Superintendent of Financial Services for New York, Ben Lawsky, has issued his proposed regulations for a Bitlicence governing Bitcoin businesses.

I’ve warned people repeatedly about the fact that regulators are not our friends – so the onerous proposal came as no surprise. Many Bitcoiners seemed shocked and caught off guard that the proposal could be so unrealistically strict. Some examples include Bitcoin companies being unable to retain profits in Bitcoin, requirements that small startups hire expensive compliance personnel, requirements that inventors and programmers obtain a license before creating new alt coins, rules which would essentially end mining etc. The regulations are at the core a thinly veiled ban of Bitcoin in New York.

These actions didn’t surprise me at all.

Mr. Lawsky has proven himself to be a corrupt and dishonest political manipulator who is a clear enemy of progress, innovation and this community.

So why engage him?

(Definitions:
Dishonest: not being truthful (eg: claiming he had no knowledge of Charlie Shrem’s arrest timing then using it as political theater during his hearings, claiming he would carefully evaluate input from the Bitcoin space then not doing so etc.)
Corrupt: dealing in a dishonest manner for personal gain (eg: working with bank cronies to further protectionist policies which greatly harm jobs and Bitcoin, pushing policies which do not have a primary goal of serving the public good….etc.)
Political manipulator: using political tactics, media, duplicity, political theater (such as invoking events like the tragedy of 9-11 -which was mentioned in the hearings- and fears of terrorism as the justification for these anti innovation actions when, in reality, all Bitcoin on planet earth has only a fraction of the value we know with certainty was laundered by HSBC for example)

Furthermore, his power does not come from competence, knowledge or even an election but from threats of violence. Lets be honest, without the threat of violence (his threat of using his power as an unelected political official to place people in jail for use of math) he would have no standing in this space and most Bitcoin people would have never even heard of him.

If Mr. Lawsky had to let his ideas stand on their own merit without force and violence he would be laughed out of every Bitcoin meeting with his proposal that Satoshi should have had a license before inventing a coin.

Instead of laughing at him we’ve made him famous in this community and look to him as some sort of leader simply because he has threatened us with violence.

So why deal with him?

The extreme and damaging Bitlicence proposal shows that he has no intention of operating in an honorable, fair or even remotely logical manner. Why spend time spinning wheels in an attempt to use logic to show the reasons his plans are bad when he clearly does not care about the merit of his plans?
Bitcoin leaders keep seeming to be holding out hope that with just one more white paper or one more AMA or one more legal letter we can get him to see the light. He does not care about right or wrong. He cares about fame and personal gain and his political career and helping his banking cronies by harming Bitcoin. By engaging him we only further this harm.

THE ALTERNATIVE

What do I propose instead?

I do not believe it productive to engage with someone who wishes us ill and who has shown no intention to operate honestly or with reason or the most basic logic. I think that all of the significant advocacy efforts wasted on engaging with Lawsky should be instead spent on PRODUCTIVE activities which are actually likely to yield positive results.

Some specifics:
– focus on ELECTED officials who have accountability to voters and actually care what we say, who care about votes and who care about jobs – this includes reward for those who support technology and pressure on those who do not
– focus on the Governor of NY, who appoints Mr. Lawsky’s position, to make the irresponsible actions of his appointee politically costly and apparent
– focus on court challenges fighting the legality of these regulations
– focus on media efforts which highlight the lost jobs and other drawbacks this causes
– focus on humor and other tools which help illustrate how backwards these policies are
– if you have a legislative focus focus on actual bills and laws which are voted on by elected officials – this is how bills are supposed to become law, not the newer practice of appointed officials having radical and broad powers to decree laws governing entire new technologies without votes or accountability
– focus on supporting efforts in Congress which deal with this on a Federal level as a gross overstep of his authority which are harmful to commerce — seek reversal of his overstep and seek Federal action which nullifies these regulations and moves him into further irrelevance
– focus on positive action in states with much more logical and honest engagement to encourage business friendly policies which will bring new commerce and jobs
– completely and totally ignore a person who has shown himself to be a clear enemy of technology and progress – make him irrelevant — no more press engagement, no more follows and retweets, no more AMAs, no more letters or explanations
– ignore and block NY and let them sleep in the preposterous bed they have made – companies and developers who wish to comply with these regulations can block NY IP addresses and feature a prominent “THIS TECHNOLOGY BANNED IN NEW YORK STATE” disclaimer on their websites — let Lawsky have New York join North Korea in essentially banning Bitcoin – if New York’s citizens and financial community want to join the rest of the world in one of the most amazing technological developments of recent times they can move or pressure their leaders for change
– those companies and individuals who do not care about the laws will ignore them en masse, even further weakening the legitimacy and authority of Ben Lawsky

If people feel they must engage with Lawsky then he should be fought in court and the court of public opinion and ridiculed and challenged in the media.

I say ignore him, shun him. He has lied to us and proven himself our enemy and is doing so not out of misunderstanding or because he’s not “up to speed” with understanding Bitcoin but because he actively seeks to harm us while using slick media tactics to cultivate an image of being open to input.

Let Ben Lawsky go down in history as the man who lost NY it’s status as a global financial center.

Let him run for Governor on the platform that he cost his state jobs.

I do not believe these actions can succeed in killing Bitcoin — therefor I believe Bitcoin will survive and, if it does, these policies will be reversed and the man who proposed them will look like a Luddite — the name given to people who once smashed looms because they believed technology which made hand sewing easier was evil technology.

Some have said that it NY is key because it is an example other states will follow. Let’s expose these policies for what they are and give incentive to other regulators to not follow suit. Let’s be productive. Let’s stop complementing him on his “foresight” and let’s instead be honest.

@brucefenton Twitter