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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.'
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.
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
“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.
That's crap. If it was about anonymous payments and "terrorism" then they'd be ending anonymity for cash transactions as well. Virtual currencies are being legislated so that they can tax them, nothing more.