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Bitcoin Australia China Japan The Almighty Buck

Australia Joins China and Japan in Trying To Regulate Digital Currency Exchanges (cnbc.com) 63

Posted by msmash from the tightening-bolts dept.
Following moves by China and Japan to regulate digital currencies, Australia is attempting to crackdown on money laundering and terrorism financing with plans to regulate bitcoin exchanges. From a report: "The threat of serious financial crime is constantly evolving, as new technologies emerge and criminals seek to nefariously exploit them. These measures ensure there is nowhere for criminals to hide," said Australia's Minister for Justice Michael Keenan in a press release. The Australian government proposed a set of reforms on Thursday which will close a gap in regulation and bring digital currency exchange providers under the remit of the Australian Transactions and Reporting Analysis Centre. These exchanges serve as marketplaces where traders can buy and sell digital currencies, such as bitcoin, using fiat currencies, such as the dollar. The reform bill is intended to strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and increase the powers of AUSTRAC.
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Australia Joins China and Japan in Trying To Regulate Digital Currency Exchanges More

Australia Joins China and Japan in Trying To Regulate Digital Currency Exchanges

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  • I get that things like digital currencies can be used to money launder and fund nefarious activity, but can anything be sacred anymore? What about the mining aspect? Is big brother going to monitor GPU usage too?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "... but can anything be sacred anymore?"
      Now that's funny. Libertarian Crackpots have been pushing Cryptocurrencies almost with a religious fervor... but I had no idea that they actually took it this seriously. "Our Father, who art in Mammon..."

      "What about the mining aspect? Is big brother going to monitor GPU usage too?"
      As in other recent Get Rich Quick Schemes, those who made the real money sold Shovels and Beans. In this case pretty much worthless yet extremely expensive GPUs, and Kilowatt-hours.
      Big Brot

      • Big Brother is not whom you think.

        I know exactly who big brother is. His name is Mark and he's got tattoos on both arms. Don't mess with big brother.

        p.s.: Hey Mark, I'm just kidding! You know that, right?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Praedon ( 707326 )
        A broken clock happens to be right twice a day. I don't know nor care what your political affiliation is, or what you think mine is, but I'm more concerned with privacy and having things the government doesn't have its hands in. There's a lot of things I support the government(s) having their hand in, in terms of healthy civilization maintenance, but when is too much, too much? Perhaps they should also monitor Blizzard's gold currency system for World of Warcraft too. Never know if those nerds are terroris
  • I mean sure crime and money laundering bad, absolutely, but people can simply bargain goods for a lot of that too, so there is a work around. The real issue is pure fear that they lose control of money, which they waste so much of. It's a hard stance for me personally since regulation to prevent money laundering is important (We need our paved roads, taxes pay for them, people need to be paying their taxes) but it takes the ability to manipulate money and hose everyone as easily like certain countries whos

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ChrisMaple ( 607946 )

      Your point is valid, and even more. This is central bankers protecting their cushy jobs and their power.

      A good money should be portable, durable, recognizable, divisible, uniform, intrinsically valuable, and scarce. I don't like digital currency because it's not intrinsically valuable, but neither is government paper money which has the additional disadvantage of being a tool for evil people.

    • I mean sure crime and money laundering bad, absolutely

      No. Most "crimes" that involve money laundering are things that shouldn't be crimes. Instead of tightening the screws even more, we should end the drug wars. Colorado, Uruguay, and Portugal have all taken steps in the right direction, and with mostly good results: more taxes collected and fewer citizens going to prison.

      • People launder money to just avoid paying taxes. Tax scams are pretty frequent too.

        • People launder money to just avoid paying taxes.

          If taxes are that easy to avoid, then they are inherently unfair because honest people will pay more than their share.

          Taxes that are hard to avoid: Property taxes, sales/consumption taxes, excise taxes

          Taxes that are easier to avoid: Income taxes, payroll taxes.

      • So either you're advocating pot which, who cares we've all heard from stoners, you'll probably get your way. It'll be amazing like liquor where you'll still be charged criminally for selling it, not allowed to grow vast quantities of it, more technology to detect if you're under the influence of it while driving etc. So not that big of a deal.

