US Treasury Department says it will not enforce anti-money laundering law
reuters.com
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Sunday it would not enforce an anti-money laundering law that obliges millions of business entities to disclose the identities of their real beneficial owners.
Funny how much money laundering is done through crypto now.
Even funnier is that if certain entities trade on certain markets, other countries will still enforce those laws.
It went from a genuine response in the wake of the 2008 recession to being exploited by right-wing grifters. Wasn't perfect, but I'll give it credit for at least trying to solve a problem.
What problem was it trying to solve?
After subprime mortgages lead to yet another bubble bursting, it was thought that letting banks being responsible for our money was a bad idea. The whole idea behind crypto was thought you owned your money. Good idea in theory, but in practice it was not ready for prime... much like AI. (If ever)
I had never heard that rationale for crypto before. It seems to be a really bad reason if I understand the logic. The value of the dollar was certainly impacted by the subprime crisis, but the dollar still had value being fiat currency issued by the US Government. Crypto currency is fiat currency issued by... a random dude (and in the case of Bitcoin, that nobody even knows). There is no value to crypto besides what someone else will give you for it. There's no intrinsic value to any of it. The rampant rug-pulls we see today in many cryptocurrencies are perfect evidence of this. Crypto "investing" seems to be predicated exclusively on the theory of the Greater Fool.
The whole idea behind crypto was thought you owned your money.
For those that really wanted that, didn't simply owning gold do that already? There's even intrinsic value to gold irrespective of which nation or national owns it in commercial, retail, and industrial applications.
The only value proposition I have ever seen for any crypto currency is avoiding national and international monetary export controls or cash repatriation.
Yeah, that was definitely the rationale. Satoshi added the message, “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” to the first Bitcoin block. In the early days, most of the community were Tea Party, Ron Paul, Paul Ryan, "abolish the Fed" types. There was a lot of anti-Fed propaganda floating around at that time. There was a big overlap with gold-bugs and Bitcoiners, and Bitcoin's "mining" decay curve was inspired by gold's.
I'm just telling you what I know.
I got into crypto because the 2008 recession threw a wrench into my 18th birthday. It was difficult to find a reliable bank and have a debit or credit card. I was desperate for any kind of financial independence at that time in my life when I should be, and sought crypto as a last resort.
It was difficult to find a reliable bank and have a debit or credit card.
At 18 you certainly weren't borrowing to buy real estate, nor were you a customer for wealth management services. These were the things that hit (and sometimes sunk) banks and bank customers at the time. Are you saying you couldn't find any bank or credit union that would give you a checking account with a debit card attached to it?
How did having cryptocurrency enable you to have financial independence? Besides few places accepting crypto for promotional purposes (remember when you could buy a pizza with bitcoin?), you couldn't spend cryptocurrency on any of life's needs that would allow you to establish yourself financially.
How did having cryptocurrency enable you to have financial independence? Besides few places accepting crypto for promotional purposes (remember when you could buy a pizza with bitcoin?), you couldn’t spend cryptocurrency on any of life’s needs that would allow you to establish yourself financially.
FFS. Go lecture my 18yr old self. I've grown up since then. I didn't say it was the correct or best option. All I said is that I was desperate.
FFS. Go lecture my 18yr old self. I’ve grown up since then. I didn’t say it was the correct or best option. All I said is that I was desperate.
My apologies, it sounded like you were still defending that choice as a correct one for an 18 year old. Certainly won't hold you accountable for your 18 year old self. I did equally (if not worse) stupid stuff in my youth.
I'm now asking about what lead to that choice, and what the value proposition of that choice looked like to 18-year-old you. As in, if you got into crypto as a replacement for a bank account for ...reasons. Did crypto accomplish anything you wanted out of a bank account? Or was it "a bank is a money place and crypto is a money place, therefore crypto is a replacement for a bank"?
This is kinda a dumb question, he said
It was difficult to find a reliable bank and have a debit or credit card.
So one of his goals is to have some sort of electronic payment method, and a way to receive money electronically.
You can't buy stuff online with cash. You could potentially buy a visa gift card with crypto though.
You can’t buy stuff online with cash. You could potentially buy a visa gift card with crypto though.
How are you buying the crypto with your cash if you don't have a bank account though?
I don't know how common this is in other countries, but here you can go to just about any grocery store or discount store and buy a Visa gift card with cash. I would argue if you have cash the easiest way to make an online purchase (especially back then) was to buy a Visa gift card at a retail store.