Slashdot Mirror
EU Plans To Create Database of Bitcoin Users With Identities and Wallet Addresses (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Softpedia: "The European Commission is proposing the creation of a database that will hold information on users of virtual currencies," reports Softpedia. "The database will record data on the user's real world identity, along with all associated wallet addresses." The database will be made available to financial investigation agencies in order to track down users behind suspicious operations. The creation of this database is part of a regulatory push that the EU got rolling after the Paris November 2015 terror attacks, and which it officially put forward in February 2016, and later approved at the start of July 2016. Legally, this is an attempt to reform the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD). The current draft is available here. The current AMLD draft reads: "The report shall be accompanied, if necessary, by appropriate proposals, including, where appropriate, with respect to virtual currencies, empowerments to set-up and maintain a central database registering users' identities and wallet addresses accessible to FIUs, as well as self-declaration forms for the use of virtual currency users."
The suggested process for using bitcoin is to create a new wallet address for each transaction.
They will never be able to keep up with it.
I guess this is what happens when a bunch of people who dont understand the technology try to regulate it.
...to find out who satoshi nakamoto is.
~Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Good luck accomplishing that!
And they're going to enforce the "opt in" part of this deal how, again? The whole POINT of virtual currencies is to keep them out of control of the government(s).
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You bet. Because every year we have more and more restrictive bank regulations (to the point where it's now difficult to move your own damned money around from account to account or asset to asset), yet there are more drugs, more laundering and there is more terrorism. Makes you think those laws were never intended to go after criminals in the first place.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
It is going to be hard to connect buyers and sellers with all the coin mixing services available. Especially with popular alt coins like dash coin (http://dash.org ) that have mixing built into the protocol.
The entire value of bitcoin is only a few billion dollars, this wouldn't even put a dent in a weeks interests payments of many countries.
They already do.
What the OP misses is this targets the exchanges.
But desperation would be a better description.
There is no evidence that Bitcoin was used by terrorists. This is the usual statist bullshit coming from European governments.
That'd be awesome! Run a few raids, pay for my driver's license renewal!
~Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Last I checked there were no conclusive links Paris attacks were funded by bitcoins (one source here http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoi... ). I'm pretty sure it was proven though that the terrorist were breathing French oxygen in the atmosphere though, so maybe we should get the French to start tightly regulating who can breathe over there and who can plant plants that generate that oxygen (you know, since it may be used by a terrorist)?
How can you run out of money as a state? Usually you 'print' new money. That is BTW the modus operandi of the FED and the ECB today.
That'd be awesome! Run a few raids, pay for my driver's license renewal!
I never said the exchange rate was favorable...
Geography is seen as a mere inconvenience when applying laws. Hosting it in Panama is a very insignificant speed bump compared with Switzerland, especially that since to the USA Panama is very much what the Romans called a "client state".
€168 billion in VAT fraud a year because they can't exchange tax data if their life depended on it, and now they want to run a shadow bank to track my digital collectors items?
I hope there's a list of serial numbers for cash, so we know how many brown envelopes the crooked politicians have accepted in bribes to pass EU laws.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
It is higly regulated, because they can. Transfering money takes 2 working days when you transfer from or to a business account, because 9/11. Just before that date, they already had the direct payment between people in place. The US cried wolf and obviously the banks are not complaining.
Getting a credit gets harder. Not because people earl less, but because there are more rules. And why? Because it is possible. No other reason. Well, the reason is mostly money laundering and yes there will obviously be more money maundering, because they catch more people, because they get better at it.
More drugs? Not in Europe.
That said, it is extremely easy to move money from one account to another. I do it all the time. Just when it is more than 10.000EUR you will have to do it twice or take some extra time, because that is the tresh hold for the bank to start a separate investigation. They do not like to do that, so they just do not allow it by standard, but will when you ask them.
The restrictiveness in the banking workd I seer (in Belgium) is mostly to protect the individual from taking so much credit he can't pay anymore, so to protect them from themselves or an extention from what already existed. e.g. the definition of what is illegal. e.g. legal money for illegal activities is now illegal. That did not used to be the case.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I think the only thing that EU is still missing is proper uniforms for its guardians (black with nice double lightning would be perfect on the collar). I find the said salute a bit silly but if they want to go all he way then so be it. Schulz and Juncker are also much less photogenic than the little Austrian back in the day was however and this is not fixable I think.
Freedom is a threat to 'them'.
Liberty is optional, regulated, and therefor nonexistent.
If you are not in the EU, take this as a lesson and consider how your situation could become that of someone in the EU. Then act accordingly.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Govt can always track them when they cash out their bitcoins
Casteism