        Out where I live it's only the people who are selling it etc that are busted. Cops could care less for the paper work for someone with a personal amount.

        On top of that

  • Don't pretend you're surprised (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Thursday August 17, 2017 @11:57AM (#55034545) Journal
    The first time I ever heard of 'Bitcoin', the first thing I thought was "this will be used for money laundering, hiding assets, and trafficking in contraband and for other illegal activities, guaranteed" and steered entirely clear of it. I knew that at some point governments would, one way or another, take control of it, for good or for ill.

    Don't even pretend you're surprised this is happening, and don't even bother to act all righteously indignated over it, either, you're just being over-the-top disingenuous if you do.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The first time I ever heard of 'Bitcoin', the first thing I thought was "this will be used for money laundering, hiding assets, and trafficking in contraband and for other illegal activities, guaranteed"

      Isn't this true of any currency? I mean I can go and buy drugs with cash. Money laundering has been going on for hundreds if not into the thousands of years. There is nothing new here, just the same old thing in a new way.

      • Except with printed currencies you actually have to carry a suitcase and travel with it stopping thru customs who is going to be very interested in your suitcase with 1 mil in cash. Crypto's bypass all that and let you sit in your underwear and send it. There are many controls on currency. Just ask Dennis Hastert. Would he as a pedophile been caught if he used bitcoin?

    • As AC above me just said, what's the fucking difference between crypto-currencies and government-printed money? They both can be used for bad things, just like everything else on the planet.

      • Government-printed money is a lot easier to track, that's the difference.

      • Nothing you said changes or invaldates anything I said. Also you can't exchange physical currency anonymously over the internet like you can cryptocurrency, so your point is more or less invalid.
      • When you use government-printed money for illegal activities, you have a choice between physically handing over the money (which can't be tracked, but you can be observed doing it, and the bills can be marked somehow so they CAN be tracked), or using some other method of transferring it that CAN be tracked. Cyptocurrency can be transferred electronically, anonymously, and remotely, and untraceably. That's the difference, and that's why it's perfectly adapted for criminal activity.

    • This.

      At its inception I warned that as soon as bitcoin found a way to convert to more traditional currencies, it would be regulated .

      Duh.

    • The government's view is: leave the laundering, extortion, and fraud to the professionals ... the government.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Meanwhile, Australia’s greatest money-laundering bonanza, property, continues to wash money for criminals and terrorists everywhere.

      In 2015, the global regulator of money laundering – the Paris-based Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) – released its mutual evaluation report which found Australian homes are a haven for laundered funds, particularly from China.

      Then in March this year, Transparency International ranked Australia as having the weakest anti-money laundering (AML) laws in the Ang

  • Japan Actually Promotes Bitcoin (Score:3)

    by GLMDesigns ( 2044134 ) on Thursday August 17, 2017 @12:09PM (#55034629)
    Japan recognizes Bitcoin as a legal form of payment. This helps, not hurt, Bitcoin. If they considered Bitcoin harmful they would not have done that. One of the factors pushing Bitcoin up to such high levels is the Japanese consumer who is now empowered by the Japanese government legalizing Bitcoin.

    https://www.coindesk.com/japan... [coindesk.com]

    Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000 Due to Strong Japanese Demand: CNBC
    https://cointelegraph.com/news... [cointelegraph.com]...

  • The threat of serious financial crime is constantly evolving, as new technologies emerge and criminals seek to nefariously exploit them.

    Translation: "OMG, people are transacting business in unregulated free markets without the heavy hand of government being able to scoop out its pound of flesh or pay off its cronies."

    The Australian government proposed a set of reforms on Thursday which will close a gap in regulation and bring digital currency exchange providers under the remit of the Australian Transactions

  • A centralized governing body moves to control decentralized banking. Right, of course. God forbid the control of capital is given back to the people. Or that it cannot be easily controlled and manipulated by a handful of deep state actors. We can't have people exchanging goods and services among themselves using a system that isn't easily monitored, tracked, and controlled! That's madness.

    You give these fuckers a taste of total tyrannical control of the monetary system and suddenly they believe it's their

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