Story by
Kaylene Hong
Kaylene Hong was Asia Reporter for The Next Web between 2013 and 2014, based in Singapore. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin. Stay in Kaylene Hong was Asia Reporter for The Next Web between 2013 and 2014, based in Singapore. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin. Stay in touch via Twitter or Google+.
There’s more good news for Bitcoin after California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill known as AB 129 under ‘Lawful Money’ that basically legalizes the use of Bitcoin and other digital currencies in the state.
The bill makes changes to current law to “ensure that various forms of alternative currency such as digital currency, points, coupons or other objects of monetary value do not violate the law when those methods are used for the purchase of goods and services or the transmission of payments.” However, as Coindesk notes, the bill does not introduce regulations for Bitcoin, which may fall to other government departments to do so.
Bitcoin may have suffered a severe battering this year — think Mt. Gox’s downfall and government crackdowns, the most recent one being China, where two national banks and Tenpay banned cryptocurrencies — but recently, things seem to be looking up. Apple started letting the first Bitcoin apps back into the App Store following its new policy on virtual currencies, while Google and Yahoo took steps to recognize Bitcoin as a legit currency after they started showing Bitcoin prices on their respective finance networks.
Thumbnail image via Shutterstock
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