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EU Proposes End of Anonymity For Bitcoin and Prepaid Card Users (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In June the European Commission will propose new legislation to effectively end the possibility of anonymous payment, by forcing users of virtual currencies like Bitcoin, and of prepaid credit cards, to provide identity details. Additionally the EC intends to propose monitoring inter-bank transfers within Europe, a measure which had not been implemented with the launch of the EU-US Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme (TFTP). Though the proposed measures are intended to heap new pressure on the financing of terrorism, a report from Interpol last week concluded that terrorist funding methods have not changed substantially in recent years, stating 'Despite third party reporting suggesting the use of anonymous currencies like Bitcoin by terrorists to finance their activities, this has not been confirmed by law enforcement.'
How does EU legislation have any effect on Bitcoin? Just ignore them, same as those who legislate the value of PI.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
There was literally something on some TV news program yesterday about how easy it is to set up shell companies in the US for the purposes of money laundering. It was hilarious how many lawyers were busted telling the undercover reporter how to do it. Only one lawyer they interviewed said no.
How the hell do they think this can be deanonymize crypto currencies when they can't even keep people from setting up anonymous businesses?
Funny how these "Terrorist tracking programs" fail to track the US government, the Saudi government and a bunch of other western governments when these happily finance terrorism. But god forbid you try to rent a US movie with a foreign credit card to watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime, you terrorist you.
Some people really want this, as bad as it sounds. With even the last anonymous payment method gone, the state is happy as it can tax precisely what its worth (of course only those people who can't afford to have all their companies owned by a holding in the crocodile islands), and the banks are happy as they can sell precise data about their customers to various people (perhaps even legally). They are even happier as now they can also introduce negative interests on the money you store at the bank. It can be used to "keep money in movement", to stifle the economy, and fill the purses of the banks: You now rather tend to take loans and pay those back with interest, because collecting the money in advance got more expensive.
Oh yeah - bitcoins are used by individuals to hide their transactions from advertisers, malware vendors, and parasitic financial services companies, while networks of shell companies are reserved for our ruling elite to hide their transactions from the unwashed masses (and tax authorities)... Tell ya what, you make your public, and I'll make mine public...
We The People are creating these things for convenience's sake, not for government to track our every purchase as part of their growing panopticon.
One of the natural benefits of cash for time immemorial was the ultimate anonymity. We should not give this up for a power grab by government. ISIS, for example, sells millions in oil every day. Go kill them and interrupt this massive physical operation instead of stripping our long-term freedoms.
They will lie and say it is only for terrorists then instantaneously start using it for mundane crime. They have done this before.
In the late 90s under Clinton they requested additional spy power because terrorists! They then used it on drug sellers. When questioned, they did not even bother with the sophistry that drug selling is kinda sorta terrorism. The baldfaced liars stated, "Whelp, the law doesn't actuay say terrorism only."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
To do that would require an equivalent to cash that didn't loose 2.7% of its value every time it was transfered and it would need to be unfreezeable like cash and as anonymous as possible without compromising the ability to verify the currency as valid and be easy to transfer without much knowledge.
Bitcoin actually has most of that covered.
With the exception of ease of transfer.
While not anonymous it is still good enough for casual use.
I think its best points are no loss on transfer and that your funds can't be frozen *looking at you paypal*
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
It is inconvenient for your governing authority to have some of your life remain private. Suckks, right?
Not really, as it turns out... we can just unelect politicians like that as fast as the law allows.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Thing is that it's not the tax thing that is the problem. Tax predates electronic, identifiable transactions by a few 1000 years or so, and most people don't really have a problem paying (give or take the disagreements about who pays what percentage and how much should be taken overall, which will never end).
The issue is the creepy and dangerous big brother knowing every last thing you do thing, combined with the just as creepy but probably not quite as dangerous thousands-of-private-companies knowing the same. That's why I use cash whenever humanly possible.
Require all Euro-bank involved expenditures above 100 EUR by members of the Saudi royal family to require tracking and approval.
Oh, shit, did I say that out loud?
“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16-17
Things are getting Biblical round here.
Have gnu, will travel.
Germans are also attacking those same immigrants. There's a bit of a gap between the utopia the liberal media pretends that Europe is and how things really are. This includes beatings, arson, and political views that are supposed to be forbidden. Push the system or a little bit, or the population and the classic bits of nastiness come seeping out.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Better yet, make cash go away.
I remember speaking with an economist years ago who said if you wanted to eliminate crime nearly overnight just make the largest bill $10. Very difficult for Tony Soprano to transact crime if $50,000 was a half-a-million pieces of paper.
Great idea. Then they can drive all those pesky small-time mom-and-pop businesses out of the market entirely when they can't afford the exhorbitant fees charged per transaction. The world will be such a better place for everyone when it's all Walmart/Target/{insert name of Big Box Store here}.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
"Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme" is it a program to finance terrorists using tracking? Or is it Trivial FTP?
The largest bill is now $100. This is equivalent to $10 in 1948 according to the CPI inflation indicator. .
As time goes on, I doubt ( barring runaway inflation ), the US will print larger bills, so the $100 will become less and less.
During the Iraq war, the US airlifted $12 billion of $100 bills, which weighed in at 363 tons. This shows that cash is no longer useful for large transactions already.
As a side note: most of it was untracked, and melted away. I know of a distant relative who worded as contractor and returned home to Turkey with suitcases full of cash.