CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
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Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#2I really want someone to ask Janet "do you have plans to ban Cash transactions because they are used for illicit activity?"
I would guess USD inflation is far worse than expected and they know Bitcoin's initial intended purpose (as an alternative to government money) has come to fruit.
It just sounds better to use the illicit boogy man.
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#3How?
How do you 'crack down' on a currency that doesn't require any existing state or bank controlled apparatus to operate? Other than the exchange point, which private exchanges for cash can circumvent, how do you crack down on what is essentially math conducted via computers that everyone has access to?
Neither the article, nor the linked one from December say.
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#4> U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials have warned about the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit transactions.
Wait until you hear about cash.
More seriously (and hopefully less reductionist) i feel nations who embrace cryptocurrencies early will see mixed results as the landscape matures. I am more confident that nations which turn their back on it, or shut it out completely, will see a loss of otherwise valuable businesses and mindshare.
Whatever your stance on cryptocurrencies are, what is of little dispute is the business opportunities they have created. Binance and Coinbase are large, successful companies. Poloniex was sold for ~400M.
Knowing the US has soured on cryptocurrencies doesn't make me any less interested in them, it just makes me less interested in holding them/working in the space on US soil. I'd be surprised if i were alone in this sentiment, and in spite of its negative reception on HN, the tech space around cryptocurrencies is quite literally growing as we speak.
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#5People have been saying this for a decade, and several failed exchanges later plus a few attempts at banning US persons from using crypto, the crackdown has yet to really arrive.
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#6How? How do you 'crack down' on a currency that doesn't require any existing state or bank controlled apparatus to operate? Other than the exchange point, which private exchanges for cash can circumvent, how do you crack down on what is essentially math conducted via computers that everyone has access to? Neither the article, nor the linked one from December say.
You (government currency regulators) make it illegal to convert fiat to crypto, and then monitor crypto ledgers for that last bit of folks who still attempt to use crypto. When exchanges break the law, you ship the folks who own the exchange to jail [1]. Crypto folks think they're the former cartoon panel, when it's really the latter how nation state enforcement works [2]. Governments crack down on money laundering with fiat all. the. time. Playing with fiat amounts more than $10k at a time? That's a currency transaction report (CTR) [3]. Try to avoid the CTR? That's structuring [4], also illegal, and a suspicious activity report (SAR) [5] is filed. So, when the question is asked, "how do you crack down on crypto?", the answer is "with the monopoly of force governments possess."
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=crypto+exchange+jail
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_transaction_report
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_activity_report
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#7I really want someone to ask Janet "do you have plans to ban Cash transactions because they are used for illicit activity?" I would guess USD inflation is far worse than expected and they know Bitcoin's initial intended purpose (as an alternative to government money) has come to fruit. It just sounds better to use the illicit boogy man.
Do you need to ban cash if you simply phase it out of existence? Turn up instant payments, and any notes turned in at banks and to the government get shredded. Look to China and Sweden [2] for foreshadowing of digital currencies and the eventual deprecation of physical notes.
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#8People have been saying this for a decade, and several failed exchanges later plus a few attempts at banning US persons from using crypto, the crackdown has yet to really arrive.
Torrents or file sharing in general is maybe a good parallel. My impression of torrenting is that crackdowns have made file sharing a niche instead of mainstream activity. Of course it can't be 100% wiped out, but the general public is now wary of file sharing because the message is out there that it's risky.
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#9People have been saying this for a decade, and several failed exchanges later plus a few attempts at banning US persons from using crypto, the crackdown has yet to really arrive.
Torrents or file sharing in general is maybe a good parallel. My impression of torrenting is that crackdowns have made file sharing a niche instead of mainstream activity. Of course it can't be 100% wiped out, but the general public is now wary of file sharing because the message is out there that it's risky.
I think Netflix/Spotify/YouTube and the like “hurt” piracy more than any legal manoeuvre.
My own piracy would go down another 50% if I had access to free/paid services like in USA. Then there’s the time I couldn’t play a movie I rented on my TV through Apple because I guess it didn’t like my old TV’s HDMI interface...
Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming
#10People have been saying this for a decade, and several failed exchanges later plus a few attempts at banning US persons from using crypto, the crackdown has yet to really arrive.
Torrents or file sharing in general is maybe a good parallel. My impression of torrenting is that crackdowns have made file sharing a niche instead of mainstream activity. Of course it can't be 100% wiped out, but the general public is now wary of file sharing because the message is out there that it's risky.
I think it has more to do with the fact that for 10-20$/month you can subscribe to Netflix/Spotify and not bother with torrent. That said, torrenting is still alive and well.