California is known for its significant regulation on businesses. Bitcoin has been eyed for regulation by the California legislature. Legislation has been drawn up time and time again with the intention of regulating businesses involved with digital currency. The plans and the legislation, however, are not going anywhere. The Golden State is not going to impose any regulations on the world of digital currency. The legislation sat in limbo for about a year. Out of the blue, the legislation was brought forth for consideration.

Now, it is back in limbo. Assembly Bill 1326 has returend to committee where it will stay for at least another year. At this stage, it would be safe to say there is no desire to regulate the digital currency industry. Nothing is going to change much on the political landscape of California for the forseeable future.

Interestingly, there have been calls over regulation due to concerns over the security of deposits of Bitcoin. Usually, consumer protections are very easy to run through a legislature and acquire a governor’s signature. In California, the process of regulating this industry is effectively a no go.

Perhaps a great many details have to be worked out before the bill makes its way to the floor. A lot of lobbying has taken place regarding the legislation. Representatives from the digital currency industry likely invested a lot of effort keeping the legislation stalled. Others in the technology industry probably don’t want to see too much regulation on Bitcoin and other currency being imposed.

In time, there may be a bill forthcoming that all parties agree with. The bill in question here may be scrapped completely and a new one could be drafted. The new version may fly right through the committee with no hassles, experience a quick debate on the floor, and then end up signed into law with no worries. Stranger things have happened in the political world. Hashing out a more acceptable bill is not exactly impossible.

As of right now, no guarantees any legislation focusing on digital currency regulation is going to see the light of the legislative floor in 2017. Things can and do change. A major catastrophe in the digital coin world such as many depositors losing massive funds from their wallets could lead to a law – or several laws – being passed.

Speculation abounds regarding the reasons why serious movement on the bill is not taking place. An argument could be made that anything that limits commerce would not be good for California’s economy. California is a huge state and has an equally significant economy.

Customers do like to make the quickest and easiest purchases possible. Bitcoin has been able to effectively target these types of customers. Not everyone is going to be sold on the relatively new concept of digital currency, but there are those who like to be hip. Tech-savvy persons fall under this description and they are going to be open to using Bitcoin. Businesses do want to attract the commerce of these customers and anything placed in the way of such persons means fewer purchases. Eventually, this translates into less tax dollars for state coffers.

This is not to suggest there is a massive number of people who are reliant on Bitcoin transactions. A certain niche of digital currency fans exist and, while their contributions to the economy are appreciated, the number of persons who comprise the niche are relatively small. Since the numbers are not significant, the need to push for regulation just isn’t a priority right now. In time, the numbers of people using Bitcoin are going to grow. Such growth is going to be the logical outcome of more people becoming familiar and comfortable with this type of currency.

Regulating the deposits, withdrawals, and trading of Bitcoin and other digital currencies is going to be impossible not to do when millions of people in a single state are regularly conducting digital currency transactions.

Far too many people would end up with far too much to lose if the industry was unregulated at that point. For example, rules could be put in place requiring those producing Bitcoin wallets to carry mandatory amounts of depositor insurance. This is one example. Lawmakers are sure to come up with many more.