The bitcoin industry embraces what it was built to avoid—rules and regulation

From Quartz:

Bitcoin was designed to be unregulated by any government or central authority. But according to some of the cryptocurrency’s biggest supporters, the crash of the prominent bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is the latest sign that bitcoin needs to adopt some sort of oversight if it is going to survive and thrive.

“I think regulation is a must at this point,” said Todd Williams, a stockbroker and Bitcoin investor since 2010. “Maybe not for all businesses working in bitcoin, but for any company or organization that is holding a large amount of other people’s money.”

The Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, which may have lost some $340 million in Bitcoins to hackers, received a subpoena overnight from New York prosecutors, a sign that a US federal investigation is underway. Japanese authorities are also investigating.

A growing number of participants believe the nascent bitcoin industry needs to accept the fact that expanding beyond the fringe comes with some some trappings of accountability… [Read more](http://qz.com/180831/the-bitcoin-industry-embraces-what-it-was-built-to-avoid-rules-and-regulation/).