[coinman]

For anyone who's directing their rage at MtGox for this, that should not be the target.

We should be outraged at the banking system and the lawmakers instead. They are the ones who are putting roadblocks on to MtGox, as these documents prove.

MtGox does not operate a MSB according to the laws in Japan, so if it has a bank account in the US, how does it make it a MSB?

Besides, the FinCEN guidelines are not clear for Bitcoin. For example, there's no clear definition for what is a "User" and what is an "Administrator".

Being P2P, users are administrators at the same time. (You don't necessarily need to mine bitcoins to be an administrator, if you're a user, then your client still needs to do administrative tasks such as relay transactions across the network)

Besides, bitcoins should be considered as virtual messaging service, rather than a currency as in the traditional sense of the word. In essence, Bitcoin is a distributed messaging network. (When bitcoins are bought, the buyer is actually paying the seller to send a message to the network).

We need better, clearer guidelines on this.

[cgi_man]

The accounts seized were for Mutum Sigillum, their US subsidiary. The claim is that MS transferred funds from Mt Gox's Dwalla account to Mt. Gox's overseas account, which fits under the definition of a MSB in the US.

[Guvante]

It was doing financial transactions within the US and thus has to hold up the laws of the US during said transactions.

[krapht]

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. I doubt any court in the land would rule that Bitcoin is not a currency.

[javert]

> Besides, bitcoins should be considered as virtual messaging service, rather than a currency as in the traditional sense of the word.

There are many good arguments against government regulation, but this is not one. It doesn't matter what something is, it matters what you do with it.

Another common mistake is to try to reduce all rights to free speech, as if conceding that other rights do not exist.