Mr. Benjamin M. Lawsky
Superintendent of Financial Services
New York Department of Financial Services
One State Street
New York, NY 10004-1511

Dana V. Syracuse
Office of General Counsel
New York Department of Financial Services
One State Street
New York, NY 10004-1511

July 23rd, 2014

Dear Mr. Lawsky and Mr. Syracuse,

The undersigned companies, organizations, and individuals are interested in providing financial services & software products that use or leverage bitcoin and virtual currencies to citizens in the state of New York.

We seek to have all members of the bitcoin community play an active part in submitting thoughtful comments in response to the New York Department of Financial Services rulemaking under Title 23, Part 200: Virtual Currencies or “BitLicense.” Having reviewed the proposal, the undersigned hereby request a minimum 45-day extension to the deadline for filing public comment on the proposed Department of Financial Services rules expected to be published in the New York Registrar on July 23rd, 2014 pursuant to the published guidelines on the NY Department of State website requiring a statutory minimum of 45 or 60 days with additional 30 day period when substantial changes are required.

We believe an extension is necessary if stakeholders and interested parties are to have adequate opportunity to provide constructive feedback on both the broad scope and detailed components of the proposed rules materially impacting an entire nascent industry. Many of us are individuals or small startups operating on limited budgets without access to extensive legal resources. This imposes a substantial burden as we seek to understand the proposed rules and their current and future impacts on our businesses, open-source projects, and educational research.

The Department of Financial Services is requesting comments within the statutory minimum 45 days on 40 pages of focused, detailed, and highly technical company-specific issues. For example, comments will be required to clarify the inconsistent statements of applicability on the face of the proposed rules to firms that "receiv[e] Virtual Currency for transmission or transmit[] the same" [Section 200.2(n)(1)] and the apparent exception for merchant and consumers that utilize virtual currency for the “sale of goods or services” [Section 200.3(c)(2)].

On the other hand, the proposal seeks comments on numerous broad, complex macro-level issues. For example, members of the bitcoin community will need to provide clarity to the opaqueness of the proposed definition of “virtual currency business activity" and what that might mean for a business or product/service line [Section 200.3].

The NYDFS has demonstrated a willingness to partner with the bitcoin and virtual currency community by making a good-faith effort of publicly engaging the community to collaboratively draft these rules and regulations that will support commerce & innovation while still providing strong consumer protections for those residing in New York and beyond. It would be a natural extension of this approach to extend the public comment period to allow the bitcoin community to provide sound, reasoned, and concrete feedback to the proposed rules.

