On the same day that the alleged mastermind of the clandestine Silk Road marketplace was found guilty for a host of crimes that thrust bitcoin into the public spotlight, regulators in New York came a step closer to licensing businesses that deal in the digital currency.

First, the shadowy stuff. Ross Ulbricht, a developer who prosectors said went by the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts" online and ran a $1.2 billion black market bazaar for illegal goods, was convicted of all seven counts against him, including money laundering and running a criminal enterprise. Bloomberg reported that the jury took just three hours to reach its decision in the case, which was heard in federal court in New York.

While a blow to some of the libertarians and anarcho-capitalists that turned Ulbricht and Silk Road into what Wired describes as "a cause célèbre," Ulbricht's conviction also closes a chapter in the sketchier parts of the bitcoin story that highlighted the currency's alleged use as a conduit for extortion and drug trafficking.

On the same day, New York's Department of Financial Services came out with a revised set of rules to regulate companies that buy, sell, hold, and transfer bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Businesses that issue gift cards or reward points will be excluded from the rules, following complaints from retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon over an initial definition of virtual currency they found to be overly broad.

The so-called "bit license" regulations are important because once finalized, they will become the first piece of state regulation to govern what was originally intended to be an unregulated, decentralized currency free from the hand of government.