The alternative digital currency Bitcoin has found favor among anti-government types, but apparently any mention of its name draws fear in the hearts of some.
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When Mulligan Mint, a coin minting company that makes commemorative coins, launched “Bitcoin Coin” last month, the coin was met with hostility from their payment processor Capital One.
From Mulligan Mint:
To celebrate Bitcoin’s success and its principle, we launched the “Bitcoin Coin” last month. Like most of our products, the Bitcoin Coin is a precious metal coin, not a computer program or algorithm. The coin features the Bitcoin currency symbol on one side with a computer circuit board background. The reverse side is stamped with an operational QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone, taking the user to the M2 factory store.
[…] Apparently, mere mention of the word “Bitcoin” strikes terror into the hearts of banks and their compliance officers.
No one at Mulligan Mint was dragged into a storage room and questioned by Robert DeNiro. But Capital One did immediately shut down our merchant account to process credit card orders. Apparently, someone at the bank saw the word “Bitcoin” and didn’t bother to read the product description or any of our blogs about the coin.
It is Capital One’s policy not to do business with merchants who accept Bitcoin. […]
In the meantime, we continue to accept credit card purchases through Paypal.
While we don’t agree that financial transactions should be monitored by government in the absence of probable cause and due process, we respect Capital One’s position on this and value our business relationship with them. But their reaction illustrates just how large an impact Bitcoin and other complementary currencies have had upon the financial establishment. Just mention the name and chaos ensues.
We look forward to continuing our business relationship with Capital One and expect that someday we can all look back and laugh at this little mishap. In the meantime, Sgt. Hulka’s words of wisdom come to mind:
“Lighten up, Francis.”
Capital One has been reluctant to provide answers on their decision. Without explanation, the company withdrew their services from Mulligan Mint.
From the Mulligan Mint CEO, Rob Gray:
“Nobody seems to know who makes decisions there, the local branch gave us nothing, merchant services told us our account was cancelled for selling bitcoin and they were not interested in discussing the issue further,” Gray said.
Just to be clear, CoinDesk notes:
Mulligan Mint does not accept bitcoin as payment for any of its products, the only connection with the digital currency is that it sells two types of bitcoin medallion. Both feature the bitcoin currency symbol on one side, set on a background of a computer circuit board.
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