This is very bad for the European crypto community!

[jossiel]

At least they are regulating it and not banning it. Our friends from European countries can testify if this is totally gonna make them difficult to use bitcoin in their countries. But as long as it's not banned, I think that's fine.

We see this coming and the gov't can't resist not to touch the crypto community because there's something that they could benefit from it. I think they care for the people and this doesn't mean war.

[barabarian1]

I think with this news it will have a negative or positive impact depending on the user. if I am in the presence of regulations and the use of KYC I will feel happy meaning that bitcoin and altcoin have been recognized by the state and the transaction process will be safer. and we can use our bitcoin to shop legally and I don't mind using KYC when trading crypto.
for crypto users who don't like using KYC then this will be bad news for him.

[Murat]

That was anticipated that the Decentralization system would face a legal identity, for the time being, I think that is the moment, It's pretty sure that no government will allow easily because of having own central bank and centralized financial platform where the government has to control everything, That is why decentralization system will face a lot of trouble in order to run on the current context, Obviously, This type of step must hinder the further development of cryptocurrency but it's the reality. no government will take such type of risk towards people and their financial aspect.

[makishart]

It's just inevitable. Government want to prevent money laundering which means they want to increase tax income but also people want full decentralization over cryptocurrency. In the other hand if there's no such regulation the criminials will take advantage of cryptocurrency by laundering money, even hackers could easily cash out the stolen fund without being prevented by KYC. It's just this anti money laundering thing seem worth it with all its disadvantages and advantages.

[Itty Bitty]

The lawmakers kids, or grandkids at latest, will undo whatever they're doing now anyway.
I suppose lawmakers could stop having kids....

[Aikidoka]

I don't think that it will be a big problem when the European governments will try to make some regulations in it, it's obviously because of the money laundering fact, otherwise I think people will use their Bitcoin freely without any kind of bad restrictions, we'll wait and see what will happen in January thought.

[eaLiTy]

They are doing whatever it takes to "take over" and make centralized payments dominant once again.

They are enforcing KYC AML and they will be monitoring dubious transaction to avoid fraud and other illegal transaction, it is obvious that the government will find a way to control the market and now the EU market will be implementing it in exchanges.

Bitcoin was created for us to have no limits in cross-border payments. Now they're trying to take it away from us, because of KYC. There's very little freedom on how much BTC and altcoins are we gonna withdraw, especially within the European union.

There is nothing in the article you provided mentioned about any limits, if you provide all the verification details then you wont be facing any issues as long as you are doing everything legally.

It's just that these lawmakers are doing something to make sure we do not prosper, but only them.

Freedom does not mean that you have to encourage illegal activities too.

[kryptqnick]

New anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are coming into force by January 10 in Europe. The rules, which address cryptocurrency companies for the first time, look set to have a large impact on the industry.

The Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) is set to take full effect in less than a month. It was first detailed in May last year.

Source link here

It means that they're clearly in a war against decentralization.

They are doing whatever it takes to "take over" and make centralized payments dominant once again.

Bitcoin was created for us to have no limits in cross-border payments. Now they're trying to take it away from us, because of KYC. There's very little freedom on how much BTC and altcoins are we gonna withdraw, especially within the European union.

It's just that these lawmakers are doing something to make sure we do not prosper, but only them.

From what I see in the article, it's indeed a bad and very unfair move. Fortunately, my country is not in the EU, although it is on its way there... I think it's unfair if people have to provide ID any time they want to exchange cryptos, because that's not how it works with fiat currency exchanges in the EU. In Hungary, for example, one can exchange one type of fiat for another without providing any ID if the sum is up to 300 EUR or so. Yes, it's a small amount, but transactions like that are indeed too small for serious money laundering, so it's a waste of time and resources to investigate such acts. If a person is exchanging a lot of money, in the other hand, I think it's fair to require not only ID but also proof of source of this money.

