Apparently, carrying lapel pins that look vaguely
like the Bitcoin symbol through airport security was enough to
provoke questioning from confused Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) agents.
A pair of steely government workers confronted Davi Barker,
claiming they saw Bitcoin in his luggage. There is one obvious
problem with this. Bitcoin is digital. It can’t sit in luggage like
a wad of cash or a handful of tokens. (Although Casascius coins has sort of become
the face of the digital currency. Before being shut down by the
feds, the outfit manufactured physical coins with a private key
embedded. But generally it is impossible to encounter physically
incarnated Bitcoin.)
Barker replied suspiciously, “What did the Bitcoin look
like?”
“Like medallions or tokens,” one agent claimed.
It’s not clear exactly what prompted the additional screening.
Barker was wearing a hoodie with an image of an airplane unloading
Bitcoin from the skies. He also had a container of Blockchain.info
lapels buried in his bag.
The currency’s misguidedly poor reputation in government circles
might have spurred the additional screening. What little law
enforcement officers know about Bitcoin is generally bad, and
recently, authorities have been cracking down on the digital
currency. Two men were
arrested in Florida for money laundering last month. BitInstant
CEO Charlie Shrem was
charged with money laundering in late January.
TechCrunch
reports:
Whatever the legality or contorted logic of the added
inspection, it appears there’s a knee-jerk negative reaction to the
notorious currency.
Under money laundering laws, it is illegal to carry more than
$10,000 internationally. Once finally determining that Barker was
not flying abroad, the agents quickly abandoned the search.
When contacted by Forbes, the TSA
gave a generic statement about safety and terrorism:
TSA’s focus is on terrorism and security threats to the aircraft
and its passengers. TSA’s screening procedures are focused on
security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation
and passengers.
Davi Barker chronicles the incident in his blog here.
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