Thank you for your consideration of our request and we would be happy to speak further on these issues at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Union Square Ventures
Barry Silbert, Founder, SecondMarket
Stephen Pair, CEO, BitPay, Inc
Tim Byun, Chief Compliance Officer, BitPay, Inc
Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-Founder, Coinbase
Fred Ehrsam, Co-Founder, Coinbase
Timothy Draper, Venture Capitalist, Draper Associates/DFJ
Gavin Andresen, Chief Scientist, Bitcoin Foundation
Jeremy Allaire, CEO, Circle Internet Financial, Inc.
Sean Neville, CTO, Circle Internet Financial Inc.
Will O'Brien, CEO and Co-Founder, BitGo, Inc.
Mike Belshe, CTO and Co-Founder, BitGo, Inc.
Ben Davenport, CPO and Co-Founder, BitGo, Inc.
Wences Casares, CEO, Xapo
Karsten Behrend, Chief Compliance Officer, Xapo
Patrick Murck, General Counsel, Bitcoin Foundation
Joseph Lubin, Co-Founder, Ethereum
Adam Draper, Managing Director, Boost VC
Brayton Williams, Co-Founder, Boost VC
Jesse Powell, CEO, Kraken
Azba Habib, Deputy General Counsel, Kraken
James Robinson, Managing Partner, RRE Ventures
Marco Santori, Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP
Erik Voorhees
John  McDonnell, CEO, Bitnet Technologies Ltd
Stephen McNamara, CTO, Bitnet Technologies Ltd
Alan Safahi, CEO, Zipzap, Inc.
Greg Kidd, Chief Risk Officer, Ripple Labs
Karen Gifford, Chief Compliance Officer, Ripple Labs
Elizabeth Ploshay, Board Member, Bitcoin Foundation
Alan Silbert, CEO, BitPremier
Avish Bhama, CEO, Vaurum
Byron Gibson, COO, Vaurum
Jaron Lukasiewicz, Coinsetter
Marshall Swatt, Coinsetter
Michael Terpin, BitAngels
Megan Burton, CoinX
Christopher Camp, Blockchain.Info
Corey Glaze, Bitpay
Fernando Gouveia, Xapo
Chris Hermida, Circle Internet Financial
Max Scholten, Circle Internet Financial
Jacques Reulet, Coinbase
Sarah Hody, Hody ESQ
Mike Harden, Senior Partner, Artis Ventures
Andy Artz, Social Capital Partnership
Alec Petro, Bay Hill Capital Management
Sebastian Serrano, Bitpagos, Inc.
Ryan Singer, Regulation Bitcoin
Elizabeth Stark, Threshold
Austin Walne, Facts About Bitcoin
James Edwards, Coinalytics.Co
Pamir Gelenbe, Coinsummit
Serena Jones, CoinTeller Inc.  
Noah Berger, CoinTeller Inc.
Taariq Lewis, Digital Tangible Inc.
Karl Keefer, Digital Tangible Inc.
Ron Gross, Mastercoin Foundation
Christopher David, CoinVox
Adam Krellenstein, Counterparty
Christopher Montaño, Counterparty
Matt Young, Counterparty
Joel Dietz, SWARM
Jonathan Levin, Coinometrics
Andrew Geyl, Coinometrics
Scott Walker, ZenBox
Marshall Hayner, QuickCoin
Miron Cuperman, Cryptocorp
Scott Robinson, Plug and Play Bitcoin
Perianne Boring, Chamber Of Digital Commerce
David Berger, Digital Currency Council, Inc.
Adam Stradling, coin4ce. com
Tim Olson, Epic Scale
Lafe Taylor, Cycle of Goodness Cooperative
David Johnston, OffWorldWealth Inc.
Matthew Kenahan, The Bitcoin Society
Sean Cremins, Boston College/Chomping at the Bit
Phil Knirck, Software AG
Matt Decourcelle, LTBcoin
David Dvorak, Wow Such Business, Inc
Simon Rubin, First BITCoin Capital Corp.
Curtis Lacy, Engine, Inc.
Stephen Calnan, Null Hammer Technology Concern
Matthew Elias, The Precedent Protocol
Jeremy Lam, vennd .io
