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British Prime Minister Theresa May and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are among the world leaders who've expressed alarm at the rise of virtual cash to move money offshore. The U.S. Congress held hearings this month, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called on the world's 20 biggest economies to work together to make sure cryptocurrencies don't "become the next Swiss bank account." The concern comes after a successful international crackdown on tax havens in traditional banking.
"Every country is scrambling to come up with an answer," said Drake, who serves on the boards of 25 public and private companies. "There needs to be a regulated structure that won't kill the industry."
The earliest adopters of the practice were criminals, and their involvement has risen steadily, according to a three-year study by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a non-partisan Washington think tank. Next came users like Drake, who said he follows U.S. law by reporting his companies' holdings. Drake said better oversight would help legitimize the industry.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:27PM (4 children)
I would add that one of the goals of cryptocurrency is cutting out the parasites in the middle. If Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash or Ethereum or Zcash or whatever becomes so popular that you can spend it from your smart phone or laptop, then I can pay my auto mechanic or my grocery bill without giving Visa or Bank of America or both a piece of the transaction.
It may not seem like a big deal, but it adds up over time.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:42PM (3 children)
> without giving Visa or Bank of America or both a piece of the transaction
Careful there -- the piece of the transaction you give Visa or BoA goes toward running the servers, and paying the people who run the servers, and generally keep the infrastructure running.
With cryptocurrencies, you're also going to have to give up a piece of the transaction. Right now, at least with Bitcoin, it's actually *worse* than Visa/BoA. The piece of the transaction you're expected to give up is more like an auction than a flat fee, and can run as high as $30 per transaction. And the infrastructure probably wastes *more* than that in electricity, so right now Bitcoin is a net loss on the entire planet.
I really like the part where it's decentralized, but I'm not sure the current implementation is sustainable...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @03:42PM
Acutally, plenty of transactions are going through for pennies these days, even some free ones are going through:
https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/ [earn.com]
The fee problem is gone.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:22PM
even without built in anonymization, btc is still more private than using CC companies
(Score: 1) by bobthecimmerian on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:19PM
I agree the original Bitcoin doesn't solve this problem, for the exact reasons you state. But many of the other newer cryptocurrencies made changes from Bitcoin specifically to address these classes of problems - faster transactions, lower fees, and in some cases much more energy-efficient algorithm designs.