>
>>> "Ripple Labs has been fined $700,000 by the US Financial Crimes
>>> Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the first successful civil enforcement
>>> action against a virtual currency exchange."
>>>
>>> SOURCE: http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=27314
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Joseph Potvin
>> Operations Manager | Gestionnaire des opérations
>> The Opman Company | La compagnie Opman
>> jpotvin@opman.ca
>> Mobile: 819-593-5983
>>
>
>