[7788bitcoin]

From what I see in the article, it's indeed a bad and very unfair move. Fortunately, my country is not in the EU, although it is on its way there... I think it's unfair if people have to provide ID any time they want to exchange cryptos, because that's not how it works with fiat currency exchanges in the EU.

It is really unfortunate we will be going through tough KYC policies to prevent anti money laundering through these exchanges but we all expected this to happen one day because we all know we need to undergo the same procedure with fiat currency and it was a matter of time that these policies will be enforced to crypto exchanges too, the initial few years were the dream period and now we have to deal with the rules and regulations and there is no way we can bypass those restrictions.

[blckhawk]

You want adoption? Surrender to regulation. If you don't, then adoption becomes difficult to implement. Because the government is there, and what the government wants, is what would happen. You cannot abolish the government either, since we'll all be just chaotic.

It does give us some benefits still. For one, it gives us assurance, when our account gets hacked on the exchange, we could file a complaint and get our money back (since addresses are traceable in the blockchain, and with KYC, could track the hacker).

[TRONTON]

You want adoption? Surrender to regulation. If you don't, then adoption becomes difficult to implement. Because the government is there, and what the government wants, is what would happen. You cannot abolish the government either, since we'll all be just chaotic.

It does give us some benefits still. For one, it gives us assurance, when our account gets hacked on the exchange, we could file a complaint and get our money back (since addresses are traceable in the blockchain, and with KYC, could track the hacker).

The EU implements 5AMLD in the framework of their efforts to emphasize the obligation to encourage cashless payments in national benchmarks, if not like this then adoption will move towards crypto more sharply and out of what the government planned.

You are right about adoption and regulation, but at least the good and bad impacts will still be experienced by industry providers first, we as customers will continue to adjust.

[alyssa85]

This is only a big deal because people are using exchanges to convert their coins into fiat. And of course governments have the right to control fiat and how it is used.

If we had real adoption where you could buy stuff with cryptocurrency, pay your rent with it and so on, you could by-pass the exchanges altogether.

We're looking at a failure to get adoption because of people's obsession with converting their coins into fiat.

[Amel]

You want adoption? Surrender to regulation. If you don't, then adoption becomes difficult to implement. Because the government is there, and what the government wants, is what would happen. You cannot abolish the government either, since we'll all be just chaotic.

It does give us some benefits still. For one, it gives us assurance, when our account gets hacked on the exchange, we could file a complaint and get our money back (since addresses are traceable in the blockchain, and with KYC, could track the hacker).

The EU implements 5AMLD in the framework of their efforts to emphasize the obligation to encourage cashless payments in national benchmarks, if not like this then adoption will move towards crypto more sharply and out of what the government planned.

You are right about adoption and regulation, but at least the good and bad impacts will still be experienced by industry providers first, we as customers will continue to adjust.

Yeah in the end we can only follow the regulations made by the government without doing anything. As you say "as customer will continue to adjust", where we inevitably have to accept the new regulations, whether you agree or not with KYC but that's the fact.

Actually I don't mind all this, including KYC which might be implemented in the future. But I only object when decentralized crypto will be fully regulated like taxation, etc. Even though I only want freedom of transactions between citizens of the world without taxes, without complicated government regulations.

[Reid]

New anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are coming into force by January 10 in Europe. The rules, which address cryptocurrency companies for the first time, look set to have a large impact on the industry.

The Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) is set to take full effect in less than a month. It was first detailed in May last year.

Source link here

It means that they're clearly in a war against decentralization.

They are doing whatever it takes to "take over" and make centralized payments dominant once again.

Bitcoin was created for us to have no limits in cross-border payments. Now they're trying to take it away from us, because of KYC. There's very little freedom on how much BTC and altcoins are we gonna withdraw, especially within the European union.

It's just that these lawmakers are doing something to make sure we do not prosper, but only them.

