The government plans to regulate digital currency
It's happening, what are your thoughts/concerns?
SEC. 13. PREPAID ACCESS DEVICES, DIGITAL CURRENCIES, OR OTHER SIMILAR INSTRUMENTS.
(a) In General.—Section 5312(a) of title 31, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in paragraph (2)(K)—
(A) by inserting “prepaid access devices, digital currency,” after “money orders,”; and
(B) by inserting before the semicolon at the end the following: “, or any digital exchanger or tumbler of digital currency”;
(2) in paragraph (3)(B), by inserting “prepaid access devices,” after “delivery,”; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
“(7) ‘prepaid access device’ means an electronic device or vehicle, such as a card, plate, code, number, electronic serial number, mobile identification number, personal identification number, or other instrument, that provides a portal to funds or the value of funds that have been paid in advance and can be retrievable and transferable at some point in the future.”.
(b) GAO Report.—Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report on—
(1) the impact the amendments made by subsection (a) have had on law enforcement, the prepaid access industry, and consumers; and
(2) the implementation and enforcement of the final rule entitled “Bank Secrecy Act Regulations—Definitions and Other Regulations Relating to Prepaid Access” (76 Fed. Reg. 45403 (July 19, 2011)) by the Department of the Treasury.
(c) Customs And Border Protection Strategy For Prepaid Access Devices.—Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, shall submit to Congress a report—
(1) detailing a strategy to interdict and detect prepaid access devices, digital currencies, or other similar instruments, at border crossings and other ports of entry for the United States; and
(2) that includes an assessment of infrastructure needed to carry out the strategy detailed in paragraph (1).
A - It's embarrassing how quickly this FUD spreads around the crypto circles. The bill has been up since May 25th. It hasn't even been voted on. And even when it is voted on, the language of the bill changes nothing for your average crypto user.
The only reason anyone is talking about this is because ZeroHedge went full shill tonight and decided to run an irresponsible article.
B - Regulate digital currency? They'd have to turn off the internet. All I need to transfer bitcoin is to give someone the private key. I can text it to them. I can read it over the phone. The government can only realistically slow down fiat transfers on exchanges. And even then, bring on the crypto economy.
Everyone needs to chill the fuck out. This is embarrassing.
Well the government can always try to control cyrptocurrency. But the thing is: they simply don't have enough resources to control it. Lett's say a person generates a few thousand adressen. Is the government going to track every adres- in case a deposit is made? Good luck with that.
The only influence they would have if they secretly bought a couple hundred thousand bitcoin back in 2011. But that is just highly unlikely.
Pressure on cryptocurrency with regulation will only push it further underground. That will diminish the givernment's option to have some control over and benefit from this new tech.