Following the release of the “BitLicense” regulation by the New York Department of Financial Services, ShapeShift.io, an Altcoin and Bitcoin exchange platform has suspended service to all residents of New York State.
The Bitcoin and Altcoin exchange now responds to “BitLicense” Regulation and launches a new site dedicated to consumer’s protection awareness, PleaseProtectConsumers.org.
In response to the new regulation, ShapeShift is redirecting all site traffic from New York to the new initiative: PleaseProtectConsumers.org and inviting other digital currency companies to do the same. The site provides an overview of the identity theft problem in America and encourages New Yorkers to contact their representatives and media outlets.
The company says NY’s new anti-competitive licensing scheme, violates consumer protections and puts users at risk. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, identity theft is a multi-billion dollar problem in America–more costly than burglary, vehicle theft, and traditional property theft, combined.
Voorhees, the company’s CEO stated:
“Identity theft is an epidemic, more costly to society than many other forms of theft and crime. It is pervasive because the antiquated financial system–based on credit cards and banks–only works when personal information is attached to your transaction. Bitcoin has finally solved this problem, by enabling 100% secure transactions without attaching your private information. Now, New York wants to mandate that consumers continue to be put at risk, even though technology has provided a solution to identity theft.”
The BitLicense requires companies to forcefully extract personal, private information from users of Bitcoin services, thereby exposing these users to hackers and identity theft. When a customer’s name, address, ID, and other private details are collected by companies, they can end up in databases which are routinely hacked and abused. In June this year alone, the private records of millions of Americans have been stolen from government computers.
Shapeshift considers that New York is ordering an unethical and dangerous data collection of users, and for that it’s suspending its services to that territory.
The company hopes other jurisdictions will be less reckless with the private information of their residents, and that their move might trigger an exodus of cryptocurrency related companies from New York.
Press Release provided By Shapeshift.io