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Comment by mhluongo | Hacker News Reader

Hey guys! You might remember our last app, Card for Coin, where we were buying Starbucks for bitcoin. Well, here's the other side- we're looking forward to your feedback.

The websocket stuff is a little touch and go, so please let me know if you have issues. Let me know if anyone has an issue loading a card or getting a refund, and I'll work it out.

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Did you, and if so, how did you address the legal issues brought up in your previous post? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7157180

I've got a firm working on the issue right now. We're seeking clarification from FinCen and keeping that side closed until we know their stance.

Is it still money laundering now that the IRS has said that Bitcoin is property and not currency?

> Is it still money laundering now that the IRS has said that Bitcoin is property and not currency?

Since that was an interpretation of categories in tax law, which are completely different than those applicable to money laundering, the IRS determination on how bitcoin is taxes probably has no bearing on any analysis of how money laundering laws apply.

Yes. The IRS and FinCEN are sister agencies, so the pronouncements of one agency have little effect on the other. In this case, for IRS (i.e., tax) purposes, bitcoin is property. For FinCEN purposes, bitcoin is a "virtual currency" which results in many but not all of the same rules that apply to persons dealing in real currencies.

everyone wants to know, how are you fulfilling the Starbucks card side of things?

Do you have access to a private API?

Are you distributing the barcode of a card you are auto-loading? (but then how do you know the balance post sale?)

Are you screen-scraping?

I think there's a lot of people in this thread that are v curious, please do tell :)

... but that's the secret sauce!

The short answer is a combination of all those things, plus some help from our partners. The economics is also pretty interesting. Happy to go into more detail over email :)

I think you would gain more by sharing and collaborating on the methodology than you would lose on potential copy-cats (or whatever your concerns are).

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