In front of the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Wednesday, developers of BitAccess, a Canadian bitcoin ATM, will demonstrate the kiosk’s various functions and features and reportedly assist Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein in acquiring some bitcoins.
Haseeb Awan, the co-founder of the one-year-old Ottawa, Ontario-based bitcoin startup, will highlight the benefits of these kinds of machines and to educate lawmakers who are still unaware of what the digital currency is before they decide to regulate it. This will reportedly be the company’s very first international showcase of its third generation bitcoin ATM.
The demonstration is part of the Senate’s 18-month study entitled “Risks, Advantages and Promises of Digital Currency.”
“[The Bitcoin] industry will flourish with regulations in place, however everyone involved in the process need to understand the protocol and implementations in detail before [regulating it]” Awan told Bitcoin Magazine.
U.S. Counterpart
This comes as Robocoin displayed its bitcoin ATM on Capitol Hill at the Rayburn House Office Building on Tuesday. This is the very first demonstrations of bitcoin in front of United States legislators. Colorado Democratic Congressman Jared Polis, a strong proponent of the cryptocurrency, purchased 0.02 bitcoin ($10).
Virginia Republican Congressman and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte attended the event and reportedly showed interest in the virtual money.
U.S. lawmakers are still mulling what to do with the virtual currency. Some officials want to ban the cryptocurrency, while others want to classify bitcoin as a legitimate currency rather than a commodity.
“When people don’t understand something there’s a natural tendency to fear it to try to preserve the status quo, and I expect those forces to continue to rear those heads, particularly with inevitable consumer loss and criminal activities that occur with any currency,” Polis said, who introduced the bill Virtual Currency Tax Reform Act.
