Live data from Hacker News

EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

bbc.com

291–300 of 402 posts

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#292
post #12

Pretty late and how will they deal with location independent companies like Binance? The CEO is more or less permanently on the lam.

The EU regularly fines companies that don’t even have a business entity in the EU so I doubt they’re worried about it.

Yes, theoretically. Has it actually happened in practice? Did they pay?

(All cases I can find are either local EU companies or large multinationals who do have boots on the ground in the EU.)

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#293
post #141

I’m amazed by how short sighted most of the comments here are. When it comes to large financial operations, society has clearly chosen transparency over privacy. Cause guess what, tax evasion, money laundering, political fixing, terrorism financing are things that exist and really are hurtful to our economies. Stop fantasizing that the government cares about the shit you buy. This is not about you. And Bitcoin’s anon…

Just note that in my country you can get labelled as an extremist for peacefully opposing Putin, and consequently be cut off all banking services.

Reading western media, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of being labelled as extremist for, say, supporting Trump, and consequently be cut off all services by companies that are owned by his political opponents. Twitter, Facebook, airlines, banks, ...

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#294

I suspect very few American crypto enthusiasts are reporting their gains to the IRS. Who wants to pay taxes right? I guess someone else can pay for the roads and bridges we drive on.

How do you know when you paid enough money for roads and bridges? I mean they don't give you an invoice.

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really, really want to believe this but I don't think I can. Over the past several years there has been an unquantifiable but subjectively enormous shift in the atmosphere of the cryptocurrency world. At one point it shifted from being about paranoid hackers and techies trying to create a way of doing transactions that was free from trusted third parties to being essentially a space for grifters to shill shitcoins…

> The crypto people we have now seem to lack the deep, fundamental commitment to human freedom, privacy, and security that was the animating force behind the creation of bitcoin. It's probably because the few remaining crypto people, in the space dominated mostly by scammers, realized that crypto anarchy is something that's fun to read about in a sci-fi novel, not something you actually want to live in.

> realized that crypto anarchy is something that's fun to read about in a sci-fi novel, not something you actually want to live in.

I'm a crypto OG, and I also mourn what this space has become. You are entirely incorrect in the last part of your sentence.

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#296
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A crypto wallet doesn’t have a location though. It exists simultaneously on every connected node.

The location is where the secret key is stored. Wallet data is distributed but wallet holders are not. In any case this kind of thing will be implemented by mandating it at the exchanges where crypto is converted to/from traditional currencies, making it impossible to actually use crypto (legally) without complying.

> The location is where the secret key is stored. Wallet data is distributed but wallet holders are not.

That doesn't hold well if you take into account that multisig allows you to require multiple signatures for a transactions and keep the signing capabilities on multiple jurisdictions.

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not? A DAO with with the right setup would require international collaboration to extradite all the members and coerce them to unlock their holdings

Yes sure but most existing crypto players want to be able to drive their Lambo to a nice restaurant in San Francisco or London, not have to live in a cave in Belarus or Haiti as a fugitive from the civilised world.

Well, but not this CEO, and if this site is to be believed, he is just a public strawman. https://scambinance.com/investigations/131-who-owns-binance-...

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone knows where the real money laundering and terrorist financing happens. > It is done by the likes of HSBC, Standard Chartered and other big banks. This used to be the case. And undoubtedly it still goes on. There simply weren’t many other mechanisms to launder money that didn’t involve large banks…until crypto joined the party. Crypto’s most popular feature is speculation, and its second most popular featur…

By user count (as opposed to volume), ransomware is almost certainly a bigger use case of Bitcoin than money laundering and friends.

Do you have sources to back up this claim?

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#299
post #294

I suspect very few American crypto enthusiasts are reporting their gains to the IRS. Who wants to pay taxes right? I guess someone else can pay for the roads and bridges we drive on.

How do you know when you paid enough money for roads and bridges? I mean they don't give you an invoice.

Your comment made me laugh because I thought of those ads for the new GardenHoze 2000 when they switch to b/w and show some pretend moron who pretends to not know how garden hoses work and has all kinds of trouble with them. Morons obviously need the GardenHoze 2000 to solve their garden hose problems! You're the pretend moron who pretends to not know how taxes work.

Re: EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable

#300

I suspect very few American crypto enthusiasts are reporting their gains to the IRS. Who wants to pay taxes right? I guess someone else can pay for the roads and bridges we drive on.

I doubt there are many people who don't want to pay taxes at all. But I think there are many people (like me) who don't understand why it should be necessary to pay taxes just for owning a specific asset like gold, cash, bitcoin etc..
Post reply on HN