This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, December 8th, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The attempts to regulate Bitcoin in the United States so far have largely been stymied.

That doesn't mean it won't happen.

Will Luther, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, discusses a few of the arguments

for regulating Bitcoin and how well they stand up to scrutiny.

Bitcoin has not really caught on as a consumer product for everyday exchange.

And there are now competing services with the new chips that phones have in them.

You just have one of those phones out

before we started recording.

That visa has its way of paying.

Apple Pay has its way, Citibank has its way of paying using a phone, and it seems completely

reasonable to me that Bitcoin with minor adjustments by some entrepreneur could be that kind of product. But there are some

specific arguments for regulating Bitcoin that are offered by New York

Senator Chuck Schumer among others. that are

the

that are offered by New York Senator Chuck Schumer, among others.

So what are those arguments for regulating Bitcoin and how strong are they?

Well, first you're absolutely right.

It's important to think about a Bitcoin in two distinct ways.

First, as a payment mechanism and second as a monetary unit.

So as a payment mechanism, we're talking about how do you credit one account and debit another to make a payment.

...