



On June 3 rd , the New York Department of Financial Services issued its final virtual currency license (“BitLicense “) rule after nearly two years of debate and feedback. August 8 th , 2015 ended the 45 day grace period allotted for operations related to transactions involving any form of digital currency to operate without a license.





A license, the BitLicense, is required for any individual, or business, to conduct any form of business activity with New York State or a resident of, or business within the jurisdiction of, the State of New York, in the State of New York, from any other state in the United States, or from any other country in the world, as defined by the regulations of 23 NYCRR 200 in full effect as of August 9 th , 2015.





THE TOP TEN

The application is 31 pages, requires additional documents, some that will accrue additional costs, and must be completed in its entirety at the risk of forfeiture of the $5,000.00 required application fee.





Incomplete applications are returned with an itemized list of necessary documents and/or other materials, required to be considered a completed application. What will not be return is the 5,000 smackers.





Most of us have heard about this legendary, non-refundable, $5000.00 application fee. That's nothing compared to the other hidden gems in this document.





Here are the real "Gotcha's", David Letterman style. The 10 most ridiculous "Gotcha's" in the NY BitLicense Application.









#10.. The $5,000.000 Non-refundable fee.





This is out of reach for a lot of start-ups, but it's a bad joke, because this is really the least of their worries, being one of the less expensive things about the BitLicense





# 9... 15 years of work history!





What about people who are independently wealthy and haven't done a damn thing? What about people who have only worked for 7.32 years so far? Almost as ridiculous as big brother #8...





# 8... Permission to contact every company you've ever worked for!





Yeppers! Including Mr. McDonalds manager, where you may have worked in High School, lets hope you didn't piss him off, he might still be there! There's also a "kiss your privacy goodbye" form that must be signed, stating that the NYDFS can go ask any question they want to and acquire every juicy detail about any position you held at any company for the last 15 years.



Complete educational history is required as well.





# 7... 10 years of court records in EVERY county you've ever lived!





Not just your records, all of them , every single scrap of court records in every county you've ever lived. Including Federal, State, and Local! All court records for a decade if you waltzed through the county for any period of time.









# 6... Audited Financials! Weeeeeeee!





Across the board audited financials (some certified). For owners, affiliates, shareholding companies, board members, and anyone who mentions your company name! Ok, perhaps not that last part. This can cost $10,000.00, $20,000.00, or more. Even a startup company is looking at about $5,000.00 realistically.



"What is this you say? A company owns part of your startup? 2 years audited financials for them! That'll teach 'em to try and make things actually work around here!"

# 5 . . . You must predict the future !





For #5, you're going to need Doc Brown's magic hat . You have to provide any contract you are engaged in, or any contract you will be engaged in, that being future tense! How the hell is anyone suppose to know this? Yes, I know what they "mean", but this is still ridiculous.









# 4 . . . Paw Prints, Deeper Scoping, and ... wait for it .... SELFIES!





As if all of the aforementioned crap is not enough, get ready to shell out a few more thousand bucks for background checks (by licensed PI firms only) across the board, fingerprints, and ... you need to include a 2" by 2" Selfie! Say cheese!



Need a soothing ointment yet? Hold on, it gets worse.





# 3 . . . All of this crap for your Kiddo's too!





Indeed! In fact, go ahead and bring the "Fam". All beneficiaries are also subject to this intrusive scrutiny and have to supply a good portion of the same information that a Principal shareholder does. So if your kid's been bad, be forewarned, you might just find out exactly how bad!





# 2. .. The SECRET SURETY BOND!!





Yes folks, there's a "hidden fee". Shocker there! It's a surety bond that has to be in existence, but here's the swift kick in the groin.



THEY DO NOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH!



This is decided later, and at the discretion of the DFS. So be prepared to bribe some officials, because it may be the only way in. This is utterly ridiculous. After all is said and done, they can just pronounce a 1MM surety bond on you if they wish. Just to prove your broke if they haven't forced you into bankrupcty already.





# 1 . .. And the #1 most ridiculous "Gotcha" in the BitLicense application is ....





BITCOIN IS NOT ACCEPTED HERE!





All this yap about virtual this, that and the other with innovation, blah, blah, blah ... and they will take nothing but a check.



For some reason, I thought this was the lamest thing about the entire process. C'mon, you guys (NYDFS) want to regulate something of which you also "claim" you want it's innovation encouraged, and yet, you won't accept it? WTF?



But hey! They'll take a worthless piece of paper called a check.



The Veto Power Have they learned anything during this BitLicense process? Oh wait, yes they did !



They learned how to make it appear as if they are helping the little guys (startups) while making it impossible and out of reach for any of them. Except Coinbase, of course, being that they still say that they are a startup, a 75 Million dollar, eventual Z Round startup, but a startup nonetheless. Hell, they might not even enjoy this microscope up the rear.



Even if a startup did manage to scrape through this process, it's owners limping along in the aftermath of the grueling spanking of intrusive requirements and financial squeeze, there's still the ultimate VETO power of the surety bond. The NYDFS examiner of your application might just be in a bad mood the day he, or she, reviews your application and just slaps you with a nice fat whopper.



With less than perfect credit commanding a 15% payment of the total surety bond, the NYDFS can just finish you off, that is, if the application process doesn't kick your ass in the first place.



More to Come CoinDesk reported that 22 applications came in ($110,000 guaranteed revenue for the NYDFS), which means hundreds, if not thousands, of non-exempt companies, did not file. The NYDFS states that this was "about as expected".



Really? They expected everyone to think they suck ?



Am I hearing this accurately?



Benjamin M Lawsky is undoubtedly laughing hysterically that 22 companies actually subjected themselves to this probing, and now, of course, he's quickly stepping down and forming his own little "consulting" firm, rather conveniently timed wouldn't you say?



They call this a "drive-by" on the street, where you swoop in and destroy everything others spent years building and then scurry off and hide.



To be honest, I could have made a top 50, but it wouldn't have really rolled off of the tongue as elegantly and quite frankly, it just aggravates me the more I think about it. I am sure there are allot of other opinions on the top 10 as well, feel free to comment, it's wide open.



However fear not! There's more to come, we have a list of top 10's on the way! So until then ... run... run far away from this application, like I said before, it's a mouse trap .





















