Bitcoin businesses back petition for easing of BitLicense proposal

Over 70 cryptocurrency industry businesses, executives and advocates are backing a petition that puts a case forward for the easing of allegedly arduous features of New York's BitLicense proposal.

The petition has been submitted as a part of a recently concluded public comment period. It has so far found support from companies such as Coinbase,Blockstream, BitPay, Circle and Ripple Labs and prominent developers and venture capitalists.

It seeks to put across the argument that it is unreasonable for the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to apply its provisions unilaterally across the industry, arguing that the developers of open-source protocols, micropayments providers, security intermediaries and smaller entrepreneurs should not be included in certain coverage.

Yale Law School's Elizabeth Stark, one of the people behind the petition, told CoinDesk:

"The goal here was to bring a substantial part of the community to one proposal as opposed to different proposals so that there's strength in numbers."