There’re two ways to look at this news one view is that it’ll force people to avoid bitcoins because of KYC hassles, second view is that EU has recognised crypto’s as an currency and this may pave the way for legalising it. As the article states many companies are shutting down, and many are making sure they comply with the rules hence only by February or March will we will come to know it’s real impact on bitcoin prices.

I will take the 2nd view. 
Create optimism with pessimism. Right.
If only people will question it. Asking themselves, Why?
Is there something wrong with bitcoin or other crypto currencies?
That will trigger something and we might see them here asking those questions afterwards.

Thanks though for bringing that up.

[Cityhunter123]

Decentralization is the basis of crypto, but unfortunately not many people understand it...

[tracey77]

New anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are coming into force by January 10 in Europe. The rules, which address cryptocurrency companies for the first time, look set to have a large impact on the industry.

The Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) is set to take full effect in less than a month. It was first detailed in May last year.

Source link here

It means that they're clearly in a war against decentralization.

They are doing whatever it takes to "take over" and make centralized payments dominant once again.

Bitcoin was created for us to have no limits in cross-border payments. Now they're trying to take it away from us, because of KYC. There's very little freedom on how much BTC and altcoins are we gonna withdraw, especially within the European union.

It's just that these lawmakers are doing something to make sure we do not prosper, but only them.

There’re two ways to look at this news one view is that it’ll force people to avoid bitcoins because of KYC hassles, second view is that EU has recognised crypto’s as an currency and this may pave the way for legalising it. As the article states many companies are shutting down, and many are making sure they comply with the rules hence only by February or March will we will come to know it’s real impact on bitcoin prices.

I'd rather look at it as a positive one. There have been attacks on the existence of bitcoin and crypto around the world.
There are both type of people, one who are okay with KYC and one who not who uses bitcoin and other crypto.
A general trader and investor has nothing to hide from the authorities and the involvement would restrict the fraud in crypto industry.

Exactly, these regulations will only help and prevent frauds, thief, money laundering and many other crypto crimes. If regular users do nothing wrong or illegal, there's nothing to worry about. I understand people who say, that the point of cryptocurrencies is decentralization and anonymity, but one the other hand, lack of any regulations and security system which leaves much to be desire, are the main reason of why the are so many criminals using Bitcoin etc.

[abel1337]

Decentralization is the basis of crypto, but unfortunately not many people understand it...

It's understandable, many people still want centralization which is one is with the control of their assets. Most people who are in the older generation are mostly scared of the adaption of new technology and the change, they might be aware that they might encounter the danger they expect but the reality is they only need proper education on this kind of technology. In the future, crypto might accept by most of the people living in this current generation and it will be passed into the future generation that will make crypto decentralization possible in every aspect.

[Kprawn]

Regulators do what regulators do, make stupid regulations that regulate people who wants to be regulated. Did regulations stop internet piracy? No,

it just got worst when the regulators got involved. They took one Torrent site down and 20 popped up in it's place. What do you think will happen

when they start going up against Crypto currencies? You will see more anonymous (decentralized) technologies and it will even be more difficult to

take them down. Making something illegal, does not stop it, it just gets more attention and more people using it. 

[Eugenar]

It's quite contradicting is some point, they want to lessen the money laundering activities in cryptocurrency, would it be better if we'll be happy about it? Rather than to think how bad it could be for the sake of decentralization. Maybe, they will just provide provisions to the exchanges and not particularly to compromise the cryptocurrency's system at all. A regulation for companies that they could control would be enough, what they should avoid is to make their actions personal to us that our daily activities will be affected too much.

[xiboothrezi]

This might be one of the best answers for those who want legality for cryptocurrency from a country. On the other hand, there are those who feel it can change freedom from decentralization, as explained by the OP.
Each of these policies has their advantages and disadvantages. Don't be bothered, as long as we can still use cryptocurrency well, even though there are certain restrictions in some countries, for example, it is prohibited to be used as a means of payment, etc ... the important thing is that we can each carry out other beneficial activities such as trading, mining, investing, hunting campaign, etc.