Slashdot Mirror
Australia Joins China and Japan in Trying To Regulate Digital Currency Exchanges (cnbc.com)
Following moves by China and Japan to regulate digital currencies, Australia is attempting to crackdown on money laundering and terrorism financing with plans to regulate bitcoin exchanges. From a report: "The threat of serious financial crime is constantly evolving, as new technologies emerge and criminals seek to nefariously exploit them. These measures ensure there is nowhere for criminals to hide," said Australia's Minister for Justice Michael Keenan in a press release. The Australian government proposed a set of reforms on Thursday which will close a gap in regulation and bring digital currency exchange providers under the remit of the Australian Transactions and Reporting Analysis Centre. These exchanges serve as marketplaces where traders can buy and sell digital currencies, such as bitcoin, using fiat currencies, such as the dollar. The reform bill is intended to strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and increase the powers of AUSTRAC.
Goddamn, I wanted to fuck.
I get that things like digital currencies can be used to money launder and fund nefarious activity, but can anything be sacred anymore? What about the mining aspect? Is big brother going to monitor GPU usage too?
Just me
I mean sure crime and money laundering bad, absolutely, but people can simply bargain goods for a lot of that too, so there is a work around. The real issue is pure fear that they lose control of money, which they waste so much of. It's a hard stance for me personally since regulation to prevent money laundering is important (We need our paved roads, taxes pay for them, people need to be paying their taxes) but it takes the ability to manipulate money and hose everyone as easily like certain countries whose dollar dropped to near nothing.
Uplink Hosting - Web/email at an affordable price with high performance - https://uplinkhosting.ca/link.php?id=3
There's no social benefit to blockchain-based 'coins', and they encourage ransomware and fraud.
Just outlaw the exchange of currency for blockchain-based mediums of exchange and it will no longer have any value as a ransomware tool.
Anyone who still wants to play with the technology can do so, anybody who wants to mine or barter on the black market can do so (with a legal risk if caught, of course... it's still the 'black market'). But if people with deep pockets aren't permitted to acquire the stuff legally, attempting to extort it from them will quickly become pointless.
And honestly, society loses nothing of value except the time it takes our legislators to draft and pass the required law.
The first time I ever heard of 'Bitcoin', the first thing I thought was "this will be used for money laundering, hiding assets, and trafficking in contraband and for other illegal activities, guaranteed" and steered entirely clear of it. I knew that at some point governments would, one way or another, take control of it, for good or for ill.
Don't even pretend you're surprised this is happening, and don't even bother to act all righteously indignated over it, either, you're just being over-the-top disingenuous if you do.
in the US cry about oppression and the First Amendment when someone blocks them on Twitter.
Japan recognizes Bitcoin as a legal form of payment. This helps, not hurt, Bitcoin. If they considered Bitcoin harmful they would not have done that. One of the factors pushing Bitcoin up to such high levels is the Japanese consumer who is now empowered by the Japanese government legalizing Bitcoin.
https://www.coindesk.com/japan...
Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000 Due to Strong Japanese Demand: CNBC
https://cointelegraph.com/news......
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Operating Systems, worthwhile. It's
Translation: "OMG, people are transacting business in unregulated free markets without the heavy hand of government being able to scoop out its pound of flesh or pay off its cronies."
Well, good luck with that. I'm sure it's going to be just as effective as trying to repeal the laws of mathematics.
Mr. Keenan: you're an ignorant, totalitarian prick, and you'll be the laughing stock of future generations, provided that you are lucky enough that they'll remember you at all.
A centralized governing body moves to control decentralized banking. Right, of course. God forbid the control of capital is given back to the people. Or that it cannot be easily controlled and manipulated by a handful of deep state actors. We can't have people exchanging goods and services among themselves using a system that isn't easily monitored, tracked, and controlled! That's madness.
You give these fuckers a taste of total tyrannical control of the monetary system and suddenly they believe it's their god-given right to reach down into everyone's private lives and business.
The real criminals are those in power who dare to tread on our freedoms and liberties. They steal our money and implement immoral wealth redistribution schemes both toward corporations and persons. There is nothing immoral about donating to charity. However put into a government mandated scheme that involves violence, theft, and kidnapping, and the elimination of our rights, privacy, and freedom it becomes unethical and immoral. We wouldn't need anti-money legislation if the government wasn't stealing 70-90% of individuals wealth. The vast majority of people can't afford to survive without these schemes simply because the government has already stolen their money. We've all been made dependants of the state. Even the poorest individuals would be seriously better off if left to direct their funds appropriately. The programs governments thrust on us all have serious running costs. And don't eve get me started about how the poor receive more than they contribute. That's just non-sense and requires the total disregard of the hidden taxes and fees (from hidden taxes on foods/goods as is the case in much of the world to the hidden taxes in the USA: 15% tax on people's individual income that the employer pays and another 15% you actually see removed from your paycheck for example- to the vehicle registration 'fees'- just because they don't call them taxes doesn't mean government isn't stealing from you).
If you'd rather retain control over your future, your money, your liberties, and your freedom, and generally do as you please short of actual violence (murder, dumping toxic waste, etc) join me and the Free State Project in New Hampshire:
http://www.freestateproject.org/
Life is risk and laws that aim to reduce minor risks at the expensive of liberties and freedom are immoral. Whether we are talking censorship (of ANYTHING including white supremacists groups and illicit distasteful pornography) or drivers licenses.
Drivers licenses may be well intended but actually they were devised as a control mechanism during the days of the horse and buggy by people who disliked auto mobiles (and later people argued 'safety'), and are more of a control mechanism today and have little to do with actual safety- courts routinely suspend/delay drivers licenses for graffiti, child support, and many other things- and rights are suppose to supersede everything else- and you have a right to travel, but reality is you don't because without a drivers license you can't access the majority of this country. Some states drivers licenses didn't require any written or driving test as late as 1969.
Govenment = taxes = taking money from people
No government will long tolerate a form of commerce and/or payments where it cannot [1] take its "fair share" and [2] track and analyze the financial transactions enough to know it is getting its "fair share". Things like BitCoin can be tolerated when they are little-used and bothering with them is not worth the trouble, but if they look to be gaining traction or setting legal precedents intervension WILL HAPPEN.
Want less of this? You need to support MUCH smaller government. Something at least as small as JFK had, but probably pre-FDR levels. Small government still wants its cut of the action, but it wants a much smaller cut.
Most of the big exchanges that operate in Australian dollars (and support deposits from Australian banks) already require a 100 point identity check, and gather and track all the information required for AUSTRAC compliance.
And the offshore exchanges will continue to be offshore exchanges.