Stronger AML Enforcement Might Actually Save Crypto

[rmilly]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/yayafanusie/2019/05/29/stronger-aml-enforcement-might-actually-save-crypto/?utm_content=92934236&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-3972254294#73d10bfb7e78

Saw this article today and made me really think about this topic. What are your thoughts?

I feel like the KYC and AML companies such as Ciphertrace and Refinitiv are really helping with regulations and making governments feel better about crypto

[franky1]

regulations are not the same as consumer protections. people can still be scammed. just look at the mortgage and credit card sector that offer huge interest rates, not many/any months of payment breaks/error correcting before they enforce. and if the institution offering the credit does something wrong, they never have to be accountable.

regulations are mainly to make big well financed businesses that can afford to hoard large sums to pay for licences, get certified with shiny sherrif badges to police their customers. its a fake veil of trust having the title of being regulated, but once you pull the veil away you see the truth.
companies that are regulated get to write their own policy guidelines for how they will police their customers and report customers that perform tasks that are not damaging/dangerous to anyone else, but may (emphasis: may) result in some tax dodging mainly.

yes wall street only want to work with other wall street certified entities. all so they can have their boys club of shuffling funds around knowing the licence will protect and cover them.

this stuff keeps out the new entities and the individuals who could offer better, but just are not on the same level

crypto does not need saving from the likes of businesses with regulations. what crypto actually needs is to untie its dependence on fiat and become more a product/service<->crypto model without the need of fiat involvement in the middle

but there are always going to be fiat lovers who just want to never understand crypto. but just dip their toe into it long enough to increase their fiat balance and run back to fiat. and its these fiat lovers that care only about speculation a FOMO price spikes for greedy fiat gains. NOT to 'save crypto'

[LeGaulois]

People are praying for KYC-AML and any kind of regulation thinking it will help for mass adoption. Yes, a little but not much.
Bitcoin was created to avoid all these limits but since some years people want it back as if they liked having a leash. F**k that, Bitcoin can become a popular alternative currency without stupid laws, not in line with reality. It's just helping the Finance to infest us.

[Micerker]

Is this a good thing? They are helping governments to control Cryptocurrency investors and make the government feel better. But investors think anxious, and they worry when their identities released to governments, they worry that the government will tax their investments.

[Slow death]

Just look at this:

ICO:

Humanityone and Cryptoinfinity, etc... - MASSIVE SCAM - Fake team

[FAKE TEAM MEMBER]: Zoptax Coin

exchange:

My Bittrex account has been disabled.

HitBTC scam!

casinos:

Cloudbet Stole 55.35BTC of mine

[scam] BetKing.io broke ICO promise and dropped token value 99%

if we had a legalized market, it would be easier to punish the scammers and probably the scam number would be lower

[Beerwizzard]

People are praying for KYC-AML and any kind of regulation thinking it will help for mass adoption.

It seems like we are using different bitcoins lol. From what I see everyone is crying every time some project is asking for their useless ID. Thousands of normal (and probably retarded) users refuse to invest in ICOs with KYC because they are afraid for their "private data".

Bitcoin was created to avoid all these limits but since some years people want it back as if they liked having a leash.

Without this legal stuff cryptocurrencies won't get any volume.

F**k that, Bitcoin can become a popular alternative currency without stupid laws, not in line with reality. It's just helping the Finance to infest us.

If you think that you can easily perform transactions, that are legaly controlled by the government, by just using cryptocurrencies then you are probably the one who is not in line with reality.

[LeGaulois]

Yes but guess what? Scams will still exist, hey will use another business scam model. Anyone can create a website.
Do we have less scam with fiats since the last 2 decades overloaded with many regulations as possible? Nope, how it could be different to Bitcoin?
Look at the examples you posted, why create a regulation/law to punish someone scamming. If you scam, you scam, no need to create a new law for each item stolen.

If you think that you can easily perform transactions, that are legaly controlled by the government, by just using cryptocurrencies then you are probably the one who is not in line with reality.

Who ask for transactions legally controlled by govt. Surely not me.

Without this legal stuff cryptocurrencies won't get any volume.

How the volume comes since the years?

[xWolfx]

I also think that it helps governments feel better about it, since regulations is one is the most important things that decide if something is official or not.

I personally don't like those verification steps too much because i feel like they are lacking. For now, they are enough though. But having some ideas to implement more effective methods in the future would be a really nice thing.

[Beerwizzard]

If you think that you can easily perform transactions, that are legaly controlled by the government, by just using cryptocurrencies then you are probably the one who is not in line with reality.

Who ask for transactions legally controlled by govt. Surely not me.

Then no one cares about simple transactions. You can easily pay some online shop for example that accept BTC without passing AML.

Without this legal stuff cryptocurrencies won't get any volume.

How the volume comes since the years?

If you need some crypto related service with a decent volume to work properly then those services have to do some AML stuff. Everyone have to deal with it as soon as the volume is big enough.
Same thing is also related to normal fiat services.

