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Bitcoin EU

EU Plans To Make Bitcoin Transfers More Traceable (bbc.com) 44

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Proposed changes to EU law would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details on the recipient and sender. From a report: The proposals would make crypto-assets more traceable, the EU Commission said, and would help stop money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. The new rules would also prohibit providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets. The proposals could take two years to become law. The Commission argued that crypto-asset transfers should be subject to the same anti-money-laundering rules as wire transfers. "Given that virtual assets transfers are subject to similar money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks as wire funds transfers... it therefore appears logical to use the same legislative instrument to address these common issues," the Commission wrote. While some crypto-asset service providers are already covered by anti-money-laundering rules, the new proposals would "extend these rules to the entire crypto-sector, obliging all service providers to conduct due diligence on their customers," the Commission explained. Under the proposals, a company transferring crypto-assets for a customer would be obliged to include their name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the recipient.
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EU Plans To Make Bitcoin Transfers More Traceable More

EU Plans To Make Bitcoin Transfers More Traceable

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  • EU Plans To Make Bitcoin Transfers More Traceable

    You don't say [slashdot.org]

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 )

      Would blockchain enable us to eliminate dupes?

      • No, but it will ensure we have robust and verified dupes and triples that can never be taken back.

      • We could make stories NFTs and they would have to be unique /sarcasim

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      Who really has time to read everything on their site's front page before approving a story? Next thing you know, you'll be asking for factual accuracy and other such craziness.

      • You mean crazy stuff like asking for unicode support in 2021? This is complete madness!

        • Unicode and UTF-8 can certainly be done in Perl. Take a look at this answer from ten years ago! [stackoverflow.com]

          "Saying that 'Perl should [somehow!] enable Unicode by default' doesn’t even start to begin to think about getting around to saying enough to be even marginally useful in some sort of rare and isolated case. Unicode is much much more than just a larger character repertoire; it’s also how those characters all interact in many, many ways."

    • And thus, more taxable.

    • An' here I sit so patiently
      Waiting to find out what price
      You have to pay to get out of
      Going through all these things twice

  • Will we see a country leave the EU (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    To have the freedom to launder money? Oh wait we did.

  • Is their jurisdiction world-wide? What if EU citizen making bitcoin transactions do them trough companies outside of EU? Can they still enforce their rules in those cases?

  • Pass just one law that makes crime illegal.

  • BeauHD and msmash walk into a bar... (Score:3)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @02:41PM (#61605205)

    Bartender: "What'll be?"

    BeauHD to msmash: "What are you having?"

    msmash: "Dunno, what are you having?"

    BeauHD: "Dunno, what are you having?"

    msmash: "Dunno, what are you having?"

    ....

  • I am curious how to achieve a trackable Bitcoin, as they're encrypted, and in theory anonymous. Will the EU put some sort of point of origin where the Bitcoin is purchased, used to track when redeemed?

    For me it is less about if it should be done, but how is it done? I've read of police tracking down those that thought Bitcoin would be anonymous, but once decrypted they were tracked in a criminal enterprise.

    If the EU does succeed in this, Bitcoin, and other crypto-currencies might become passé, much lik

    • I would imagine anything that is Bitcoin to Bitcoin is really unregulatable in terms of enforcement. They can likely regulate exchanges, anyone who wants to turn their Bitcoin into Euro's or other "real" currency.

      I suppose exchanges can and will operate outside of countries with regulations but if crypto buyers cannot anonymously exchange into USD, Euro, Yen, Pounds or Yuan will anyone really care as much?

    • The blockchain is 100% trackable. Once in the blockchain, a transaction is there forever more. Bitcoin's blockchain is about 345 GB, and anyone can fetch it.

      Wallets, on the other hand, are anonymous, because they are just private keys. However, with enough info of transactions going into and out of a wallet, in combination with IP address logs, enough evidence can be used to make an airtight case to convict of financial crimes.

      Of course, there are other currencies where there is some anonymity, where tra

    • I am curious how to achieve a trackable Bitcoin, as they're encrypted, and in theory anonymous.

      Bitcoin is not encrypted, nor is it really anonymous. The blockchain is a type of public ledger. Anyone can look at it, and see how many coins are held by Bitcoin address 292397, and what addresses those coins came from. Anyone can watch the blockchain for updates, and know the instant when the owner of address 292397 spends some coins, and what addresses the coins are sent to. All of this transaction and balance information is available for everyone to see. That makes it very trackable.

      Bitcoin is secure be

  • IIRC, that is pretty much the distinguishing feature between the two.

  • Msmash, you've outdone yourself. Really. Impressive. The best you've come in the past is duplicating *most* of an editordavid post. In this case you managed to duplicate it VERBATIM... INCLUDING THE TITLE!

    Never in the history of dupes has slashdot duped as hard as it duped today!

  • ... there would be only one account left to receive money, called "Bring back the criminal transfers". ;-)

    • I think you will find the majority of bitcoin transactions today are infact rampant currency speculation.

  • This is not possible (Score:2, Interesting)

    by maynard ( 3337 )

    A wallet is nothing more than software and a unique crypto key. There's no way to verify identity of wallet holders unless the owner registers a wallet to an official exchange. The blockchain will record chains of transactions to keys, and regulators are welcome to trace those transaction records as much as they like. But it won't get them identity of key holders or the location of a transaction anywhere in the world. Which means, in what jurisdiction did that transaction take place?

    Want cash for bitcoin bu

  • One of the prime justifications and design criteria for Bitcoin was to protect peoples' financial information from government snooping and meddling. The EU can pass as many rules as it likes -- that seems to be what it is best at -- but rules will not enable them to monitor and control everyone's finances in Bitcoin. If they are serious about this, perhaps the EU will adopt its own private cryptocurrency like the CCP has done. The Chinese government is quite good at monitoring and controlling its populat

    • I am interested in this topic and I have been tracking all the pros and cons of using crypto for a long time. I like Bitcoin as the most stable analogue of the world currency. As far as I remember, it is possible to track transactions through the blockchain, but you need to know in advance about the proposed transaction in order to track it. This is not applicable to the general user. Most often it is used in gambling now, for example in crash gambling [trustdice.win]. This gives you freedom of action and the ability not t
  • I'm not sure people are going to like it. One of the best things about cryptocurrency is that it can't be controlled by the government, and now this feature is starting to disappear. I think that it can cause the loss of users of cryptocurrency, and for people like me, using Bitcoin Equaliser software [bitcoinequaliser.co] may stop being so profitable.
  • When I first started trading, I didn't know many important things and therefore made mistakes. In order to minimize losses, you should read about forex trading for beginners. For me, it was just a necessary importance. I am sure that for those I am, this useful information [kaigaifxforex.com] on the subject will be no less useful, friend. Good luck to you!

  • Re (Score:1)

    by Ultimer ( 8105522 )
    I thought that since the cryptocurrency is decentralized, people can remain invisible in front of the government. But I understand that it's made for the government to track the illegal operations. I'm sure that some criminals actually tried to use crypto as an invisibility cloak, even though way more people just trading on Bitcoin Up ZA [bitcoinup.app] and peacefully earning money.

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