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EU Set To Crack Down On Bitcoin and Anonymous Payments After Paris Attack (thestack.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the out-in-the-open dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Home affairs ministers from the European Union are set to gather in Brussels for crisis talks in the wake of the Paris attacks, and a crackdown on Bitcoin, pre-paid credit card and other forms of 'anonymous' online payments are on the agenda. From the article: "According to draft conclusions of the meeting, European interior and justice ministers will urge the European Commission (the EU executive arm) to propose measures to strengthen the controls of non-banking payment methods. These include electronic/anonymous payments, virtual currencies and the transfers of gold and precious metals by pre-paid cards."

8 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. An excuse by Etherwalk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I understand that cutting of the money supply for terrorist is very effective, and I can understand bitcoin as it can move large amounts of money, however I don't get pre-paid cards? Do they want traceability when people use these items when using a VPN?

    It's money laundering. The terrorism is in part an excuse, but realistically a massive portion of the criminal economy runs on cash. If you have a way to turn cash into transmittable currency, you have easy money laundering and untraceable transactions.

    We appreciate our privacy, but there are *billions* of dollars of illegal transactions because cash exists and is largely untraced. Any sane government would want to crack down on cash transactions up to the point where it starts hurting their own economy in a serious way.

  2. How Would That Help? by mentil · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These include electronic/anonymous payments, virtual currencies and the transfers of gold and precious metals by pre-paid cards.

    Two problems here. Electronic payments can transfer from anything to anything else, meaning two accounts both external to the EU; the EU's rules would never touch that transaction. The payment can then be introduced into the EU if someone wanted to (and honestly it would never need to). It's the old trick of "abstract until it's legal."

    Second is that there's no point in only restricting cards that represent 'precious metals', since it represents a denomination that's indirectly backed by the metal. A card could just as conveniently represent the same value in base metals, or blue chip stocks, or frozen concentrated orange juice. Limiting prepaid card value to 500Euro or something should suffice.

    That said I don't see how any of that would've prevented the Paris attacks or allowed the accomplices to be found out after the fact. Wallet cash could've covered transportation, food and lodging; and the guns (probably the largest expense) were smuggled into the country anyhow. The total cost was probably less than 50k Euros, almost all of which was probably paid in cash to criminals who weren't going to try and trace their payment even if it were traceable (demanding cash because they don't want to be traced themselves). I don't know the details of the case though. All I see is politicians trying to push through a EU PATRIOT ACT.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:How Would That Help? by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > As to things like the Paris incident, it occurs to me to wonder how easy it would have been to wander through a crowded venue shooting people at random if some of those people had been armed themselves...

      The homicide rate with guns in the USA shows the difficulty. The idea that an "armed society is a politie society" was explored by Robert Heinlein in a number of his stories. In real life, the frequency of domestic violence and of violent neighborhood brawls remains so high that the deaths from household violence far outnumber those which might be saved by making personal firearms widely available.

      Your other suggestions have similar difficulties. "Raising everyone's standard of living" requires steps, like educating women and reducing the gross disparities between ruling elites and grinding poverty, and birth control to prevent simply creating more starving poor, with profound social and religious consequences that are often resisted by those currently in power.

  3. Freedom by louic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So to defend against attacks on our freedom we take away that freedom? Politicians have totally lost the plot.

    1. Re:Freedom by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You might not have been around when the Patriot Act was a whole thing. But yeah.

  4. Re:Close the f'ing borders already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "We don't want muslims. We've had 40 years to get to know muslims and by know we are entitled to an opinion about them."

    No one is going to admit this. No one is ALLOWED to admit this. Political correctness is going to lead western civilization to ruin.

  5. Re:Um... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hmm...

    So, could I use that same device (or a pirate copy) to figure out what's in a man's wallet? That would make it much easier to decide who to mug (do they still use that word?)....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  6. Coincenter Response by Canth7 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Coincenter, a firm established to help guide policy creation with regard to crypto currencies, has a excellent response. https://coincenter.org/2015/11...