The European Union Wants to Identify Bitcoin Users

[royalfestus]

Maybe they should just deport troublesome immigrants. It would be a lot easier.

What should they do with troublesome citizens?

[Xester]

If the European Union succeeds in eliminating syndicates from using bitcoin then this will be a good publicity. In this way also big time scammers may be monitored and be placed in justice. This events will highlight bitcoin and be placed on the spotlight in the mainstream media. This is a chance for bitcoin to be known to a wide masses especially in Europe.

[veleten]

the usual create problem-offer solution bullshit from the goverment
the only reason to introduce ways to identify bitcoin users (and then the rest of the cryptocurrency users too?)
is to limit your freedom and remove privacy,have total control of your finances through banks etc.
patriotic act #2,terrorism is used as a false flag yet again

[bohr]

Those news while new are nothing really groundbreaking governments around the world have used that excuse in this millennium to get away with whatever they want and the citizens have just agreed to it.

[Zadicar]

This is a good way to control unwanted money (laundering money or terrorist finance).
but how can they identify and not to hit the bitcoin privacy of the bitcoin users?

This thing would be the big question because if they tend to engage into bitcoin because of money laundering and terrorist finance they would definitely hit up the anonymity features of bitcoin and we all know that tracing its users would really hard thing to do and thats the main problem that EU would face.

Money laundry and hunting down money streams leading to the financing of terrorism, are just excuses that governments hide themselves behind. It's once again their hunger for control that is leading to all kinds of ridiculous policies. Bitcoin is getting bigger with the year, and so does the wealth of people holding Bitcoin. It's the pure smell of money that is making them want to know who you are, and what you hold. Because if they know, you can't avoid the point where you have to pay tax over what you hold, the profits that you have made, etc.

I cant be sure but maybe this thing would be the main motive on this kind of plan of EU.You are right bitcoin is growing everyday and they can already see that people will surely put or hide their tons of money into bitcoin just to evade the taxes thats why they are clinging or imposing such laws or actions that would do against on bitcoins anonymity but i could say it will be a hard step for them.

[calkob]

Good luck with that, Most people using bitcoin at the minute will do everything they can to avoid being identified,  I live in the UK so who cares anyway, we're leaving soon...... 
Although after recent events i guess the #pryminister will be looking a database of bitcoin owners here soon also.

[c789]

Bitcoin is great for businesses and for situations where transparency is desired.

If privacy is desired, use Monero.

[mrkevio]

Bitcoin is great for businesses and for situations where transparency is desired.

If privacy is desired, use Monero.

I still don't like being supervised or controlled by anybody, and I am pretty sure nobody likes it. What I need is privacy no matter what we're talking about. And I do not need to be a criminal to like privacy - it's just how things should be. You should have your own identity, not a shared one. Maybe Monero is untraceable compared to Bitcoin, but that doesn't make me feel better in any way. If Bitcoin gets controlled and their users are identified .. why wouldn't they do the same with Monero?

[Barbut]

Welcome to the club, government's like to identify every one and every thing! That is control! And let's not kidding ourselves, they can come in our homes with warrants, take our computers and take a look what we are doing. They have police and different agencies for that, so many courts and laws about everything.
I'm not surprised with this, it's so typically from governments to do something like this.

Bitcoin is great for businesses and for situations where transparency is desired.

If privacy is desired, use Monero.

Is it really true? That monero is much better to stay hidden?

[dihari]

The criminal transactions like terrorist, drugs, ilegal porn, money laundering, etc. is the bad side of bitcoin as an anonymous crypto currency. It's a real dilemma for bitcoin user.
For example, there is no easy way to explain bitcoin to peoples who don't understand about. They are always think bitcoin is scam ponzi until they found or learn about it self.
If government success to review bitcoin users or we can say they can control our account and transactions, well, this is will be not a decentralized currency anymore.

[c789]

@Barbut: yes, Monero is better for privacy/anonymity. See https://moneroforcash.com/monero-vs-dash-vs-zcash-vs-bitcoinmixers.php for a quick comparison. In addition, there are links to more Monero info at the bottom of that page.

@mrkevio: right now Bitcoin is not controlled or centralized, so there really is no control over users. However, if changes are made to the system in the future, we would know about it because the source code is open source. If they ever make BTC even partly closed-source...watch out. I don't think that's likely to happen. Monero is also open source and decentralized: anyone can view the source code to verify that nothing shady is going on. Also -- and here is where Monero is different -- all transactions are private so there's no way to identify users by analyzing its blockchain. For example, Monero doesn't have a rich list because the coin is truly private.

[Blawpaw]

Trying to identify Bitcoin users goes against everything it should stand for. And the government trying to do that is the same has going on a capital control process over Bitcoin. Luckily, there will always be ways of anonymizing the use of bitcoin.

[Harry Callahan]

i am sure with time more and more restrictions will come while using bitcoin or atleast while purchasing coins because they will come up with the terrorist funding theory so that they can spy everyone .These things are expected to happen and hope changes will happen accordingly.

[davis196]

That's something that news is indeed quite remarkable and I am sure this could give a gate opener that offing bitcoin will be one of the official currencies used by all people in the world. However I am not convinced that the European Union could identify users bitcoin correctly, because until now there has been no thing that makes the thing and I see that if there would not be accurate because there are indeed many wallets where their owners are one person, but I don't know for sure whether this could give a positive or negative impact. Most importantly we must work well inside or outside of the bitcoin bitcoin
 

Again bitcoin is related in the news with criminals and terrorists.

I`m 100% sure that 99,99% of the criminals and terrorists worldwide had never used cryptos.

[Sithara007]

This will create problems for BTC-e, the largest anonymous Bitcoin exchange. A few years back, they shifted their operations from Kiev (Ukraine) to Sofia (Bulgaria). Since Bulgaria is an European Union member, they will have to comply with the directives now.

[Amph]

they only want to do it via exchange, not going to track each address to know who is the owner, and anyway if you use an exchange you are already half-tracked because your bank account display your real name

unless you have a stolen bank account...you can still use a mixer or use other way to sell or to trade your coin

[qiman]

I think there should be a two pronged approach. First you would need to legalize every crypto currency as legal tender and then only you would be able to put in some regulation. You cannot have one without the other.

[Victorycoin]

Call them potential terrorists and take away their freedoms. This is a change. If many terrorists was really using Bitcoin/crypto then the marketcap would be so fucking large it would be obvious.

People don't be shortsighted, that exercise is simply calling a dog a bad name, just so it becomes excusable to hang it! How many terrorists so far have been linked with cryptocurrency and again did terrorism only start some eight years ago? This is what the true picture is, the Euro is very sick and in fact standing on one foot and here comes bitcoin and its relatives full of life and vigor, what do you think those people who print Euro from thin air would say or do?

[Gameroid]

they only want to do it via exchange, not going to track each address to know who is the owner, and anyway if you use an exchange you are already half-tracked because your bank account display your real name

unless you have a stolen bank account...you can still use a mixer or use other way to sell or to trade your coin

yes they will keep check and balance on suspected address only and not on each and every, they can easily get the information from our exchanges from where we transfer money to our bank accouts.

[alyssa85]

Isn't it amazing. They openly give money and weapons to terrorists. They open their borders to terrorists, and then give them homes and other benefits.

And then they want to try to stop the guy who is working over here, and wants to send a bit of cash home to help his family buy food.

Yup. Some of the terrorists were claiming benefits and using them to fund purchasing arms etc

The main goal of the useless folk in the European Parliament is to hinder FinTech to prop up their failing banks, the terrosim is just an excuse for the other stuff.