Quote from Investing.com :
"Australia has announced plans to regulate digital currencies such as bitcoin.
The move will bring bitcoin providers under the remit of Austrac, the government's financial intelligence agency.
Australia also plans to strengthen its anti-money laundering laws.
The regulatory shake-up comes after a money laundering scandal involving Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Australia’s move to regulate cryptocurrencies follows a similar decision by Japan.
Japan was the first country to take such action.
Tokyo’s decision to regulate bitcoin followed the 2014 bankruptcy of Mt Gox, the world’s largest virtual currency exchange.
By regulating the currency, Japan officially recognized bitcoin as a legal method of payment"
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You've got to laugh (or cry).
We the people have a decentralised, self contained and self governed currency system.
It's been around for 6 years with its mechanics run as a pure free market. It's been working on its own through the choice of merchants willing to accept it and peoples confidence in using it.
UNREGULATED.
How jolly nice for goverments to suddenly start recognising it as 'legal' currency now their monopoly on our lives is threatened.
How about they just fuck off and do one?
Nuff said.