Stephen, Sunderlin, Qikcoin, Inc.
Cameron Gray, Decentral.Bangtown
Patrick Dugan, Crypto Currency Concepts
Dan Elitzer, MIT Bitcoin Project
Jeremy Rubin, MIT Bitcoin Project
Andrew Miller, University of Maryland
Ryan Breslow, Stanford University
Eric Feldman, Stanford University
Andy Bromberg, Stanford University
Phil Brady, Stanford University
Rahil Gupta, Harvard Business School
Daniel Vogel, Harvard Business School
Mark Robinson, Kansas State University
Steven Godbold, University Of Michigan
Sankalp Kulshreshtha, Carnegie Mellon University
Joseph Miller, Rutgers University
Ryan Lanman, Duke University
Elliot Swartz, UCLA
Joe Rivera, Bitcoin Austin
Aaron Williams, Atlanta Bitcoin
Dave Bernardi, Michigan Bitcoiners
David Orban, Dotsub
Ali Goss, Hellobit
Ryan Selkis, TBI Daily
Sandi MacPherson, Quibb
Dev Shuster, Bear Reconciliations
Joseph Krug, Ausum PoS
P. Collin Paran, MuBeta Corporation Inc.
Jason Rosenstein, OSFDA
Bojan Simic, Bitcoin Security Project
Stephen Govoni, CoinShovel
Tina Hui, Follow The Coin
Mickey Costa, Atlas Card
Christopher Smith, Orboros
Nicolò Maria, Tapeke Ltd
Eric Cogen, BitcoinRT.info
William Chung, Network Mapping
Jason Carleski, Prypto Group Ltd.
Bradford Rajani, Horizon Healthcare
Nicolas Courtois, UCL
Joseph Chello, Bitpaintings.com
Mark Norton, BitcoinWarrior.net
Kyle Mahon, Hotham rentals
Michael Cutlip, Real Ideas, LLC
John Carvalho, bitcoin-assets. com
Adam Ettinger, Strategic Counsel Corp.
Matthieu Riou, BlockCypher
Sam Fisher, BTC Mint US
Christine Joy Igpuara, Semtraining.com
Gabe Evans, HashRabbit, Inc.
Chris Shepherd, HashRabbit, Inc.  
Matthew Martin, Blossom
Alex Peterson, Vis Nova Ventures LLC
Rachel Cook, Seeds Inc.
Naveed Lalani, Portable Boutique, Inc.
Stefano Capaccioli, Coinlex
Haseeb Awan, BitAccess Inc.
Christopher Morton, BlockScore
Matt Luongo, Card for Coin, Inc
Jacques Voorhees, Verichannel, LLC
Andre Castro, eCoinCashier
Blake Carpenter, BlakeChain
Michael Muller, Enduden Consulting  
Mike Johnson, Coin Fire
Shawn Owen, 53 Peaks
Aaron Rosencrants, 757 Bitcoin
Brad Dowhaniuk, 99Pledges
Addison Camp, A. Camp Ventures
Dawn Conner, Altcointoday
Anton Zhadovich, Anton Dds Llc
Tyler Evans, Apstr Inc.
Benjamin Lake, Archose Systems, Llc
Casi Biebl, Arm & Hammerconst
Raymond Cline, Bitcoin Center
Calvin Tran, Bitcoin Center
Guillaume Babin-Tremblay, Bitcoin Embassy Montreal
Spencer Noon, Btcity, Llc
Ilya Subkhankulov, Btx Trader Llc
Josh Cantu, Catnu Inc
John Roets, Createtank
Helene Unland, Cryptor Trust Inc.
Gurinder Bhangoo, Easy Rentals
Chris Sweis, Junowallet
James Evans, Knightsbridge Online
Khoa Pham, Krypto Tribe, LLC
Daniel May, Liberty Mutual
Marc Matthews, Mhc, Inc.
Spencer Ruport, Netor Technologies
Melissa Williams, Pebble
Phil Namdar, Rock'D
Rock Siles Barcellos, Rockincomics
Florio Tiramani, Sherkgroupllc
A.J. Hong, The Bitcoin Society
William Witenberg, Witenberg Investment Company
Branden Petersen, Yesbitcoin
Alex Van Der Peet, Yutani Software
Max Goldstein, Hashbrown
Bernard Rihn, Hashplex Inc
Julio Lanza, TechRepairs4Bitcoin
James Doe, Pomona College
Mark Meredith, M1M Endeavor
Nicolo' Paternoster
Mark Lamb, Coinfloor
Jon Thomas, Jbrservices
Joachim De Koning, Hybrid Assets
Morten Pedersen, Bitcoin Denmark
