How many of you have mined or bought Bitcoin? Get ready because governments are moving to pass regulations which clamp down on some of the non-government freedom of the cryptological-based currency.
A new piece at DefenseOne titled “Russia, N. Korea Eye Bitcoin for Money Laundering, Putting It on a Crash Course with Regulators” is getting much attention.
The story says: “An October report from the Drug Enforcement Agency says that Chinese nationals eager to offshore money are—perhaps unintentionally—helping drug traffickers launder their profits through a shadowy web of less-than-well regulated Bitcoin exchanges… “
…governments may end up passing laws that put such teeth into using such and trading Bitcoin-like products that it may lose on one side what it gains on another.
“Here’s how it works according to the DEA: money brokers sell Bitcoin to drug traffickers, who pay in cash from U.S. and European drug sales. Chinese underground banking systems, or CUBS, sell Bitcoin to drug traffickers in exchange for drug money. The CUBS then sell the drug cash to Chinese nationals in exchange for Bitcoin, a popular product among Chinese looking to get their money out of China and circumvent local Chinese regulations. The increasing use of OTC Bitcoin brokers, who are capable of transferring millions of dollars in Bitcoin across international borders, as part of a capital flight scheme is expected to continue to intertwine criminal money laundering networks with capital flight,” the DefenseOne story reports.
The move by governments is to make crypto-currency trading more transparent, removing much of the anonymity which currently exits to make harder to use such for money laundering.
I can imagine that the currency may end up free of central bank manipulation, the long held goal, but that governments may end up passing laws that put such teeth into using such and trading Bitcoin-like products that it may lose on one side what it gains on another.
Do they have any proof that this is happening, or is it just a could/would/might scenario?
My gut tells me it’s all hypothetical, and that is they only way they can get an excuse to regulate bitcoin.
No, it is fairly well proven that Bitcoin is being used for money laundering. Some shady exchanges have made the news.