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U.S. Congress wants to pass a bill that would put serious fines ($10K for bitcoins as opposed to $5K for cash, IIRC) and jail time (ten years, as opposed to five IIRC) if you cross the border without reporting your bitcoins (in addition to confiscating your bitcoins of course).
http://www.coindesk.com/forfeit-bitcoin-congressional-bill-draws-fire-border-check-rules/
A group of US lawmakers wants to see cryptocurrency holdings declared at the nation's border – and advocates of the tech are pushing back.
Introduced last month, the Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Counterfeiting Act of 2017 – which is actually the third iteration of a bill that debuted in 2011 – would bring a range of digital currency services under federal scrutiny, including those that provide transaction mixing services.
Yet, the provision that has attracted the particular ire of cryptocurrency advocates – especially those who prefer a regulation-light environment – is one that would make such holdings subject to disclosure requirements at US customs checkpoints. This means if a person trying to enter the country has more than $10,000 worth of bitcoin in their possession, under the proposed legal change, they would need to inform the relevant authorities.
Such requirements are already in place for payment methods like cash. But given the rising public profile of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, coupled with the perception among policymakers that they could be used to fund terrorist activities, is driving legislative efforts like the bill currently under consideration.
[...] Thus far, the bill hasn't advanced significantly since being introduced last month, public records show. On 25th May, the measure was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
At press time, representatives for Senators Chuck Grassley and Diane Feinstein hadn't responded to CoinDesk requests for comment. The bill is also being sponsored by Senators John Cornyn and Sheldon Whitehouse, constituting a group of two Republicans and two Democrats.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Friday June 23 2017, @07:13PM (12 children)
That's why the politicians are fucking morons with zero technical expertise, and they flat out ignore all the technical expertise screaming at them. It's as if they believe technology, math, science, and even reality will simply bend themselves to political will.
The only people that will be impacted from this, again, are the people with little technical knowledge or skill. Which is ironically, the class of people least likely to ever declare possession of a cryptocurrency.
This is fucking stupid beyond belief considering how ridiculously easy it is to smuggle Bitcoin anywhere. Are they going to perform a head to toe invasive search for all data storage devices? Demand all encryption keys (the real ones), to verify all data and make sure it isn't a wallet? It will take them days just to properly search a single person in this manner.
Not a great idea, but what if you emailed yourself the wallet, or held it in some sort of groupware or collaboration platform? Just because you are passing through with a thin client (web based email) doesn't mean you need to declare all data on the server. Internet based services like SAAS will be problematic to declare accurately. The person is never technically in possession of anything on their local devices except maybe some cache that they don't have easy access to at all. Over-reporting is something that can happen with this law when citizens don't understand the technical distinctions. May as well declare all balances on all bank accounts you are a signer on.
It would be nice if the Constitution had something to prevent stupid fucking bills like this, and IIRC laws that cannot be enforced are unconstitutional. This is such a law. Equal and effective enforcement is precluded logically, technically, scientifically, and in about any other way conceivable. Only idiots would be caught by this.
Theater. This is Security Theater. Where's my popcorn?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Friday June 23 2017, @07:28PM (7 children)
I have never really worked out if the politicians are that stupid, or they are merely pandering to voters who are that stupid.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 3, Touché) by ben_white on Friday June 23 2017, @07:52PM
Yes.
(Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Friday June 23 2017, @08:38PM (2 children)
I dunno man. One of them brought in a snowball to refute Climate Change and Global Warming. They're fundamentally people that believe in control and power, and control and power never wants to believe that it can't have control and power. Reality simply doesn't matter.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:34AM
Which of course, is why Al Gore told us that the melting polar ice caps will flood the coasts and ruin property values, just before buying his 3rd gigantic mansion, located on prime beachfront property.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @07:21PM
Someone should have put that snowball on a pedestal, and wait for it to melt. Then ask the esteemed member of congress if he accepts the melting as proof of global warming, or explain why not. That will force him into making a scientifically valid argument.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday June 23 2017, @09:34PM (1 child)
Sufficient stupidity and malice are indistinguishable.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:12AM
"Sufficient stupidity and malice are indistinguishable."
and then there's malicious stupidity, as they're not mutually exclusive, but that's also stupid maliciousness.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday June 27 2017, @01:20AM
I present to you the following: Indiana Pi Bill [wikipedia.org] as a possible way to sway your thinking to one side of that argument..
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 23 2017, @11:41PM
I had the exact same idea. It can be suspected that the political class is in some kind of crisis mode. Desperate people, do desperate things. Which usually have a futile utility.
Even better. Bring absolutely nothing, only the knowledge on how to get access to any cryptocurrency. Are they going to probe the brain? ;) thought crime?..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:48AM
The wallpaper on your phone can hold enough steganographic data to securely encode a wallet.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:47AM (1 child)
irrelevant. since these lame k0inz have only imagined worth, I lose nothing by not having any. and no worries meeting gov requirements to report...nothing. 1849. Ignoring history. again. one day at a time.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:42AM
The coinage Act of 1849 at least allowed new gold to be used. However the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 outlawed most private possession of gold, forcing individuals to sell it to the Treasury. Only repealed by 1975. In 1929 the stock market crashed and in 1933 Hitler seized power just by a coincidence.
It's not that far fetched to think that a similar currency trickery is on again with the gold reserve being empty. And cryptocurrency being the animal that escaped..