Biden Seen Issuing Crypto Oversight Exec Order Next Week (yahoo.com) 46
President Biden is expected to issue an executive order next week directing agencies across the government to study cryptocurrencies and a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and come up with a government-wide strategy to regulate digital assets. Yahoo Finance: According to an administration official familiar with the matter, the forthcoming directive will commission a study of a CBDC and ask a range of agencies -- including the Departments of Treasury, State, Justice and Homeland Security -- to develop a report on the future of money and payment systems. Meanwhile, the Director of the Office of Science and Tech policy will do a technical evaluation of what might be needed to support a CBDC system.
The move comes as Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that a rift has developed between the White House and Treasury over crypto regulation, but a Treasury official disputed the account as "inaccurate." The administration is engaged in a wide-ranging effort to regulate the sector, with the FBI forming a new crypto unit led by a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), created after the 2008 financial crisis to monitor risks to the system, will be asked to study financial stability issues that arise from digital assets. The President's Working Group on Financial Markets has already tasked the FSOC with looking into systemic risks of stablecoins.
The move comes as Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that a rift has developed between the White House and Treasury over crypto regulation, but a Treasury official disputed the account as "inaccurate." The administration is engaged in a wide-ranging effort to regulate the sector, with the FBI forming a new crypto unit led by a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), created after the 2008 financial crisis to monitor risks to the system, will be asked to study financial stability issues that arise from digital assets. The President's Working Group on Financial Markets has already tasked the FSOC with looking into systemic risks of stablecoins.
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If all you want to do is trade between various altcoins and buy NFTs (which essentially is just a glorified scheme to pump Ethereum), great. However, if your intention is to buy real-world goods and services with your magic internet money, you’ll be dealing with people who likely have no interest in gambling on crypto and want to immediately exchange it for cash. That’s where good ol’ Uncle Sam will be waiting.
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That is what decentralized exchanges are for. I meet someone in a parking lot, they hand me a physical good, I send them the crypto, both of us walk off happy. There are also third party escrow services that can use the multi-sig protection, so if that latest video card is just an empty box, they can reverse the transaction.
Overall, this is a good thing. We don't need banks or exchanges. Those are just middlemen.
As for LEOs, banning cryptocurrency will be as useful as banning guns in Texas or banning ma
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There's something fitting about an AC discussing meeting someone in a parking lot...
But I think your example only reinforces the point that we're talking about back alley/parking lot exchanges of stolen goods, drugs, and other non-mainstream use cases.
Further, "real" currency has to become involved at some point. How did you "buy" your currency in the first place? And as the latest $3.5b crypto-scandal illustrates, attempting to "spend" your gains IRL is fairly hard to do in an open-ledger-based system.
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We don't need banks or exchanges. Those are just middlemen.
Didn't you just finish saying this in the paragraph prior...
You're already trying to work out new regulations and middlemen. You must just not like the current ones.
But you haven't really thought it through.
How can you trust the third party escrow services if there are no rules and regulations, and no enforcement mechanisms?
They also studied supply chains (Score:2)
and then promptly did nothing.
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This is different, there is crime and unreported taxable income.
Re: They also studied supply chains (Score:2)
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BTC down 42% since November.
This drop represents criminals cashing out their ransomware and fentanyl wallets as publicity about intelligence agencies breaking tumbled transactions spreads. When this dip starts to scare "investors" whose margin loans in fiat are now costing them significant additional interest, it's crash time.
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People have been talking about BTC crashing since 2013. In fact, it is well on its way to $100,000 per unit, while the dollar is hyperinflating with the FED trying to figure out if they continue to let it self-destruct, or raise interest rates and cause a recession. Cryptocurrencies most likely will increase in value as countries use it to escape international regulators. Unlike the dollar, BTC has an intrinsic store of value (proof of work), and Ethereum is proof of stake and proof of work. This means
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"Unlike the dollar, BTC has an intrinsic store of value (proof of work), and Ethereum is proof of stake and proof of work. This means there was energy put in to producing said currency..."
So what? Boil it down and all ll it really means is that someone decided to run up their electric bill. That energy is now gone, and BTC/ETH can never be converted back into it.
Like all currencies, crypto-currencies have value only as long as enough people think they have value. Without that belief, it's just bits on a dri
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And you have ironclad evidence of this?
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Regulation has nothing to do with bailouts, there won't be any of a gambling token.
We need regulation because of use for scams, tax avoidance, fraud, and dodging existing securities laws too. Volatility isn't relevant nor is discussion of bailouts. It isn't money, after all, falls all the tests of money. Speculative investing in a gambling token is all.
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The entire cryptocurrency ecosystem is rife with scams. Gambling is one thing, but gambling where the house always wins, and in general, newcomers are coming into the bottom of the pyramid. The deck is stacked against most people.
Want a decent wallet app? You get to choose between a custodial app which may or may not get hacked, and access to your currency is at the whim of the app maker, or a non custodial app that may or may not be secure. There are hardware wallets, but some are good, some rely on th
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The IRS has been clamping down on crypto tax cheats since 2014. There's more on the table here than just hunting scofflaws. Or perhaps I should say less, since this task force will do next to nothing substantive.
