Tether: We've onboarded FBI, Secret Service to our platform

[Coyster]

If wallets can be blocked arbitrarily, anyone using Tether need to watch their back

Exactly, especially people who are hodling Tether for a long period of time, it is such a risky thing to do. I understand that traders use it when necessary, but nobody should be hodling a coin that can be frozen even in their own wallet.

Now I doubt they will do this with btc.

Tether is centralized, Bitcoin is decentralized, there is no central authority that can oversee or implement something like this in the Bitcoin network, so it is not possible.

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[larry_vw_1955]

Exactly, especially people who are hodling Tether for a long period of time, it is such a risky thing to do. I understand that traders use it when necessary, but nobody should be hodling a coin that can be frozen even in their own wallet.

yeah at least if you store your us dollars underneath your mattress you can use them to buy food at the grocery store or gas for the car. having it frozen in tether would make it worthless.

Tether is centralized, Bitcoin is decentralized, there is no central authority that can oversee or implement something like this in the Bitcoin network, so it is not possible.

they might not be able to centralize bitcoin directly but their goal is to get rid of all ways people in the usa can buy bitcoin except maybe through a few centralized exchanges which would report on them to the IRS. they want to cut off americans from doing any type of business outside of the boarders.

[Kelward]

imagine having the FBI and Secret Service needing to approve your bitcoin wallet. That's what the USA government wishes could happen. Looks like they are getting their way with tether...which is kind of concerning that the USA government will now effectively control tether.

they say they did this for transparency but it seems like from now on the government can and will definitely have a look into different addresses containing usdt
will this affect their users? i feel like some would be ok with the idea of tether implementing a more secure system but on the other hand, the involvement of the government totally goes against the concept of crypto

I seriously want to believe that the US government must have a good reason to investigate certain wallets on Tether, it could be for reasons that concerns their national security. I guess that it must be so because it's not only FBI but also their secret service that's involved, so I guess it's best that Tether management cooperates with them to at least clear their name in any illegal deals. Although government interference goes against the norms of any crypto related affairs that should guarantee privacy, but if it's for a good cause, because of hacks and illegal activities, then we'll have to accept the turn of events.

[Coyster]

yeah at least if you store your us dollars underneath your mattress you can use them to buy food at the grocery store or gas for the car. having it frozen in tether would make it worthless.

I second that, and if you have your money in your bank account, it is insured up to a certain amount, thus even if the bank fails, you're definitely not going to lose everything. I can't say that for your USDT, if anything goes wrong with the issuing company (and it can, with all the manipulation going on), everything you have in USDT becomes worthless and lost.

they might not be able to centralize bitcoin directly but their goal is to get rid of all ways people in the usa can buy bitcoin except maybe through a few centralized exchanges which would report on them to the IRS. they want to cut off americans from doing any type of business outside of the boarders.

Cryptocurrency regulation in the United States is going to a whole new level, they want to be able to monitor everything that their citizens do with cryptocurrencies, they want to eliminate every sort of privacy people get when they use Bitcoin. If things continue in this way, the future does not look so good for people who want to use Bitcoin privately.

[larry_vw_1955]

I second that, and if you have your money in your bank account, it is insured up to a certain amount, thus even if the bank fails, you're definitely not going to lose everything. I can't say that for your USDT, if anything goes wrong with the issuing company (and it can, with all the manipulation going on), everything you have in USDT becomes worthless and lost.

I agree. There's a difference between having your US dollars in a federally insured bank account versus owning some crypto token that a private company is supposed to be willing to redeem for you into US dollars. You're right it's not insured and it could suffer some type of adverse event causing the loss of funds (authorities "freezing" the address, depegging, etc). Most people holding USDT probably think none of that could ever happen to them though.

Cryptocurrency regulation in the United States is going to a whole new level, they want to be able to monitor everything that their citizens do with cryptocurrencies,

I agree with that. The strange thing is how if you just BUY bitcoin and hold it, they so far haven't tried to impose any type of reporting requirements on USA citizens. That's kind of strange though. You'd think they'd want them at least answering a YES/NO question on their tax returns.

During the past year, did you purchase any cryptocurrencies?
If you answered YES, provide the complete details of each purchase including the addresses the funds were put on.