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I believe this is part of a disingenuous attempt to link crypto currencies with crime. Crypto currencies are undoubtedly used for money laundering and hiding.
by anm89 6y ago
I believe this is part of a disingenuous attempt to link crypto currencies with crime.
Crypto currencies are undoubtedly used for money laundering and hiding. Dollars are undoubtedly used for money laundering and hiding. Euros and gold and car washes are all undoubtedly used for money laundering.
The question is, does the fact that an asset is used in money laundering mean it should be outlawed. I think the answer is fairly transparently no. But this is seen as the easiest rhetorical tool in the event that someone is already looking for basis to argue for banning crypto currency. Think of the children! And Terrorism!
Imagine a new country came into existence except it held no physical land, it produced no physical goods, it built no physical infrastructure, it paid no welfare, it's just an internet country. Well this country's currency is just as usable for money laundering as every other currency assuming it freely floats but because it has no structural economy behind it, money laundering makes up a disproportionate portion of it's total use. Does that mean it was invented just to launder money?
The point is: of course a new internet currency is mostly used for money laundering. That's one easy thing to do with an internet currency and the other use cases are still developing.
In the end it doesn't matter though, I believe the ability of governments to censor cryptocurrencies is drastically less than they project.
They can turn off the on ramps but they also know that could cause a rush on those assets that they could never reverse. And as the drug war taught us, throwing endless resources at preventing the sale of a commodity for currency on black markets works much better in principle than it does in reality.And in a world of floating converting convertible currencies, if they don't all coordinate a ban at once in an effective manner it's going to fail spectacularly, because there's always another currency on ramp that's just a money transfer away.
- AnthonyMouse 6y ago> In the end it doesn't matter though, I believe the ability of governments to censor cryptocurrencies is drastically less than they project. The real problem is that they can interfere severely in the ability of ordinary people to use it for legitimate purposes while still not making the slightest dent in its use for criminal activity. Because for ordinary people to use it, it would have to be accepted by e.g. Amazon, who is not going to break the law in order to accept it. But in order to be used by criminals, it only has to be used by other criminals.
- anm89 6y agoIn the short term yes. The attempts to delegitimize prevent people from doing the fair things they want to do and it unfairly punishes the lawful uses while preventing to stop the unlawful uses. In the long run I think it's going to go where it's going to go and it doesn't matter
- AnthonyMouse 6y agoThere has to be some taste for the irony in quoting Keynes about Bitcoin, so here it is: "In the long run we are all dead." What may happen may happen but it would sure be nice if we didn't spend a half century just paying the costs and suffering generations of War on Drugs-style authoritarianism before we actually get around to having the benefits.
- anm89 6y agoRight. That isn't much comfort to people who could use this stuff now. But I personally don't get too moralistic about this stuff. I believe cryptocurrency will stick around in the long run. What that path looks like is anyone's guess.
- cft 6y agoBitcoin's illicit flows are negligible https://markets.chainalysis.com/?range=30&asset=BTC#risk-illicit-flows https://markets.chainalysis.com/?range=30&asset=BTC#risk-ill... Roubini has heard Yellen and Lagarde loud and clear and is trying to score points- perhaps aiming for a regulatory job.
- anm89 6y agoRight, this is well known. Which is why I believe these arguments are disingenuous.
- stretchcat 6y ago> [A country with] no physical land, it produced no physical goods, it built no physical infrastructure, it paid no welfare, > "Does that mean it was invented just to launder money?" Probably.
- genericacct 6y agoI think you forgot ransomware which is a sort of crime that didn't exist before cryptos and is wholly enabled by them.
- topranks 6y agoNot that I disagree, but the problem for crypto is that it its use as a currency mostly is criminal. There are very few legitimate goods and services people purchase with crypto. Yes the US dollar is used for more crime than crypto, but it’s also used for everything else. Crypto will continue to get a bad press unless it can be seen as “a currency sometimes used for crime” rather than “a currency only used for crime.”
- anm89 6y agoBad press is only a problem if they can do something about it. I don't think they can.
- tenuousemphasis 6y ago>the problem for crypto is that it its use as a currency mostly is criminal. On what data are you basing this conclusion?
- ffggvv 6y agoi doubt they’ll ban them. just heavily regulated them. just like cash is also heavily regulated (flagged to govt if you withdraw a certain amount)