A story is going around how the Thailand government has “banned Bitcoin,” as in made it illegal—but that’s not quite what it seems to be. More than likely (as with most world governments) Thailand is uncertain what to do with Bitcoin and has advised a company in-country that since its unregulated that they probably shouldn’t interact with BTC. This also may extend to not issuing licenses for businesses that engage in BTC trading.

Also in the news, “Bitcoin: The Movie,” unexpectedly pulled from Kickstarter; and DATA, a self-regulatory organization emerges to help keep Bitcoin on task with the fears of world governments.

As usual, stay tuned for a new business accepting BTC.

Thailand government isn’t sure what to do with Bitcoin

Bitcoin Co. Ltd., in Thailand, has published a statement on their website explaining why they’ve suddenly had to cease operations—notably because the Bank of Thailand has decided that Bitcoin is not a type of currency. Although the actual factors appear to be a little bit more complex than that, it does appear that this is the crux of the problem.

According to the statement, “senior members of the Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department advised that due to lack of existing applicable laws, capital controls and the fact that Bitcoin straddles multiple financial facets” means that Thai officials believe that Bitcoin transactions must therefore be illegal in Thailand. As the Bank of Thailand is the governing body that regulates financial transactions in Thailand, their decision essentially sets the lay of the land as to licenses for trading BTC.

This means that companies dealing with Thailand cannot buy or sell BTC, exchange goods or services for BTC, export BTC out of Thailand or receive BTC into Thailand.

Essentially this shuts down the operations of Bitcoin Co. Ltd. entirely because it means that anything that actually uses Bitcoins would be illegal. As in, Bitcoin Co. Ltd. cannot get license to operate financially in Thailand using BTC.

“Based on such a broad and encompassing advisement,” the company wrote in conclusion of their statement, “Bitcoin Co. Ltd. therefore has no choice but to suspend operations until such as time that the laws in Thailand are updated to account for the existence [sic] of Bitcoin.  The Bank of Thailand has said they will further consider the issue, but did not give any specific timeline.”

Until the Bank of Thailand comes to a conclusion about the use of BTC as an exchange currency it’s the case that it’s just unregulated. Chances are this will have zero effect on ordinary citizens who hold or even exchange the currency online—instead what’s happening here is that businesses in Thailand may have difficulty getting licenses to operate with Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin: The Movie” Kickstarter Pulled Unexpectedly

A film about Bitcoin on Kickstarter, “Bitcoin: The Movie”, has been yanked from the crowdfunding start only two weeks after the beginning of the funding project. The movie was to be a documentary on the current status and use of the cryptocurrency with a particular eye for the socio-economic impact of the currency around the world.

The Kickstarter was launched July 16th with a $100,000 goal, but was cut short just two weeks in on July 24th (with around $15,000 funded) by the crowdfunding website.

Andrew Wong, the entrepreneur behind the movie, told CoinDesk he didn’t know why Kickstarter pulled the movie.

“We were not told what the issues were. That’s why we paused all bitcoin-related activities, trying to figure out what’s going on at this moment,” he said.

Apparently Coindesk also contacted Kickstarter, but their representatives declined to comment, saying only, “While the story sounds thoughtful, we are going to decline to participate in an interview”

The Digital Asset Transfer Authority (DATA) seeks to self-regulate Bitcoin

Seeking to become the first self-regulatory organization for Bitcoin, the Digital Asset Transfer Authority (DATA) has made its first announcement as to the formalization of its board and members—as well as strong commentary about the state of the Bitcoin market, economy, and culture.

The members of DATA read like a cast list for well known Bitcoin entreprenuers including Tony Gallipi, CEO of payment processor BitPay, Charlie Shrem, CEO of BitInstant, Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple and founder of OpenCoin, Patrick Murck, general counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, and even TradeHill CEO Jered Kenna. All of these names have crossed paths with my coverage of the currency over the past few years in one fashion or another, so being on the board of DATA does rather make sense.

The announcement begins with bold plans,

At the forefront of emerging payments, virtual currency, and other financial technology innovations, our companies are pioneering new services with potential to reduce the friction and cost of payments substantially and make low cost payment services available to hundreds of millions of individuals and businesses around the world. To reach this potential, to inspire confidence in the services we offer, and to ensure fair and responsible treatment of consumers and merchants, we believe our industry must evolve in compliance with law and regulation. We must work proactively with regulators and policymakers to adapt their requirements to our technologies and business models. We must develop and implement common risk management and compliance standards that address the public policy concerns associated with our businesses. And our firms must build risk management and compliance programs that meet those standards.

Much of the rest of the document is filled with commentary on how to work with regulators on anti-money laundering compliance, increasing confidence in the currency and market itself, engaging with government and public on matters of emergent public policy, etc.

While we’ve seen other groups appear from the mists, such as the Bitcoin Foundation, who ostensively do a very similar thing, DATA already has a powerful group of members who are already luminaries in the culture. (Note: There’s also some overlap between DATA and the Bitcoin Foundation.)

Now Accepting Bitcoin: In the business of accepting Bitcoin

An article in the Japanese newspaper “Nikkei MJ” is making the rounds right now about a restaurant that recently started accepting BTC. An English translation (and image) of the article is right now circulating on reddit and it cites the “The Pink Cow” as a restaurant that started accepting Bitcoins in Roppongi, Japan.

Not quite a business, but a corporation in the massive space-battle MMORPG EVE Online has formed around the concepts of BTC with the first 1Bitcoin corporation recruiting. EVE Online is well known for the fact that the in-game economy enables players to pay into the economy using real money (and to use in game economy money to buy subscription time using a system called PLEX.) However, like most MMOs it’s not possible to exchange out of the economy.