EU draft law adds security checks to all crypto transactions:
The European Parliament has taken the first steps for new legislation against money-laundering that covers cryptocurrency transactions, which are an important part of illicit activities today.
Members of the European Parliament from the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) have agreed on adopting (with 93 votes in favor, 14 against, and 14 abstentions) draft legislation for more transparent crypto asset transactions.
"Under the new requirements agreed by MEPs, all transfers of crypto-assets will have to include information on the source of the asset and its beneficiary, information that is to be made available to the competent authorities," reads the Parliament's announcement.
The new rules will cover transactions from private-held cryptocurrency wallets without considering transaction thresholds, which erases any limits for anonymous transactions - previous proposal allowed up to €1000 to be transferred without giving any details about the sender and the recipient.
The reasoning behind this is that transaction thresholds make no sense for regulating cryptocurrency assets because they can be easily circumvented due to their virtual nature. Simply put, it would be practically viable for money launderers to perform numerous transactions under the set threshold.
"Illicit flows in crypto-assets move largely undetected across Europe and the world, which makes them an ideal instrument for ensuring anonymity," commented Ernest Urtasun of the Greens Party.
"As illustrated by all the recent money-laundering scandals, from the Panama Papers to the Pandora Papers, criminals thrive where rules allowing for confidentiality allow for secrecy and anonymity. With this proposal for a regulation, the EU will close this loophole."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @05:09AM
not that i think it's a good idea; crypto coin just being a (so far) unfakeable ledger of wasted energy, but isn't transfering "the waste ledger" as simple as sending a email? like installin' postfix and smtp and then mailto: quality-spit@192.168.0.101 (or whatever dynamic ip the isp gave you for today?)
i hear you can now also send email "straight up into the sky" and get the energy to do so from about the same direction if it's not to cloudy or dark?
b-euro-cracy: when symboles on paper trump (urggs) reality?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday April 03 2022, @06:35AM (10 children)
So if I have bitcoins and want to send to my friend the equivalent of 5 cents, I have to contact the authorities and tell them that I'm about to send my friend 5 cents worth of bitcoins?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday April 03 2022, @06:47AM (8 children)
If you read the link provided it will answer your questions.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday April 03 2022, @12:29PM (6 children)
From the summary, emphasis by me:
Also, when I transfer bitcoins from my private wallet to my friend's private wallet, how is Coinbase supposed to know it? Heck, how is Coinbase supposed to know whether I have a bitcoin wallet to begin with?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Sunday April 03 2022, @01:51PM (3 children)
> how is Coinbase supposed to know it?
Presumably because you tell them who you are, and so does your friend, otherwise they refuse to register the transaction because they'll be committing a crime in doing so. Just like has to happen with a bank transfer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Sunday April 03 2022, @02:03PM
Also, given the fact that most of the world is not under EU jurisdiction, I would assume *you* (as a presumed EU resident) would be guilty of a crime if you initiated a transaction via any service provider that doesn't verify identities and report transactions.
Once it's been established that any interaction by EU residents with with Provider X is itself a crime, its relatively trivial to catch you in the act unless you're communicating via a robust and uncompromised onion routing system. Something which may or may not exist - I'm sure I don't have the clearances to know.
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Monday April 04 2022, @01:23AM (1 child)
Coinbase doesn't need to "register the transaction." The idea of ANY centralized party being required to approve the transaction is pretty much the antithesis of how cryptocurrencies are designed.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday April 04 2022, @02:26PM
Yep. And now the government said "Nope, we don't like that." So you get to choose between complying with the same sort of reporting laws that other financial institutions are required to abide by, or being a criminal.
Also, I hate to break it to you, but proof-of-work cryptocurrencies mostly stopped being decentralized when the computing requirements became high enough that only a relatively small number of server farms could meaningfully participate. The operators may not (yet) have consolidated into a single centralized consortium, but that's the way to bet.
I was rooting for their decentralization, but power flows uphill, and apparently nobody has yet designed a currency that significantly resists that trend.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Sunday April 03 2022, @01:53PM (1 child)
From what I have seen of the legislation, it applies to exchanges and other "on/off ramps", between fiat and crypto currency.
They figure that eventually the crypto has to be converted to/from fiat, so if they get the ID of the user from that transaction, they can map a persons identity to a crypto address, then look at the blockchain and see past or future transactions in order to track that individual and where the crypto goes.
Presumably if it goes to/from a wallet of another mapped individual the authorities disapprove of (e.g. you made a donation to a group protesting the government), they can seize the assets, and/or arrest the original purchaser for donating to the protestors.