Rob Schot, Dutch Coins
Huy Pham, University Of Washington
Andre Infante, Coinreport.Net
Ron Hose, Coins.Ph
Alex Liu, Maicoin
Nimrod Lehavi, Simplex
Stephany Zoo, Leaguex
Jay Villarante, Loud Panda Interactive, Inc.
Lawrence Nahum, Greenaddress
John Bailon, Citadel Industries, Inc.
Jeremy Fraser, Breakblock
Anthony Buck, Elite Withdrawals Llc
Lawrence Nahum, Greenaddress
Chris Cawley, Tech Advisors
Mateusz Kopeć, Hochschule Bremen
Alex Ziebland, Go Communications Systems Ltd
Michael Mott, Michael M . Labs
Daniel Murrell, Coinduit
Derek Minter, Honeybadgr
Paul Paterakis, Ny Bitcoin Group
Hayden Gill, Coin Miner Llc
David Croft, Coin Miner Llc
Brendan O'Connor, Secondmarket Trading
Justin Drake, Anthemis
Troy Bradley, Bitfusion.Biz
Jonathan Rogiest, Nicaragua Bitcoin Foundation
Don Mccollougb
Steven Schram, Chapter 1 Software
Mentor  Palokaj, Ninjamask Security
Gregory Schvey, Tradeblock
Hayel Abbassi, Gocheto Financials
Teri Welsch, Verichannel Llc
James Welsch, Verichannel Llc
Andrew Grennan, Colorado Springs Local Brokerage
Mohan Thurairajah, Cointex
Alex Varone, Upportunity
Ilia Goro, Renegade Servers
Matt Roszak, Tally Capital
Halsey Minor, Bitreserve
Nicolo' Paternoster
Pedro Bueno, UFSC
Mohan Thurairajah, Cointex
Johnny Mayo, Neuroware Inc
Simon Selitsky, Coingyft
Francis Pouliot, Bitcoin Foundation Canada
Jad Mubaslat, BitQuick.co
Nicholas Bottos, BTC Merchant Services, LLC
Peter Klamka, Bitcoin Brands Inc.
Skye Elijah, Coinbeyond
Nathan Wosnack, Crypto Biz Group
Kyle Kilgore, Sharp Seo Services
Javier Dutan, Novaux, Inc
Mykola Babenko, Novetlylab Inc.
David Smith, Cash On Cryptos
Keith Langley, CryptoCoinDaily
Bryce Weiner, Blockchain Technology Group
Eric Han, Integrated Silicon Solutions, Inc.
Paulo Tavares, Xchangebtc Corp
Richard Wagner, Citec
Matan Field, La'Zooz
Andrea Ciceri, Crypto-Kiosk
Mike Walker, Crypto-Kiosk
Jaco Bolle, The Bolle Group
Francesco, Simonetti, Holy Transaction
Andrew Barnard, Bitstop
Richard Goforth, Bitcoin-Trader.Biz  
Alessandro Valerio, Twimt
Kipp Watson, Swappermall
Eric Grill, Coinoutlet Inc
Dennis King, Asylum Investments Llc
Jonathan Kapelus, Tuft & Knott
Witold Piorun, Texas Coinitiative
Riley Alexander, Forcoins LLC
Alex Duplessie, Storj
Emiel van Bokhoven, Bitcoin Bok
Johann Barbie, CTO, 37coins, Inc.
Gerald Wilkie, HashMaster Tech LLC
Alice Townes, Townes Law
Stefan Patatu, Bitcoin-Trader.biz
Angela Kuo, SecondMarket
Thomas Kornbluh, PlanetWave Media
Chris Lamont, Bitclear LLC
Steven Johnson, Dragon Fly Trust
David Sutter, The Bitcoin Society
Brett Russell, BIGbtc, Ltd.
Cody Littlewood, Codelitt Incubator & Incoin
Carlos Feliciano, Incoin
Naomi Brockwell, bitcoingirl. org
Paul Chou, LedgerX
Teck Chia, HashTrust
Brad Stephens, Crypto Currency Partners, LP
Nick Sullivan, ChangeTip
Matt Mihaly, Iron Realms Entertainment
David Rangel, Corona Labs
Alfred Gaiani, bitcoin-trader.biz
Jeremy Gardner, Executive Director/Cofounder, College Cryptocurrency Network
Hugo DeSanctis, Corsario Trading, Inc.
Toni Lane Casserly, ChangeTip
Marco Crispini, MatrixVision
Joshua Finkleman, Banctek Solutions
Emiel van Bokhoven, Bitcoin Bok
Mark Coleman, BitCoinada
Nikhil Srinivasan, Bitpass, Inc.
Juan Llanos. Bitreserve
