If the current version of BitLicence gets approved, it will lift a huge barrier to innovation and for startup companies acting in the digital currency space.
This week Adam Draper, Boost VC CEO, opened a petition in an attempt to remove some of the main BitLicence obstacles. Adam believes that New York State is about to lose a big opportunity to present the most adequate rules for the industry. If made final the current proposed rules by New York’s Department of Financial Services would likely shut out New York residents and businesses from this new technology.
Following the petition, Adam explains in a video that we need to urge New York State regulators to make serious changes to the BitLicence proposal or we risk being left behind with a regulation that will be a serious impediment to companies acting in the digital currency industry.
The new rules will enact a series of impositions and a complicated bureaucratic process that will surely create an expensive burden to startups. It doesn’t include a significantly flexible on-ramp for small startups to build their products and services, killing its potentially disruptive technology before it can even start.
To prevent this, Adam Draper proposes 3 major changes to the BitLicence rulings:
- To limit the information gathering to whatever is already required on a federal level. Why would New York State need more than what is already required of the companies on a federal level?
- To remove all the duplicate Federal and State regulations that will only double the burden and cost on the companies.
- A Sandbox of innovation in the financial markets should be created. A place to test out products on a smaller group of people who understand the risks in order to work out the kinks before they hit the mass market and need to burden of regulation.
However, the degree of prescriptiveness in the BitLicense is already significantly inhibiting Bitcoin businesses. And the community is already shouting that NYDFS can accomplish its own aims better by figuring out how existing laws and regulations apply to Bitcoin businesses than by writing new ones.