While some level of private wallet transactions can occur (e.g. buying of selling of goods/services just for crypto) they figure eventually someone will need to interact with the fiat world, whether to pay taxes, or buy something that due to regulations or lack of interest on the supplier side, does not accept crypto.
Personally, I think all it will do is ruin the crypto industry in the EU and make life difficult for EU citizens who want to be into crypto. For those of us not EU citizens, the rest of the world is still open for business, and are competitive to boot.
Biggest change if this became a law is that I think "localbitcoins.com" and similar would no longer work in the EU. How can the site provide arrangement for a cash to crypto transaction and still be able to conclusively verify the IDs of the people doing the exchange? I suspect that this law would drive some crypto/fiat transactions underground into the black market, ironically making it harder to track (and more murky).
This may be a deliberate ploy to discredit crypto. The authorities can point to the underground nature of these transactions and claim it as proof of crypto's criminal use and justify further restrictions in future.
Saying that, from the TFA, it looks like this draft still has a way to go until it becomes a law (up until June), so this may just be part of a negotiating tactic, to let the crypto industry "talk them down" to a compromise both are happy with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @12:36PM
you can buy russian gas for crpto coin (pressumably) and then sell that gas to eu for euros. good luck, lol.
everything will break down once "fossile" (number one energy source) energy and crypto coin (energy intensif) have a baby, and i mean EVERYTHING.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @06:28PM
why would we give the vile scum at bleeping computer a click?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @02:33PM
People have already accepted notifying the government when they need effective medicine for a stuffy nose.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @09:43AM (1 child)
Really, the Panama & Pandora papers?
I'm quite sure none of them had anything to do with cryptocurrency and cryptotransactions and everything to do with vague taxlaws allowing the rich to easily dodge taxes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @10:24AM
All you had to do was read the remainder of the sentence to see why they mentioned it.
Whether or not cryptocurrencies actually allow for secrecy and anonymity is another story, but it's the narrative they're going with.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @11:26AM (1 child)
Criminals? Do you not mean the Upper Classes? The genetically superiour? Those who are too big to fit into jail, like Donald, or Ma, Kock, Watson, Brin, Carlos Slim, and Zuckergatesmusk? Bitcoiners are small time libertariantards who do not really understand what they are getting into. Confero: khallow.
But seriously, when the super, super wealthy can no longer trust their accountants, can a loss of faith in their bodyguards be far behind. You know what happened to Indira Gandhi, and Caligula?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 03 2022, @02:57PM
I don't invest in cryptocurrencies for two reasons: first, I don't invest in what I don't properly understand, and second, I don't invest in bubbles. OTOH, I don't begrudge others for doing so. It's great if they make it work long term.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mexsudo on Sunday April 03 2022, @01:54PM (2 children)
money-laundering = tax avoidance
criminals = those that want to avoid taxes
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @06:36PM (1 child)
FTFY
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 04 2022, @03:09PM
So that is now what we call people guilty of tax avoision?
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @01:56PM
How about using a smart contract for this ? Anybody who wants to see the recipient and source has to pay a fixed, distinctive and small value into the senders account. I propose EUR 1.21. I concede that this is a rearguard action but at least it would make blanket surveillance expensive, and so small amounts would be less likely to be inspected. And if the state (or perhaps metagooglesoft) wants to peer into your life, at least you get compensated ?
In concept I detest all anti money laundering laws (you have to do something, cause somebody else might have done something bad - where is the presumption of innocence ?). How about some anti-stupid law legislation (vote for a law, if it gets declared unconstitutional or used in ways you claim it wouldn't - get prosecuted as if you broke that wrongful law) or anti false conviction laws (prosecute somebody you know to be innocent, or issue a flawed judgement and you go to jail for the same period).
But there is little justice: The powerful escape consequences or their own actions while the marginalised have to carry the can for the crimes of others.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @05:14PM
So we have no worry that any information will ever be disclosed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @06:26PM
"Illicit flows in crypto-assets move largely undetected across Europe and the world, which makes them an ideal instrument for ensuring anonymity," commented Ernest Urtasun of the Greens Party.
"As illustrated by all the recent money-laundering scandals, from the Panama Papers to the Pandora Papers, criminals thrive where rules allowing for confidentiality allow for secrecy and anonymity. With this proposal for a regulation, the EU will close this loophole."
someone needs to teach these pieces of shit (Ernest Urtasun and the EU scum) a lesson.