European Commission plans to prohibit anonymous crypto transfers and wallets

[jsilva]

In context: Due to its anonymous nature, cryptocurrency has long been associated with scams, money laundering and other financial crimes. Users can track crypto asset transfers, but the originator and beneficiary of the transfer always remain anonymous. To fight that, the European Commission plans to prohibit anonymous crypto transfers and wallets.

The European Commission (EC) proposals presented this week aim to protect EU citizens and the EU's financial system by enforcing its anti-money laundering (AML) and countering terrorism financing (CFT) rules. With the proposal package, EC hopes to detect and disrupt criminal and terrorist financing activity.

EC's package consists of four proposals: the creation of a new EU AML/CFT authority, implementation of new rules affecting areas of Customer Due Diligence and Beneficial Ownership, updating the existing Directive 2015/849/EU with new rules covering national supervisors and Financial Intelligence Units in member states, and a revision of the 2015 Regulation on Transfers of Funds to track crypto assets transfers.

Most of these proposals are directed to large companies, but some also affect the general public holding crypto assets. As per EC's new proposal, service providers will be obliged to conduct due diligence on their customers. Moreover, it will ensure that all transfers are fully traceable, from source to destiny, preventing "possible use for money laundering or terrorism financing."

If approved, crypto service providers handling asset transfers or a traditional wire transfer will ensure that it's accompanied by the name of the originator, the originator's account number, originator's address, personal document number, customer ID or date and place of birth, name of the beneficiary, the beneficiary's account number, and where the accounts exist.

On the other side, the beneficiary's service provider will be responsible for implementing a system capable of detecting the legitimacy of the originator's information and a monitoring system to detect if any information on the originator or the beneficiary is missing.

Before becoming law, the proposal has to be accepted by the European Parliament and EU's member states. It's unclear when the parties will vote on this matter, as the process can take up to two years.

Image credit: Ewan Kennedy

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https://www.techspot.com/news/90511-european-commission-plans-prohibit-anonymous-crypto-transfers-wallets.html

 

[VitalyT]

Due to its anonymous nature, cryptocurrency has long been associated with scams

LOL, Crypto is the scam.

To fight that, the European Commission plans to prohibit anonymous crypto transfers and wallets.

That's like fighting car speeding by taking the wheels off. Genius! Crypto is already a big failure as far as online payments go, because of insane volatility. Remove anonymity from crypto, and you got nothing left, outside of blatant speculation.

 

[Puiu]

LOL, Crypto is the scam.


That's like fighting car speeding by taking the wheels off. Genius! Crypto is already a big failure as far as online payments go, because of insane volatility. Remove anonymity from crypto, and you got nothing left, outside of blatant speculation.

Nothing left is what they want. Remove one by one what makes crypo appealing and people will stop using it.

 

[Shaitan]

And so, crypto is dead.

 

[Nobina]

Who didn't see this coming? Why would anyone in power let something they can hardly control exist like that?

Guess terrorists will stop existing after crypto is gone cause there's no other possible way for them to operate.

 

[Puiu]

Who didn't see this coming? Why would anyone in power let something they can hardly control exist like that?

Guess terrorists will stop existing after crypto is gone cause there's no other possible way for them to operate.

I don't remember sending money to terrorists being as easy as buying a PC before cryto existing. I also don't remember there being automated systems that ask 0.1BTC to be sent anonymously to decrypt your files using untraceable methods (the police literally say they can't do anything to help).

Let's face reality. Crypto right now is facilitating way too much easily avoidable crime.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Good.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Almost all exchanges already KYC users any ways.

 

[wiyosaya]

As I see it, more regulations are bound to be forthcoming.

 

[wiyosaya]

Who didn't see this coming? Why would anyone in power let something they can hardly control exist like that?

Guess terrorists will stop existing after crypto is gone cause there's no other possible way for them to operate.

IMO, this is ridiculous.

So, we should just allow anonymous transactions even if it allows vile elements much easier access to funding?

I get the argument that it is likely most people usiing crapto are not terrorists. However, there is that way of thinking that states "if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" so why allow the anonymous transactions? Removing anonymity will not kill crapto for those who are using it lawfully. And those who require anonymity will likely find a way to keep using it that way anyway since it is likely they don't give a crap about "the law" anyway.

 

[Nobina]

IMO, this is ridiculous.

So, we should just allow anonymous transactions even if it allows vile elements much easier access to funding?

Yes.

I don't remember sending money to terrorists being as easy as buying a PC before cryto existing. I also don't remember there being automated systems that ask 0.1BTC to be sent anonymously to decrypt your files using untraceable methods (the police literally say they can't do anything to help).

Let's face reality. Crypto right now is facilitating way too much easily avoidable crime.

I don't know if terrorists are using crypto at all cause as you say, it's untracable. If you want less terrorists maybe stop making them.

 

[Puiu]

Yes.

I don't know if terrorists are using crypto at all cause as you say, it's untracable. If you want less terrorists maybe stop making them.

You made zero sense with that argument. It is a known fact that terrorists use crypto because dumdums from the west get caught. It's not the money being transferred that is being detected, but the things people do.

Websites associated with ISIS and other terrorist groups were found to have bitcoin donations enabled. Documents from ISIS with instructions on how to travel to Iraq and Syria teach people how to use only Bitcoin to achieve it. And the list goes on.

"If you want less terrorists maybe stop making them." - O_o ok

 

[ScottSoapbox]

...EU Plans to ban cash next.

Government officials pointed out that only by tracking every private citizen's transaction everywhere can things be safe for the current rich and powerful.

