[2015-06-13] Crime organizations discuss joint robbery of virtual money users

[barbierir]

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2390219&CategoryId=12396

Japan Discusses Common Rules for Virtual Money with U.S. and China

TOKYO – Financial authorities of Japan, the United States and China plan to establish joint regulations to prevent use of virtual currencies, such as bitcoin, to finance terrorism and other illegal activities, Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported on Friday.
The three countries have pushed for an initiative in the 31-member Financial Action Task Force, FATF, to approve the guidelines for regulating virtual currency, Nikkei said citing Japanese authorities.
The guidelines entail creating the first international regulatory framework for decentralized virtual currency.
The objective of this inter-governmental organization is to have better surveillance over bitcoin and other virtual currencies and include identity verification for users who open “virtual wallets.”
It also examines control mechanisms for transactions that could have links to terrorist organizations like the Islamic State, authorities said.
Japan is at the forefront for bitcoin regulation after approving a law in March 2014 to classify this cryptocurrency -form of payment that has encrypted back-up data of its material value- as a commodity and not a currency.
Soon after, U.S. International Revenue System announced that, for tax purposes, bitcoin and other virtual currencies will considered as intangible property and not a currency, making them taxable.
These measures were designed after the Mt.Gox, bitcoin exchange bureau located in Japan, went bankrupt, affecting around 100,000 clients.
FATF is an inter-governmental organization established in 1989 by a group of seven countries, popularly known as G7, to control money laundering.

[Grand_Voyageur]

The media refer about crime syndacates like Yakuza, Triads, Mafias or the Financial authorities of Japan, the United States and China as would be robbers of cryptocurrency? Also I cannot read it since link is broken, unreachable to me.

[odolvlobo]

[Kaneki]

This step is good but I do not think that will be easy such as making other regulations 

[aigeezer]

Also I cannot read it since link is broken, unreachable to me.

I've been unable to reach it from Canada for several hours now, fwiw: "Firefox can't find the server at www.laht.com"

Google/Wiki say it is the Latin American Herald Tribune in Venezuela. I have not heard of it previously. What's up? Anyone know?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_Herald_Tribune

Edit: Update. Aha - it seems the link works if you set your VPN to a location outside the US.

Edit: Update. Further digging - the link works for at least one VPN location within the US. Exact cause of the issue still unknown, but it is NOT that the site is banned in the US.
I notice that Flagfox reports that the LAHT server location is in the US! Anyway, the link works from some locations and not others, it seems.

[Kprawn]

They really try hard to cram in all the negative things they can say, into one article. 

It's jam packed full on FUD spreading article... all the old stuff being resurrected to make it sound scary.

Terrorism, drugs, illegal stuff... over regulation... MtGox... it's all there...and it's still boring. 

When are we going to see something new and original coming from these fudders? What next? Bitcoin was invented by Aliens?

[aigeezer]

They really try hard to cram in all the negative things they can say, into one article.  

It's jam packed full on FUD spreading article... all the old stuff being resurrected to make it sound scary.

Terrorism, drugs, illegal stuff... over regulation... MtGox... it's all there...and it's still boring.  

When are we going to see something new and original coming from these fudders? What next? Bitcoin was invented by Aliens?

It does read like a press release from the G7 - the subjects of the article.

Despite that, I was interested in:

1. OP's cheeky headline - it's interesting to view the article in that context (tax grab).

2. (edited after new data found) The apparent banning of access that I stumbled on when my VPN happened to choose a US location as its random site of the moment. Why is the site banned to US residents (if that is indeed the case), especially if the messaging is G7-centric?
Site-ban was found not to be the case. The only remaining puzzle is why the link appears to work from some locations and not others, regardless of country.

Puzzling stuff.

[bryant.coleman]

Financial authorities of Japan, the United States and China plan to establish joint regulations to prevent use of virtual currencies, such as bitcoin, to finance terrorism and other illegal activities, Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported on Friday.

How they are going to prevent the use of virtual currencies? In order to do that, they would need to shut down the entire internet. Do they have large enough balls to do that? And even if the unholy alliance of United States, China and Japan come together to fight against the Bitcoin, what about the other countries, such as Russia?