Well I guess it will be incumbent on me to get the ball rolling.
Here is an outline for a response.
The proposed BitLicense neglects the fact that blockchain technology can be used in many ways that are or should be outside of the purview of the New York Department of Financial Services. These include:
(Add more examples here.)
(Also for each of the above, add mentions of non-blockchain examples that are not restricted by NYDFS.
In addition the impact of this legislation on open source software development must be reviewed. Many major companies in the U.S. are centered around open source software projects. Now all of them come under the cloud of this legislation since any open source software could be forked and/or copied into a project that comes under the BitLicense. This makes the original software developers subject to its' provisions even if they had no intention of entering the bitcoin marketplace. Since they have no way to retroactively or proactively track users of their software, they would become instant criminals based solely on the actions of unknown and unknowable third parties.
Most major financial institutions use open source software within their products, services, or internal business processes. In addition practically 100% of software start up companies use open source software to some degree. All of these companies would need to move operations outside of New York and/or block customers from New York.To the degree these regulations get replicated by other states, the provisions could force a major fraction of the economy offshore and deprive customers of the many conveniences that advanced software provides in the modern world.
(What other points do we need to make that directly impact this community?)
In conclusion...
(OK I made all of this up off the cuff. Is it a good start? Does it make legitimate points? I don't know, but I bet this community can figure it out.)
