Isle of Man’s Labour Party Gets Squeamish Over the Whole ‘Digital Cash’ Thing

Manx news outlet The Isle of Man Today reported Thursday that the Manx Labour Party has called for the island’sDepartment of Economic Development to conduct a risk assessment of cryptocurrencies, which apparently are giving Labour a cause for concern.
Bitcoin, the party said, is ‘the payment of choice on the Dark Web,’ according to the story.
Here is the full text of the statement from Manx Labor press officer David Carter:
‘The government must give serious consideration to the evolving international regulatory environment.
‘The island has an ambition to lead the way.
‘However, there is a risk that a small jurisdiction such as ours will in the future conflict with the UK, EU and especially USA where at present a public review is under way of a proposal to impose stricter regulations on cryptocurrency businesses.
‘The Manx Labour Party believes that the government should take a more balanced approach to the regulation of this emerging sector.
‘This more balanced approach must include substantial oversight of all cryptocurrency businesses operating on the island.
‘The government must take material steps that target possible criminal, financial and political risks, without undermining the activities of entrepreneurs who wish to develop legitimate businesses that utilise this new and potentially valuable technology.’

This post was published at Coin Telegraph on 2014-10-09.