[hatshepsut93]

Well, governments can't keep ignoring crypto forever, especially if it's expanding, so there's really only 2 options - they ban it or they regulate it. I wouldn't want to see crypto banned, it would make things harder for us all, we'd have to use shady exchanges or risk trading p2p with strangers, banks would freeze our accounts if they'd find that we use crypto, and I won't even start talking about legal problems.

[kryptqnick]

I think the article is making things too dramatic:

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts need to decide if they want this technology to be solely for a minority of ultra-libertarians and other ideologues who are willing to take the arduous steps currently needed to navigate the user-unfriendly crypto space. Or, do they want the broader public and merchants worldwide to start using cryptocurrencies?

Well, how about none of these options? How about banks and governments losing their power over our financial freedom so that Bitcoin can be for everyone? Okay, I get it, financing terrorism and laundering money are bad. But you know what? Banks are regularly caught in money laundering scandals, and governments finance terrorists in some situations. Moreover, both exist as issues with fiat as well, even though fiat is rather controlled. Or what, shouldn't they ban all cash, then, because people can use it anonymously?
I think it might be okay to impose KYC procedures on people with very significant amounts of money, but the cause definitely does not justify keeping track of every transaction and the identity behind it.

[Ailmand]

Despite all the security measures offered by cryptocurrency, the government would still reject it. The government would always be an antagonist and would stay firm in ignoring it. KYC couldn't make the government accept crypto. It will always be against it as long as they couldn't manipulate it. 

[Baofeng]

I feel like the KYC and AML companies such as Ciphertrace and Refinitiv are really helping with regulations and making governments feel better about crypto

Nah, there are governments who brutally hates crypto and even though there are companies that who are trying to track down everything, they won't give a s**t. On the other hand, do we really need regulations to really curb out scammers in the ecosystem? Would it be better if we could use our common sense before investing on something? If there are AML/KYC would it make any difference at all?

[Genemind]

Even with the existence of KYC, the government will still hate cryptocurrency because it's a big threat for them. We all know that they don't want financial freedom and they want to regulate crypto. Kyc will not be a reason enough to save crypto because it couldn't even give us the security that we're all asking for.

[dothebeats]

Stricter regulations won't save crypto. Admit it or not, no matter how tight security is against scammers and money launderers, they can still find a way to get bsck and do their nefarious activities all over again. It's a part of the community already, and the only way to combat this is to educate people harder against some scams in the making. Always remember that prevention is better than cure, and for crypto, the cure is almost impossoble to acquire once the damage has been done.

[oseikuf44]

Anti money Laundering enforcement is the sure way to track down all the bad guys that has bring crypto down. With a strong AML enforcement set by all government to track down crypto users, it might reduce the scam and trace all the money hacked or stolen through false crypto projects.

[drumamat]

Let's say everyone wanted to go through the KYC procedure.But what can you say about anonymous cryptocurrencies? Can you destroy them or decrease their demand?

[1Referee]

Anti money Laundering enforcement is the sure way to track down all the bad guys that has bring crypto down. With a strong AML enforcement set by all government to track down crypto users, it might reduce the scam and trace all the money hacked or stolen through false crypto projects.

Lol. The bad guys are part of the 1% club in crypto. In order to hit these bad guys you want to punish the good guys accounting for the other 99%?

If people weren't so naive and stupid, scams would be way less of a thing. Most scams can be prevented simply by having people use common sense. If something looks too good to be true, it mostly is. The potential 'gain' there is to make isn't worth the risk/reward ratio. It offers odds worse than a casino where most people lose anyway. You think you can beat that? Think again. 

[Patatas]

Saw this article today and made me really think about this topic. What are your thoughts?

Would you like paying taxes and get tracked for every satoshi that you own? That is what these services are planning to do "Impress the Governments"

I feel like the KYC and AML companies such as Ciphertrace and Refinitiv are really helping with regulations and making governments feel better about crypto

Who wants to make the government feel better? Satoshi doesn't. Dissolves the entire point of holding crypto. You either run decentralized & anonymous or pay taxes and get tracked. I choose the obvious one.

[hatshepsut93]

Stricter regulations won't save crypto. Admit it or not, no matter how tight security is against scammers and money launderers, they can still find a way to get bsck and do their nefarious activities all over again. It's a part of the community already, and the only way to combat this is to educate people harder against some scams in the making. Always remember that prevention is better than cure, and for crypto, the cure is almost impossoble to acquire once the damage has been done.

Crypto doesn't need any saving in that sense, it's not going to disappear simply because of scammers in the ecosystem - it's simply a tradeoff between freedom and regulation. Scams are actually less impactful now, because crypto economy became bigger, so an exit scam of one business won't shake the whole economy, like it was in the past, and for bigger businesses it's much better to play fair and aim for the long run. Regulation mostly comes because crypto can become a major part of money laundering schemes.