Bitcoin has been tossed into the virtual gutter at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, as top US financial leaders warned the digital currency could be used to fund terrorism and predicted that regulation would put it out of business.<\/p>\n
US Treasury secretary Jack Lew said: \u201cFrom the government\u2019s point of view, we have to make sure it does not become an avenue to funding illegal activities or to funding activities that have malign purposes like terrorist activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an anonymous form of transaction and it offers places for people to hide,\u201d Mr Lew said in a televised interview with CNBC at Davos.<\/p>\n
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan chairman and chief executive, told the same channel: \u201cThe question isn\u2019t whether we accept it. The question is do we even participate with people who facilitate Bitcoin?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Mr Dimon said, Bitcoin would be subjected to the same regulatory standards as other payment systems and \u201cthat will probably be the end of them\u201d.<\/p>\n
Regulatory uncertainty has deterred banks from offering services to virtual currency start-ups. But Mr Dimon\u2019s cautious approach contrasts with rival Wells Fargo, which recently launched a group to examine how it might safely offer Bitcoin-related services or banking arrangements to virtual currency entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
The JPMorgan boss said: \u201cGovernments put a huge amount of pressure on banks, and so, to know who your client is, anti-money laundering, did you do real reviews of that? Obviously it\u2019s almost impossible with something like that.\u201d \u00a0Of course, Mr. DImon has tried hard to do just that.<\/p>\n
Dimon added that Bitcoin was \u201ca terrible store of value\u201d that \u201ccan be replicated over and over,\u201d and that according to reports, \u201ca lot of it is being used for illicit purposes\u201d.<\/p>\n
The US Treasury secretary seemed to agree with the JPMorgan boss, saying: \u201cI\u2019ve talked to Jamie Dimon about it. I think he and I both share a certain incredulity about the whole phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US Treasury declared last year that Bitcoin businesses must register as money services businesses and impose anti-money laundering checks on customers. Most of the 50 US states also impose their own regulations on money services businesses.<\/p>\n
However, JPMorgan only last month filed a US patent application for a computerised payment system, which like Bitcoin would allow people to make anonymous, electronic payments over the internet, without having to reveal their name or account numbers.<\/p>\n
Irish telecoms billionaire Denis O\u2019Brien added his voice to the Davos sceptics of the virtual currency by saying he would avoid investing in Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
![\"Bitcoins](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Bitcoins-at-Davos-300x226.jpg\")
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