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Bitcoin Foundation puts New York on the spot over BitLicense proposal

The foundation proposes an exhaustive cycle of drafts, comment periods, re-drafts, and more comment periods in order to thoroughly vet the proposed regulations.

The Bitcoin Foundation today announced that the New York Department of Financial Services has promised to provide the organization with more information about what is viewed by many as its controversial BitLicense proposal, according to a press release from the foundation.

Under New York's Freedom of Information Law, the foundation has submitted a request for "any risk management and cost-benefit analysis (or any other systematic assessment) that is a part of the 'extensive research and analysis'" that NYDFS cited when it issued its proposal in June. 

"The community can help you fit regulatory means to public interest ends if they have access to the risks your study of digital currencies identified," wrote Bitcoin Foundation Global Policy Counsel Jim Harper to New York's superintendent of financial services. The NYDFS promised hours later to deliver that information to the foundation within 20 days, according to the press release.

The Bitcoin Foundation also suggested that the NYDFS adopt "an iterative process, in which you issue drafts, take comments for three months, re-draft, and take comments again until the many, many issues raised by the proposed regulation are thoroughly vetted in true collaboration with the community."

Citing the NYDFS superintendent's willingness to engage with the community on Reddit, the Bitcoin Foundation letter highlighted tools such as News Genius and GitHub that would support a collaborative rulemaking process. "[T]he department should resist the constraints of administrative procedures developed in the era of postage stamps," Harper wrote. "We are confident that the community will meet you wherever you announce you will be engaging with them."

The Bitcoin Foundation will publish all materials received from the NYDFS for the Bitcoin community to review, the press release said. The organization noted that if the agency takes the full 20 days to respond, the materials will be available just days before the close of the original comment period on the regulations, which was the minimum 45 days allowed by New York law. The NYDFS has signaled that it will extend the comment period.