 

[tellmewhy]

In most countries the standard taxes are 40% to the income + 20% vat that means already a well 60% of your money goes to someone else without your permision! And of course there are and many other taxes on property, fuels, roads, cars, assets, deaths etc and of course there are and interest… really the total amount you pay extra just for the right to use the money it's huge. If you didn't had to pay taxes and interests you will had to work only 1/4 of the years in your life to survive with the same way as now.

So if people start using a different unofficial and more agile way for their exchanges all those white collar guys who get paid from taxes money they will become unemployment. So they don’t fear the "terrorists" (few hundred people they are not enough to establish an ecosystem anyway) they fear that they don’t know to do anything productive and they will die if they become unemployment.

It's like the old days where Luddites was destroing the machines becuase they were getting their jobs.

 

[jpuroila]

I don't remember sending money to terrorists being as easy as buying a PC before cryto existing. I also don't remember there being automated systems that ask 0.1BTC to be sent anonymously to decrypt your files using untraceable methods (the police literally say they can't do anything to help).

Let's face reality. Crypto right now is facilitating way too much easily avoidable crime.

All this means is that terrorists, scammers and ransomware users will route their payments outside EU. It won't actually meaningfully hinder them in any way.

 

[Puiu]

All this means is that terrorists, scammers and ransomware users will route their payments outside EU. It won't actually meaningfully hinder them in any way.

Making payments harder does hinder them, as it adds a few more steps they have to do. It also hinders wannabe internet fanatics, people that suddenly had a spiritual "revelation" after watching a tik tok video, from easily sending "funds". And we both know that there are many such people in the world.

There is a big difference from using your bank account/credit card and a btc wallet. It's not like the average Joe can just mail money or use an ATM.

This is what I really want to see stopped. The average Joe should not have an easy way of creating ransomeware or send money to illegal groups outside of his country. The cops literally told me "we can't do anything" when our company NAS got hit with ransomeware (in the April QNAS major worldwide attacks) and we were forced to pay.

A decentralised currency sounds amazing, but the whole anonymous thing has outlived its usefulness. The experiment is over and the result is: it should not be anonymous.

It's the only way for crypto to mature and continue in the future, otherwise it will eventually get blocked everywhere.

 

[Shaitan]

I'm baffled that anyone could consider giving up freedom for the illusion of safety.
There was a famous quote regarding this ” let the government's authority take care of us” attitude, nevermind Snowden or Assange:
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Are you SURE you want the government to decide what is good or bad? Are you positive the governmentally higher ups have YOUR best interest at heart?
History shows we cannot and should not trust the government.
Nazis came to power with people's cooperation just think about that.... Don't be fooled into loving your own shackles.

 

[Burty117]

Why does everyone use things like terrorists and criminals as excuses to get rid of Crypto? Like they didn't exist or weren't funded before Crypto?

Also, why does everyone think our normal banks and money systems are great? I know I'm young and all but surely someone here has been through at least one financial crisis in their time?

 

[arrowflash]

This is what I really want to see stopped. The average Joe should not have an easy way of creating ransomeware or send money to illegal groups outside of his country. The cops literally told me "we can't do anything" when our company NAS got hit with ransomeware (in the April QNAS major worldwide attacks) and we were forced to pay.

I should point out your company's IT staff also made a grave mistake by not keeping any offline backups that are updated regularly. Offline backups - or at least online backups that aren't on network shares - are a must have for any serious backup policy.

Some of the customers I have worked for had servers hit with ransomware in a few occasions since 2017, but since we kept multiple layers of backups, we never had to pay any ransom and recovery was a nuisance but relatively painless (we had offline backups but never needed them - the fallback secondary online backup NAS that only used sftp were never affected).

 

[ChrisH1]

I'm baffled that anyone could consider giving up freedom for the illusion of safety.
There was a famous quote regarding this ” let the government's authority take care of us” attitude, nevermind Snowden or Assange:
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Are you SURE you want the government to decide what is good or bad? Are you positive the governmentally higher ups have YOUR best interest at heart?
History shows we cannot and should not trust the government.
Nazis came to power with people's cooperation just think about that.... Don't be fooled into loving your own shackles.

There’s always a good quote to push any agenda. Here’s another - you can have freedom, or security, you can’t have both because there are too many people whos idea of freedom is the freedom to take the money and the life of anyone who disagrees with their insane point of view.

 

[Thunder6230]

Why does everyone use things like terrorists and criminals as excuses to get rid of Crypto? Like they didn't exist or weren't funded before Crypto?

Also, why does everyone think our normal banks and money systems are great? I know I'm young and all but surely someone here has been through at least one financial crisis in their time?

If crypto would be the biggest problem on earth I would be grateful. In reality there are some bigger problems and nobody does anything. that's sad

 

[scavengerspc]

And the thing that may finally kill crypto, or at least damage it badly, is something that I cant remember anyone, ever, using as an argument against it for years. All their bullshit and imagination never put a dent in it, and now the truth of its dark side comes out. Of course, how long will it be before some people start calling Jackson Palmer, Vitaly Buterin and Elon Musk terrorists?

I myself hope it dies. I sure as hell made my mark with it, and now it's gone, all sold off, and I'm not playing anymore.

I might even start telling everyone that it harms people unfairly, that they get burned through no fault of their own. Or maybe I will start proclaiming it as a Ponzi scheme.

You know, fact free lying through my teeth.

 

[Puiu]

If crypto would be the biggest problem on earth I would be grateful. In reality there are some bigger problems and nobody does anything. that's sad

It's not the biggest, but it's a growing one problem that is causing issues world wide.

 

[Thunder6230]

Imo the banks are worse

 

[Burty117]

It's not the biggest, but it's a growing one problem that is causing issues world wide.

Oh I see, normal money causes no issues at all?