The North Carolina Commissioner of Banks has released a document specifying in plain English what the virtual currency exemptions are according to its Money Transmitters Act (NC MTA) : virtual currency miners; Blockchain 2.0 technologies; multi-signature software; and non-hosted, non-custodial wallets are generally not subject to the NC MTA.
The clarification of its position on virtual currency comes at a time when most states have withdrawn from comment nearly altogether, in a wait-and-see-what-everyone-else-is-doing kind of approach. Or, in the case of New York, BitLicense has addressed some cryptocurrency regulatory issues, though some claim the New York regulations make sweeping generalities on other virtual currency regulatory issues, leaving them wide open to arbitrary interpretation by government officials.
However, the North Carolina move toward being more explicit in virtual currency regulation is in part thanks to the efforts of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.
“North Carolina has taken a leadership role in state-level virtual currency debates and is setting an example to other states to take a more thoughtful and deliberate approach to regulating this nascent industry,” said Perianne Boring, president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC), in a statement.
The CDC sought to improve understanding on the emerging digital currency technologies and does not want overregulation to drive out innovation by the grass-roots innovators that often bootstrap their technology on modest budgets.
In a prepared statement, the CDC offered its opinion on the proposed regulations:
The North Carolina legislature is considering a bill, at the request of the Commissioner of Banks, that would update the state’s existing Money Transmitter Act to expressly include virtual currency businesses. The Chamber has been actively involved in this process, expressing concern over the proposed legislation’s broad language that could potentially be interpreted to capture certain virtual currency business models that are clearly not engaged in money transmission and should […]
