08 Jan 2014 / Wired – The Congressional Research Service recently took a close look at Bitcoin, and it discovered a rather unexpected land mine that could bring down the world’s most popular digital currency: the Stamp Payments Act of 1862.
This 152-year-old law forbids any American from issuing a check, note, or token that’s worth less than $1, and Bitcoin — which you can think of as a kind of digital token that can be broken down into tiny values, potentially worth much less than $1 — might just fall into that category, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress operation that does research on behalf of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Indeed, over the past two years, academics and legal scholars have been quietly debating whether or not the Stamp Act — or other government regulations — could be used to curb Bitcoin’s use. It’s certainly possible, says Darrell Duffie, a finance professor at Stanford University.
“A lot depends on whether the government becomes anxious to move against Bitcoin,” he says. “Whether this is the most appropriate statue under which to control Bitcoin, I’m not so confident.”
Chances are slim that this will actually come into play, but the fact that a 19th century law could affect the crypto currency shows just how far the world of U.S. financial regulation is from the fast-moving revolution that is Bitcoin.
The Stamp Act was written during the dark days of the Civil War, when inflation had pushed the value of the metal in coins above their official denomination. That put a serious pinch on the change supply in the United States, one that began to be filled by companies that issued their own paper versions of dimes and nickels, called “shinplasters.”…… Read more
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/01/stampact/
