Speaking of the dubious benefits of government regulations, Mike Cadwell just had to shut down his casascius coins business after FinCEN sent him a cease and desist letter accusing him of unlicensed money transmission. Note that Mike never accepted U.S. dollars for his casascius coins, so the only premium he got for his coins was in exchange for his coin's design and metals. So people were sending hims Bitcoins and in return they got Bitcoins plus a pretty gold/silver/bronze coin, clearly marketed as non-legal tender.

How anyone could consider this money transmission is beyond me. It's sickening hyper-regulation. And even more sickening is that the FinCEN rep stood in front of congress not even a month ago and assured congress how careful FinCEN was to not stifle innovation with overregulation. Admittedly, casascius coins aren't high technology (although they're very attractive), but the fact that FinCEN was so quick to crack down here does not inspire confidence at all.