Regulation of BitCoin in the United States

Debates are proceeding across the globe regarding BitCoin and to what degree it should be regulated. In the United States, BitCoin has been hailed as a technological "tour de force" that should be left primarily unregulated, while others have called for its outright ban. So what is it about this technology that has caused such a divergence of opinion? This paper seeks to answer this question by explaining the BitCoin phenomenon and its potential risks for the public. The paper provides a brief overview of BitCoin and its underlying technologies, a description of the primary legal issues currently under debate, and an analysis of recent US state and federal regulatory responses. Finally, the paper asserts that BitCoin and its underlying technologies have tremendous potential to revolutionize not only the financial services sector specifically but many other industries as well, and that governments should take a minimalist approach, much like it did with the Internet, so as not to inhibit the development of this transformative technology.