4 ms·

This is kind of a misconception a lot of people have about law. Especially in crypto, you’ll hear people gape “oh what, the government is going to ban random nu

This is kind of a misconception a lot of people have about law. Especially in crypto, you’ll hear people gape “oh what, the government is going to ban random numbers? oh, the government is gonna ban something they can’t shut down?” I guess they imagine something more dramatic like secret police doing sting operations against every crypto user out there. In reality, they’re making a new stick i.e. once they have already decided to prosecute you for something, if they can show you used a mixer, this will be just a new charge to throw at you or a multiplier on your sentence. I’m finding it a little difficult to put into words succinctly but as an example, they’re still going to after e.g. Coinbase: the big guys. They’re not gonna track down every party interacting with any mixer and prosecute because that’s hugely resource intensive. But now when they go after e.g. Coinbase, they have a new tool in their belt. (IMO IANAL.)

birdyrooster 4y ago
I am sure they see Coinbase as being part of a gigantic racketeering operation where the whales game government and finance to facilitate black markets.
salawat 4y ago
This is a structural practice our government tends to favor. They can regulate larger actors and keep them in line more easily in order to limit the options for misbehavior downstream. To employ in the U.S., you have to report what you paid people to the tax authorities. The employer can employ and do commerce on condition of compliance and the good grace of government recognition. Individuals, in the end can do whatever they want as long as the paper trail is managed by the economic machine.