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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTSA Harasses Traveler After 'Seeing Bitcoin' In His Bag
The TSA attempted to "screen" airline passenger Davi Barker for the virtual currency Bitcoin.
Barker is co-founder of BitcoinNotBombs, a Bitcoin advocacy group that gets donation-based organizations and social entrepreneurs set up to handle the currency. He's written a very detailed telling of what happened right here. After going through security (he opted out of the body scanner but was successfully cleared through the checkpoint), two people stopped him, and it got uncomfortable quickly.
If this sounds weird to you, it's because it is. Bitcoin is digital and doesn't exist in the physical world to "see Bitcoin" in a bag would be like seeing email in a bag. What the agent more likely saw, says Barker, is the orange Bitcoin logo sweatshirt Barker was wearing at the time, promo material for his organization's annual "Hoodie the Homeless" drive. It looked like this:
Barker also travels with lots of Bitcoin-themed lapel pins that he sells at conferences. It's reasonable to assume that the agent was talking about these pins, but that would require a gross misunderstanding of what Bitcoin is.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-tsa-screening-2014-2
Scuba
(53,475 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)about 6 minutes in, is the reference....
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)(no disrespect intended towards the Stooges. But I'll bet they could have made a hell of a parody out of the TSA)
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Democat
(11,617 posts)If you walk into an airport with clothing featuring bombs, it's possible they will give you more attention, regardless of whether you are involved with bitcoins or not.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Spacemom
(2,561 posts)Not being "Pro war" makes you open to scrutiny these days.