Brian Geffen, BTC Reddit
Sean Wince. Coin Brief
Emily Spaven, CoinDesk
Daniel Cawrey, CoinDesk
Keith Horwood, CoinDesk Ltd
Wendy Wallace, CoinLab
Andre D Castro, eCoinCashier
Alexander Morrow, Epic Scale
Domenic Carosa, Future Capital Bitcoin Fund
Remco Marcelis, Future Capital Bitcoin Fund
Tony Stephen, Future Capital Bitcoin Fund
Leon-Gerard Vandenberg, Future Capital Bitcoin Fund
Doug Depker, GSCS LLC
Joachim de Koning, Hybrid Assets
Jeremy Lingmann, Mesosphere
P. Collin Paran, MuBeta Corporation Inc.
Stephen Boriotti, Open Source Financial Developers Association
Brian Bloomer, Orboros
R.C. Hall, OSFDA
JF Whiting, Precision Trim, LLC
Herbert van Collenburg
Leonel Lacayo, Recluta
Christine Joy Igpuara, Semtraining.com
Shawn Wilkinson, Storj
Nicolò Maria Lazzarin, Tapeke Ltd
Daniel Himmelstein, UCSF
Penny Hamilton, United Airlines
Dennis Porto University of Iowa
Justin Hendrix, Whuti
Alex van der Peet, Yutani Software
Jeremy Kandah,Team Blockchain
Sean King, Attorney, CIC Services, LLC
Vignesh Sundaresan, BitAccess
Moe Adham, BitAccess
Dominic, Williams, Pebble Cryptocurrency
Terry Floyd, http:// bitcoinexpress. us
Collete Davis, Collete Davis Racing
Tanaya Macheel, CoinDesk
Devon Read, Blockchain Technology Group
Tim Curry, Clear Technologies
Ryan Kee
James Lange
Greg Slepak
Jerry Morian
Sean Beck
Matthew Campassi
Jay Gee
Talwinder Singh
Clifford Wright
Bradley Ploof
Russell Kelsick
Shane Melert
Steven DaSilva
Virgilio Lizardo Jr
Maria Lourdes
James Broughton
Evan Shive
Jared Gaeta
Miles Suter
Brooke Mallers
Daniel Barbosa
Rob Greenbacker
Michael Johnson
Daniel Mane
Bardi Einarsson
Stan Huculak
Carl Anthony
Herbert van Collenburg
Greg Darden
Emanuel Martins
Dennis Patel
Michele Sorenson
Don Skurauskis
Christopher Bean
Ryan Hancock
Emanuel Martins
Dennis Patel
Michele Sorenson
Don Skurauskis
Christopher Bean
Freddy Billqvist
Andrew Mawyer
Justin Hawley
Jo Macdonald
Kerry Sessions
Edward Johnson
Kate Born
Brent Jewell
Daniel Schott
Julian Knewitz  
Jen Valerias
Edwin Critz
Marc Mattox
Eric Moon
Anthony Spinelli
Lisa Hester
John Carley
Robert Tiger
Vernon Sanders
Asghar Shah
Johan Broeksma
Alex Hulsman
Michael Caselli
Pete Johnson
Maria Lourdes Diotay
James Hatzell
Vincent Rangel
John Beauregard
Tiago Marques
Phalen Kuckuck
Cameron Deloche
Darren Wilks
Richard Moore
Phil Peterman
Thomas Hughes
Timmothy Ostgaard
Aslan Freeman
Michael Buick
James Sypniewski
Christopher Halbersma
Johannes Gerardus
Chris Edwards
Erik Goff
Bilal Shaikh
John Baric
Jason Dorsett
Parker Frech
David Shares
Jason Hess  
William Jacobs  
Michael Longoria  
Chris Jefferson-Jones  
Rob Agnew  
Barry Wilson  
Aria Eslami  
Jake Thesnake
Brian Nicholson
Galiano Tiramani
Drew Breyer
Artem Udeykin
Richard Joerger
Carl Farah
Nathan Bowers
Danielle Bowers
Joseph Farag
Aaron Silvers
Andrew Jarmon
Tim Boulay
Brian Goss
Patrick Killian
Jason Hyacinthe
Theo Chino
Karel Brokes
James Morgan
John Allen
Spencer Penaloza
George Burke
Eugene Jhong
Mark Howard
Charles Lehner
James Barcelona
Rmaen Jain
Sean King
Morgan Sutherland
Jason Kende
Phil Maher
Haixiong Yang
Kosta Zertsekel
Zaki Manian
Susan Miller
Jonathan Schnieder
Daniel Ruskin
Thomas Franken
Gordon Thompson
Justin Tannenbaum