This is serious stuff, and I want to mention to anybody on HN who is thinking about running a business like this given the rise in cryptocurrency related platforms, please consult a lawyer before you embark on your quest.
These are serious laws and it doesn't cost much to find out if you're in or outside of MSB regulations.
Some additional advice for anybody doing so regardless of where they live or the market they service:
- Contract a legitimate 3rd party ID verification service like bitstamp does. You get API access where the entire verification process can be automated on your end, and it's out of your hands, so you have some kind of legal protection offloading the KYC risk to that party.
- Encrypt all internal employee messages, regardless if they are totally innocent looking a prosecutor will find some way to twist the emails and chats into a crime. Have a written data deletion policy for internal messaging so they are not saved forever, as deleting them to satisfy a business operations policy will prevent possible future obstruction or evidence tampering nonsense charges.
- Avoid any and all political ideology, don't call your service DownWithTheFedCoin. Notice how the prosecutors made a point about Liberty Reserve's name.
- If you create an asset pegged to a currency don't use USD.
Finally have clear, concise instructions to resolve disputes, and some kind of phone number escalation procedure for users to actually talk to somebody. Better yet have a disinterested 3rd party to help moderate customer disputes in a totally transparent way instead of merely freezing accounts and ignoring their emails. As soon as somebody has their funds seized or delayed they run to regulators and lawyers to complain which in turn spawns government attention on your little cryptocurrency related service.
These are serious laws and it doesn't cost much to find out if you're in or outside of MSB regulations.