[2018-01-13] US Government Fears Bitcoin Will Be the Next “Swiss Bank Account”

[Jgilpulg]

Bitcoin lets you have your private bank in your electronic wallet. As a result, Bitcoin will eventually render the fiat monetary and banking system obsolete. Hence, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s concerns might be justified.

https://bitcoinist.com/us-government-fears-bitcoin-will-be-the-next-swiss-bank-account/

[meer45]

Bitcoin will never become big enough to render fiat obsolete. But they are right about the fact that once bitcoin is off the grid, it is very difficult to pinpoint the location of the money. It is why bitcoin became popular in the first place, and why governments are trying their best to control it.

[casparthefriendly]

The U.S. government just wants to spy on its OWN citizens    and try to find  a way to double tax income!

[InvoKing]

People in the past were hiding their treasure / money in hidden places inside their houses, in holes (don't know why i remembered trump). Then after the banking system came (to generate a rich cash grabbers society level), people put their money their and it was later spied by governments and their shitholes agencies.
Now after Bitcoin came to life (and other cryptocurrencies / thanks satoshi) these agencies get pissed off since their democratic countries can no longer inspecting its citizens...
Money laundering, terrorism, corruption...stupid excuses to ruin the lives of innocent people trying to get food, house and a place to be buried in it in peace!

[1Referee]

There is no such a thing as Bitcoin being the next Swiss bank account. The main difference here is that the government can't freeze your money because it isn't held by whatever shitty centralized institution. Swiss bank accounts have never been save because of how the Swiss banksters were snitching on their own account holders. It's disgusting that you have to hide your own wealth for the tyranny of your own government, greedy bastards they are. I am glad that a good portion of my wealth is locked into Bitcoin since years and years ago. It feels good that no one but myself has access to this wealth, and that it can't be blocked/frozen by ANY entity.

[J. Cooper]

I am glad that a good portion of my wealth is locked into Bitcoin since years and years ago. It feels good that no one but myself has access to this wealth, and that it can't be blocked/frozen by ANY entity.

The things is that a lot of people tend to say that bitcoin is extremely risky and that you should only put in what you can afford to lose but honestly I've never felt safer. Knowing that your money is safe and only YOU can control it is a really nice thought. In fact I've never felt stressed holding a portion of my money, I would even say I feel a lot more confident holding my money into bitcoin rather than on a bank account.

[squatter]

Bitcoin will never become big enough to render fiat obsolete. But they are right about the fact that once bitcoin is off the grid, it is very difficult to pinpoint the location of the money. It is why bitcoin became popular in the first place, and why governments are trying their best to control it.

I'm beginning to think they are playing dumb. There are actually treasure troves of deanonymization tools available to governments which have been developed by Chainalysis and their competitors for years. They've got databases full of metadata like bloom filters, leaked tracker information and PII data, IP address data. For all we know, companies like Bitpay or other merchants are honeypots to identify our wallets via address clustering.

They're watching us and the problem is only going to get worse. If you think Bitcoin is "private" by default, then read this: arxiv.org/pdf/1708.04748.pdf

The U.S. government just wants to spy on its OWN citizens    and try to find  a way to double tax income!

This guy's got the right idea. Bitcoin is incredibly transparent and trackable. That fact, combined with the pernicious use of third party trackers and lack of care with IP address privacy means that Bitcoin is serving a lot of our data to the government on a platter.

It's time to get smart, learn how to make your funds un-linkable, encrypt all communications, use TOR and I2P, get off the grid......

[Coin-Keeper]

I feel the same as many on this thread so far.  I love having substantial wealth held in BTC and the fact I control the coins is known to nobody but me.  I have my SEED lists and passwords spread around in a way that my heirs will be pleasantly surprised if I "leave" this world today.  Until then, only I know my coin amounts, which I love.  There is NO chance that my SEED lists and the needed passwords will ever come together while I am alive.  I could go into any corner of the globe and turn those coins into cash without a trace if I really wanted to.   Don't want to sound like a criminal, just that I could if I wanted to.  Its much more freedom than cash in a controlled account with tons of eyes watching every transaction.  I am the person that spends much more time "anonymizing" my coins than I do anything else with them.

It's time to get smart, learn how to make your funds un-linkable, encrypt all communications, use TOR and I2P, get off the grid......

I"ll join you on that soapbox!

[Zicadis]

Maybe the US government is right on this one and bitcoin could actually even be better than these swiss accounts as there is no central power that’s in control of these accounts that could close these accounts by some court order.... probably the reason why bitcoin is so popular today.

[Stegobit]

Bitcoin and altcoins are the only assets that govt REALLY cannot confiscate if you properly encrypt private keys!

[aso118]

The US and other governments were able to arm twist the Swiss government into loosening its banking secrecy rules. With Bitcoin, they have nobody to lean on. Of course, if you are stupid and use a web wallet, they can get your details from the wallet company. Else, it is better than a numbered Swiss account.