Below is a part of an interview between Juan Llanos, executive vice president of Bitreserve and David Landsman, Executive Director of the National Money Transmitters Association (NMTA):

JL: I understand you have been in touch with Bitcoin industry members.  What have those discussions been like?  How do their approaches and strategies compare to yours or the NMTA’s?

DL: Most Bitcoiners I have spoken to are not aware of their legal environment, or in a state of deep denial. It is not only about the federal and state legalities I mentioned above. They lack of awareness of the direct culpability society attaches to the Bitcoin dealer, if it later turns out that his Bitcoin customer dealt in drugs, terror, human smuggling, copyright infringement, hacking, or any type of criminal activity.  How could you have known, you say?  You are not responsible, you say?  Well, it is your responsibility, they say, to develop a credible ‘Know-Your-Customer’ program, one that is ‘reasonably designed’ to prevent, detect and report illegal money that moves through, or is in any way facilitated by, your company.

There are now at least 3 funded startups in the Bitcoin KYC space: Blockscore, Coin Validation and CoinTrust.

This all ties together with a post by Kristo Käärmann back in March: Government backed bitcoin