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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.
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.
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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.
There's no social benefit to gold, and they encourage ransomware and fraud.
Just outlaw the exchange of currency for gold mediums of exchange and it will no longer have any value as a ransomware tool.
There's no social benefit to US dollars, and they encourage ransomware and fraud.
Just outlaw the exchange of currency for US dollars mediums of exchange and it will no longer have any value as a ransomware tool.
There's no social benefit to [Insert currencey], and they encourage ransomware and fraud.
I bet you didn't think about this when you posted this. You can still get cash deposited into a bank that your government doesn't have access to, convert the cash to bonds, sell the bonds for gold, convert the gold to cash. Takes a few more steps but the end result is the same.
There's no social benefit to blockchain-based 'coins', and they encourage ransomware and fraud.
Haven't scammers used Western Union to get people to pay for ransomware exploits from people? Should we ban Western Union? How does this increase fraud? A bitcoin can be verified because of the blockchain.
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
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.
So, you don't understand cryptocurrencies.
We get it.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I am going to call shenanigans on this.
The government just prints more money and the people who get dumped on are ordinary working people who don't get raises and have to pay higher prices for EVERYTHING from the inflation.
Outlaw government stealth taxes and keep their Weimar, dystopian fingers out of our pockets.
It's too bad that there aren't any statistics out there for "legit" Bitcoin transactions versus the ones used for things like ransomware, money laundering, kiddie porn, and illegal drugs.
My hunch is that the latter would greatly outweigh the former.
Modest inflation is part of a healthy economy. You really need to understand why before you start calling for the implementation of methods to eliminate it (or even, at a minimum, government control of it via diluting of currency in circulation).
That's great, except that the founder of Bitcoin is a mysterious shadow figure that goes by a pseudonym. Besides, the real future of Bitcoin is basically in the hands of a few large Chinese mining organizations at this point. I doubt that they give a damn what it's being used for... they just want the newly minted coins and the transaction fees.
Likely far better than you since you're obviously a proponent of them, which indicates you're a fool or idiot or some combination thereof.
"You really need to know why" sounds like you have super secret reasons that are inarguable and perhaps, subtly, wearing the mantle of Keynes.
I see two or three flawed premises there.
Slashdot doesn't have the capacity to carry the conversation required to educate you; you are necessarily profoundly ignorant on the subject given your previous post.
"You really need to know why" is shorthand for "Go take a series of courses in economics before you want to argue about economics". Understanding the current working theories is important before you want to credibly claim the theories are wrong.
If your position is that in your ignorance you know more than people who have dedicated years to studying economies and examining the findings of those who have gone before them... there's no hope for you.
If you could do that again tonight, I'd appreciate it. I want to watch the game.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."