One of the lifetime members of Bitcoin Foundation has been challenging the BitLicense regulation in New York, and the nonprofit organization now gives full backing to his attempt to stop the regulation.
Bitcoin entrepreneur and software developer Theo Chino has filed a petition at the Supreme Court of New York, challenging the mandate of the New York Department of Financial Services in which he alleged that the agency acted illegally and arbitrarily and exceeded its regulatory power when it promulgated its controversial “virtual currency” regulation in 2015 - Part 200 of Chapter 1 of Title 23 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations.
The Foundation, in a statement, considers the BitLicense regulation as “poorly conceived” and “has all but destroyed Bitcoin innovation in New York since it was introduced in June 2015.”
“We can either sit back and wait as regulators around the United States, and the world, start modeling their Bitcoin regulations on the New York example, or we can act. Fortunately, we still have an opportunity to stop the BitLicense regulation and re-energize Bitcoin innovation. If we don’t act now, the choice will be made for us.”
The only and final opportunity for the Bitcoin community to act now to get BitLicense thrown out, according to the Foundation, is to support Chino’s legal challenge against it all the way to New York’s highest court.
Starting with his Article 78 petition, filed in October 2015, which seeks to establish the fact that the legislature never gave the NYDFS the authority to regulate Bitcoin and the regulation is arbitrary and an abuse of discretion, the Bitcoin Foundation has created a special Bitcoin wallet to assist with raising funds for the necessary legal fees to continue challenging these regulations.
The Foundation states in regards to the Theo Chino BitLicense legal fees fund:
“We may need to raise between $100,000 and $200,000, depending on the number of steps involved in the legal process, which means we need your BTCs now more than ever, in order to stop the Bitlicense regulation in its tracks, before it sets a global precedent. This case is scheduled for its next hearing in front of Justice Lucy Billings on Thursday, May 4, 2017. Please donate now to the legal fund in order to move this matter forward.”
A request for comment made to the executive director of the Foundation, Llew Claasen, was not immediately responded to.