3 ms·

nope but if you want to actually convert your crypto into any good or service or currency that doesn't happen to be crypto, you're going to be rendered legible.

nope but if you want to actually convert your crypto into any good or service or currency that doesn't happen to be crypto, you're going to be rendered legible. And that alone is going to make tax evasion or laundering a lot harder, and probably makes it a way less attractive asset for criminals.

nybble41 5y ago
On the contrary, nothing has really changed here. If you're moving your crypto to an exchange in order to sell it and withdraw euros or dollars or whatever, guess what—you're already in the system. These rules already applied due to the interaction with the traditional financial system when you withdraw your balance. Now the exchange will be required to do the same reporting on the crypto side, but they already had that data. The same goes for moving traditional currency into an exchange to buy crypto. The only areas really affected by the new rules would be exchanges which only involve crypto (e.g. BTC for ETH), direct transfers between customers on an exchange or between exchanges—which aren't actually crypto transactions to begin with even if they are denominated in crypto units—and withdrawals to addresses controlled by parties other than the account holder, which many exchanges didn't permit anyway. (Withdraw to your own unhosted wallet first.) It's still a huge invasion of privacy etc., completely unjustified and unethical etc., but let's not get too worked up over what seems to me like a fairly predictable shift in which businesses are subjected to KYC/AML regulations. The more reputable exchanges have basically been assuming that these rules applied to them all along. Unhosted wallets and direct transfers between them are unaffected since they don't involve a Crypto-Asset Service Provider. Centralized exchanges were always an awkward stop-gap measure in any case, not a fundamental part of the crypto ecosystem. If this encourages people to trade directly through the decentralized network and avoid CASPs wherever possible, so much the better.

nybble41 5y ago

On the contrary, nothing has really changed here. If you're moving your crypto to an exchange in order to sell it and withdraw euros or dollars or whatever, guess what—you're already in the system. These rules already applied due to the interaction with the traditional financial system when you withdraw your balance. Now the exchange will be required to do the same reporting on the crypto side, but they already had that data. The same goes for moving traditional currency into an exchange to buy crypto. The only areas really affected by the new rules would be exchanges which only involve crypto (e.g. BTC for ETH), direct transfers between customers on an exchange or between exchanges—which aren't actually crypto transactions to begin with even if they are denominated in crypto units—and withdrawals to addresses controlled by parties other than the account holder, which many exchanges didn't permit anyway. (Withdraw to your own unhosted wallet first.) It's still a huge invasion of privacy etc., completely unjustified and unethical etc., but let's not get too worked up over what seems to me like a fairly predictable shift in which businesses are subjected to KYC/AML regulations. The more reputable exchanges have basically been assuming that these rules applied to them all along. Unhosted wallets and direct transfers between them are unaffected since they don't involve a Crypto-Asset Service Provider. Centralized exchanges were always an awkward stop-gap measure in any case, not a fundamental part of the crypto ecosystem. If this encourages people to trade directly through the decentralized network and avoid CASPs wherever possible, so much the better.