As the legitimacy of Bitcoin continues to spark debates—including the odd regulatory foray and questions as to Bitcoin as money—there have been other movements in the community catching our attention lately.

Firstly, Avalon has set out to refund all customers of ASIC Miners who have been waiting on existing orders due to unexpected delays. Next, at TechCrunch Disrupt conference Bitcoin investors are evangelizing the mutative capability of BTC to work as better money than money itself and perhaps even replace institutions such as Wall Street. And, on the regulation front, California’s changes to the Money Transmission Act might work to benefit Bitcoin-related startups with small capitalization and those who use bitcoins as payroll.

Avalon Refunding $2.9M in Bitcoins to ASIC Customers

Due to delays we are now offering full refund in bitcoin for all the Avalon Generation One orders made on any date, It is advise for people to request refunds due to the delay and raise of bitcoin difficulty.

Late Monday, Avalon announced that due to constant delays, the company would be refunding any customer with an existing order who wanted their coins back. The previous announcement only referred to customers who had experienced significant delays; this newest one covers everyone.

According to The Genesis Block the refund targets mainly first generation chips (110nm) as second generation comes to fruition (55nm) and focuses on the unexpected delays that have struck customers. Out of almost one million ASIC chips originally ordered only 200 thousand have been confirmed as deliveries. As a result, it seems like it might be a good time to seek a refund.

Customers of existing orders have a number of options now including staying in queue to receive a gen one chip, grabbing a refund and buying into surplus chips as they come off the rack, just getting a refund and buying into gen two, or just grab that refund and walk away.

Investor at TechCrunch Distrupt says Bitcoin could replace Wall Street

A CNet story focuses on the TechCrunch Disrupt conference and a panel filled with Bitcoin cognoscenti and investors including twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. There talk about how BTC can change the world, especially the world of money, became a centerpiece of talk.

“What Wall Street does can be done in Bitcoin,” said Naval Ravikant, founder of the online investment platform Angel List. Adding that everything the investment industry currently does can be done (potentially better) by Bitcoin—putting things in escrow, moving money, exchanging value—and can be done more easily by what he’s calling “programmable money.”

Due to the structure of the Blockchain and the capability to embed messages in Bitcoins, it’s possible to quite literally “program in” functionality or use the already existing protocol to add layers of interactivity.

“People think about Bitcoin incorrectly,” Ravikant added. ”They think about it as currency or about gold or hoarding, speculation, about how much money do you make. When really what it is is an API for programmable cash transactions. For the first time, the hackers in the audience have access to a protocol that allows them to program escrow and notaries and payouts and dividends… This idea of programmable, universal cash is what is really, really fascinating.”

State of California Money Transmission Act amendment may benefit Bitcoin

The State of California has passed legislation that might make it easier for Bitcoin-related startups to do business. Coindesk reports on the passage of AB 786 as a boon to bitcoin due to an amendment to the California Money Transmission Act (MTA).

The MTA is enforced by the Department of Business Oversight (DBO) which is now known for its misfire cease-and-desist letter to the Bitcoin Foundation in June—although then it had a component known as the Department of Financial Institutions  (DFI.) This is because the DBO classifies certain companies doing business in California as “money transmitters” and this requires specialized regulation.

The important context of the bill changes which companies are excluded from the MTA, such as payroll processors, and revises the minimum net worth requirements upwards from $250,000 to $500,000.

“For some bitcoin businesses, this will make licensing a non-issue in California,” said Marco Santori, chair of the Bitcoin Foundation’s regulatory affairs committee. Any business in California that choses to pay employees in bitcoins could escape the provisions of the MTA therefore and thus would make it easier for them to operate.

“A business that stands between a purchaser and a seller of goods or services, permitting the purchaser to pay in bitcoins and the seller to receive dollars, might fall under the new goods and services exemption,” he added.

However, some elements of the bill remain troubling, including giving unwieldy powers to the DBO commissioner with “tremendous discretion in raising or lowering the minimum capitalization requirement based on ‘any factor’ the commissioner considers relevant.”