The group of investors, SiliconValley bigwigs and financial regulators who gathered at last week'shearing in New York City came to the general conclusion thatBitcoin is worth creating policy to govern the digital currency.

Investors in Bitcoin, such as the Winklevoss twins, Cameron andTyler, are in favor of setting up minimal regulatory actions to setpolicy for the integration of Bitcoin intothe mainstream economy. They filed a proposal with regulators atthe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last July to operate anexchange trade for the digital currency, initially selling $20million worth of shares.

As the two collectively own 1% of all Bitcoins, it ispredictable that they would want some official way to trade them.And the New YorkTimes reported that Barry E. Silbert, thefounder of Bitcoin Investment Trust, stated that “it may beappropriate to regulate any transaction that involves anunregulated intermediary converting Bitcoin to dollars on behalf ofa third party.”

But others were more skeptical.

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures wants very littleregulation at all, if any. And Richard B. Zabel, prosecutorfrom the U.S. attorney office in Manhattan, is worried that thecurrency is too likely to be used to make criminal activity easierand more lucrative. The task now at hand is figuring out how toapply regulation to a thus-far underground currency – one thathas been associated with illegal activity and the online blackmarket called the Silk Road – to bring it into the realm ofthe mainstream economy. For as many worries as there are aboutBitcoin's tendency to be used for criminal activity, there areplenty who are using it for legal trade as well.

Of course, the hearings were slightly overshadowed – butnot clouded – by the arrest of Charlie Shrem the day prior.Shrem was the CEO of BitInstant, an organization that sellsBitcoins to users. His association with dealing Bitcoins to aperson who was also arrested and who dealt directly on the SilkRoad highlighted the very anxieties of financial regulators lookingfor a way to put parameters on the digital currency. The road toregulating Bitcoin will be a long one, but New York could be thefirst state to do it.