A new FBI unit ain't nothing (Score:2)
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I’d figure the real scumbags are likely in Russia. The cops will probably catch a whole lot of mules who are buying up Walmart and Target gift cards in exchange for Bitcoin, though.
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You speak as if Federal agencies aren't already tracking scammers, wallet drainers, and tax cheats. What the Biden administration is proposing is at best redundant to existing enforcement efforts.
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In general, cops like poor people. Crypto people are not poor, and drive better cars than you do. They won't be targeted, just because Bitcoin can't be as easily seized as physical cash can be. If LEOs demand someone open their wallet, the person just enters a duress code, and their wallet "crashes". Plausible deniability.
Crypto people will be able to afford defense attorneys.
The primary job for law enforcement is to ensure who is in power stays in power, and the rich stay rich. This means that crypto
We have the technology to see into next week? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe I should read the article.
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Maybe I should read the article.
Why? This is Slashdot, where the article content doesn't matter. Most people barely even read the summary.
Oh Really? (Score:1, Troll)
Does anyone believe that Uncle Joe has even a vague clue what crypto is?
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No, but he has a certainly a panel of experts who do.
You can't expect the president to be knowledgeable about everything and make all decision from a bubble. They have experts, they talk to them.
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Does anyone believe that Uncle Joe has even a vague clue what crypto is?
That's the beauty of a non Trump system.
He doesn't need to tell us he knows all about crypto, that we have the biggest, best and most beautiful cryptos. He can do this instead...
As predicted, Agenda is forcing THEIR crypto... (Score:2)
https://www.reddit.com/r/consp... [reddit.com]
Cue Team Red! (Score:2)
Let's see how fast they get their acolytes to buy their "FreedomCoins".
Re: Cue Team Red! (Score:3)
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As long as the grifters can say that "Biden and the Liburals don't want you 'Real Murikuns' to have crypto" they'll have more than enough suckers for whatever FreeDumbCoin they want to push.
Canada shows us why CBDC is a poor idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Canada is going so far as to potentially seize bank funds for people that even just donated to the Freedom Convoy of trucks, not even direct participants.
With CBDC they don't even have to do that, they can simply mark any CBDC currency you hold invalid, no banks even in the picture and no pesky banking laws to work around.
Or if the network of public surveillance cameras determine you look overweight? Well then no way to buy soda for a month, or whatever they decide.
This level of micro-managing what people can do with money is the real point behind implementing CBDC. It is the ultimate direct control of government over the population, and the ultimate ability to track what they are doing with money.
Re: Canada shows us why CBDC is a poor idea (Score:3)
China already has it (Score:1)
You would think China would be the biggest pushers of this. This sort of micromanaging every aspect of your life is right up their alley.
In fact they are - instead of just studying it, the Digital Yuan already exists [techcrunch.com].
Note how enticing it looks at first, the control aspects are only revealed later after everyone is deep into the system and many other payment forms have been marginalized.
The exchanges basically do the same thing (Score:1)
The exchanges want to be legitimate businesses. They're big enough now that they're after real money. That means they're going to play ball with regulators just like a bank would, and impose sanctions like a bank would.
The exchanges break cryptocurrency. They centralize everything, and this was necessary to get around limitations of crypto that are pret
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Not really, it's easy to transfer crypto from a private wallet to someone else willing to give you something (like cash or other assets).
The average person still thinks sending Apple Cash over iMessage is some sort of alien technology, because it involves jumping through a few hoops to get a funding source configured. Most people would know fuck all what to do with cryptocurrency, unless you gave them enough of it that it was worth their while to figure out how to receive it and exchange it for cash. Hilariously, even ransomware scammers have had to offer technical support to their victims on how to buy and send crypto payments.
Furthermore
That headline hurts my brain. (Score:5, Insightful)
Biden Seen Issuing Crypto Oversight Exec Order Next Week
Seen: past tense.
Next Week: in the future.
So, Biden is seen, next week, issuing a crypto oversight executive order? God damn, man. I know the editors don't give a fuck, but this shit is weak.
Just change 'Seen' to "to" and it makes sense.
Biden to Issue Crypto Oversight Executive Order Next Week
See? No brain cramps from trying to figure out the time-travel implications. No desire to reach through the screen and strangle the editor that forgot to do his/her/its job. And no ten second pause while your brain runs around screaming inside your head as cells inside it die off from the level of stupidity it must take to see that headline and go, "A'yup. We're good!"
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Just change 'Seen' to "to" and it makes sense.
Biden to Issue Crypto Oversight Executive Order Next Week
See? No brain cramps from trying to figure out the time-travel implications.
You're expecting far too much from the crypto-happy Slashdot editors.
Why isnt crypto dropping? (Score:2)
The better to cut you off, my dear (Score:3)
Why is it that the US pays off terrorist-supporting totalitarian governments with cash but seems hell-bent on transitioning its own people into digital currency?
IRS Licking its Chops (Score:2)
What all governments would really like is a house digital currency that they control completely just like the one China is now forcing people to use in their country. It will allow the government to know the smallest details of your financial life: When a kid sells a cup of lemonade at her stand in the yard, they will know. They will know what brand of chewing gum you use, and their health bureaucracy will be able to see if you really did stop smoking like you said you did. The IRS will know about every