Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

patrick-breyer.de

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 83 posts

Re: EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

#61

Post by justaj »

lxgr wrote: post #29
Shatnerz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anonymous online / digital payments seems to exclusively facilitate crime, but doesn’t seem to be relevant to regular ‘normal’ people. How so and is there anything to back that up or is that just a gut feeling? I pay for my VPN subscription online, anonymously using crypto. Am I facilitating crime?

> I pay for my VPN subscription online, anonymously using crypto. Am I facilitating crime? No, and you'll continue to be able to do so under the new regulation unless I'm missing something.

Doesn't it say it right there in the first paragraph?

> And anonymous payments in cryptocurrencies to wallets operated by providers (hosted wallets) will be prohibited even for minimum amounts without a threshold.

Doesn't this mean that literally all anonymous crypto transactions would be banned?

Re: EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

#63

Post by ETH_start »

Anything anti mass-surveillance/government-control is now coded as "right wing". Even opposition to COVID lockdowns was cast as right wing and thus not appropriate to express. Unbelievable violations of human rights are now being normalized with barely resistance.

Re: EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

#64

Post by surgical_fire »

b112 wrote: post #45
lxgr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big fan of anonymous payments as a component of a resilient democracy, but to me, there's an amount cap where the tradeoff starts getting skewed from that to facilitating money laundering, tax evasion and other bad things. I can imagine dozens of good use cases for If there's real demand for it, I think we should come up with a technical solution that e.g. provides one-sided privacy like GNU Taler (taxation usu…

The thing is, limits like this are never, ever raised. 40 years ago Canada got rid of the $1000 and $500 note. In all that time, the idea of bringing the $500 back has never been floated. Yet soon, $100 will be worth $20 back then. I already find myself using $100s all the time, I used to fill my car for $25 in the 80s, now it's $80. Groceries are the same, I used to buy $30 per week, now it's over $100. As time prog…

I am generally in favor of limits for anonymous payments, but you raise an excellent point.

What logically follows is that the it should be codified that the limit should be raised periodically (yearly?) based on the inflation rate.

Re: EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

#65

Post by Habgdnv »

Sorry for the long post, but I've got to vent about something... Near my office, it's almost impossible to pay with a card for food within a 1km radius. It's either cash or nothing, even though there's no shortage of places to eat. And when you do find a shop that accepts cards, they often want you to spend at least 5 to 10 euros. So, forget about using your card for just a waffle. Speaking of, I found out my favorite waffle spot operates on such tight margins (buy for .3, sell for .35 euros) that card fees would actually cause them to lose money.

Don't get me started on the times I've tried to pay by card and it just doesn't work, forcing me to always have cash on me if I don't want to skip lunch. Banks aren't much help either, with their daily withdrawal limits that make it a chore to access your own money in full. Here's what I think could help:

1. Make it mandatory for all transactions to accept card payments, no matter how small. If a card gets declined for no good reason, that meal or service should be free.

2. Banks should give 24/7 access to our money. Fail to provide that, and they should owe us big time, like 1 million euros big.

3. If authorities mistakenly place a distress or freeze on your assets without just cause, the compensation should be tenfold the standard rate—meaning 10 million euros. This ensures accountability and fairness in financial dealings.

3a. Any compensation due for mistakes, such as wrongful distress on assets, should be personally paid by the government employee responsible for the error, not sourced from government funds. This would promote diligence and personal accountability in official actions.

Maybe it sounds extreme, but something's got to give for a cashless society to work here.

Re: EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

#66

Post by j_crick »

Habgdnv wrote: post #65

Sorry for the long post, but I've got to vent about something... Near my office, it's almost impossible to pay with a card for food within a 1km radius. It's either cash or nothing, even though there's no shortage of places to eat. And when you do find a shop that accepts cards, they often want you to spend at least 5 to 10 euros. So, forget about using your card for just a waffle. Speaking of, I found out my favorit…

> If authorities mistakenly place a distress or freeze

First I wanted to write that good luck suing you government, and even if you win, getting your money in several years… Maybe…

> personally paid by the government employee responsible

… but then I continued to read, and I’m sorry but if you think any government would be willing to do that, you might be mistaken or even delusional.

The sad truth is that as a layperson you can’t do much about it, if anything at all. And no government will be willing to let you hold it accountable in any way for even the smallest amount of money, let alone millions like you suggest.

Re: EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

#69

Post by manipulatedvote »

ktosobcy wrote: post #43

I'm curious about all the outraged comments - when was the last time you used cash and when was the last time the amount was above the limit? Or the butt hurt outrage is just on principle and the sheeply is already not giving a duck? ;-)

[dead]

Re: EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments

#70

Post by acdha »

miohtama wrote: post #55
lxgr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big fan of anonymous payments as a component of a resilient democracy, but to me, there's an amount cap where the tradeoff starts getting skewed from that to facilitating money laundering, tax evasion and other bad things. I can imagine dozens of good use cases for If there's real demand for it, I think we should come up with a technical solution that e.g. provides one-sided privacy like GNU Taler (taxation usu…

It’s important to remember that money-laundering is a secondary crime. There is always an underlying crime, and money laundering is just its effect. Thus, anti-money laundering do not solve or prevent any crime (crime has already happened). With over reaching AML regime there is a danger that it is used against political opposition, like it is already happening. AML is a very convinient tool for anyone who wants to a…

> Thus, anti-money laundering do not solve or prevent any crime (crime has already happened).

It prevents crimes as long as the people who would be committing them know it’s hard to cash out. As a simple example, phone theft was much worse in the United States a decade or so back because a teenager could grab a phone, wipe it, and get hundreds of USD. It plummeted once the stolen IMEI database went into effect because nobody buys a phone which can’t get service. It didn’t have to go to zero to be worth doing – just getting the easy money guys out often makes a big difference.

Post reply on HN