The Crackdown On Alternative Currencies: Liberty Reserve Shut Down As Founder Arrested
from the money-laundering-or-competition dept
Are governments ramping up their efforts to crack down on alternative currencies that are outside of their control? In the past, we've seen politicians attack Bitcoin as a form of "money laundering." Then, a few weeks ago, ICE went after Mt.Gox, the super popular Bitcoin exchange. Now, the latest is that the founder of the digital currency site Liberty Reserve, which also dealt in Bitcoin, has been arrested and the site has been shut down. It's no secret that Bitcoin can and is used for less than legal purposes, and it does seem like Mt.Gox and Liberty Reserve aren't always perfect about complying with the ins and outs of running businesses that deal in currency. So these moves may be perfectly reasonable and legal. However, there is a larger concern about how these may suggest governments really taking a much harder look at things like Bitcoin, and closely targeting any company that is involved in Bitcoin exchanges with government-backed currencies.
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Filed Under: alternative currencies, bitcoin
Companies: dwolla, liberty reserve, mt. gox
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On what grounds were they arrested? And why the services were shut down? Was there any valid accusation that justified immediate shutdown?
Also, see Megaupload.
The terrorists are the Governments.
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Government claimed money laundering to the tune of $6 billion over the last 7 years or something like that.
It claimed the people who used it did so with nefarious intent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/nyregion/liberty-reserve-operators-accused-of-money-lau ndering.html?pagewanted=all
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They attempt and often do shut down currencies that are backed by some sort of value to keep the US fiat dollar scheme working. Libya is not on the Dinar and Iraq is selling their oil in dollars, thanks to the muscle of the US military. They are likely actively working to control or shut down bitcoin as it is a currency that is backed by some sort of value... unlike federal reserve notes.
Ending the FED and the IRS along with allowing value backed currencies to compete would go a long way for man kind.
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the lesson being: insider stealing trillions, no biggie; outsider making a penny the insiders want?
death to the interloper ! ! !
sorry, that is what 'our' (sic) world is reduced to now...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Key Take Away
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wrong
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Why? I thought (probably being naive here) that the US dollar was "legal tender for all debts, public and private". How is exchanging a dollar note for a candy bar different than exchanging a dollar note for Bitcoins?
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Example: I work on computers and a friend works on cars. I work on his computer and he works on my car. We should both be treating our exchanges of skills as income equal to the going rate of said services.
If an exchange of goods or services are going on within the borders of the USA, the government wants a piece.
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Imagine for example that you used BTC to buy gold, and then exchanged that gold for USD or vice-versa.
Or, in most cases, people will just start "bartering" for BTC - I sell you my goods/services for BTC, you sell me yours for BTC, we exclude the government entirely.
When the government's fiat currencies are excluded from the equation, so is the taxation and tracking of what people are buying/selling with their virtual currencies.
They probably think they can just stop the use of digital currency by eliminating the exchange of it with their own currencies, but in reality, all they'll do is encourage people to use the digital currencies exclusively and abandon the government's watered down currency instead.
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Rome is burning
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Re: Rome is burning
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They knew corruption would set in, and made it as hard as possible to game the system. It literally took centuries for wealth to be consolidated enough to give rise to megacorportations with the resources to buy control of enough politicians to take over.
In my book, the Founding Fathers succeeded, but I suppose all good things must come to an end.
I wonder what'll happen to the Union? Perhaps it'll simply dissolve, like Russia's.
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"Went after Mt. Gox"
Mt. Gox itself (the Japanese corporation K. K. Tibanne) has been complying with FinCen regulations and other anti-money-laundering legislation. Dwolla had not been.
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Actua l journalism: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/liberty-reserve-indicted/
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Another example of a useful service with legitimate customers being targetted and removed because 1) some bad guys use it, and 2) the government can't control it.
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What about the FED?
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Before SOPA can ever be re-introduced, Bitcoin has to be erdicated, becuase websites whose payments get cut off under SOPA can easily use Bitcoins to get past that. Unless Bitcoin completely gets destroyed, it will make SOPA/PIPA moot, if either, or both bills, are ever re-introduced into Congress.
Another issue are the travel restrictions on Cuba. Someone could pay for a trip to Cuba to Bitcoins, and not be be subject to OFAC licensing restrictions. Under current law, Cuba trips paid for with Bitcoins are not subject to the travel restrictions. The restrictions do not make the travel itself illegal, but rather spending money. If a trip is paid for with Bitcoins, that is quite different. So I would imagine the hard-line Cuban exile community might have also had some input into this.
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So what you are saying...
You are saying that you are against "know your client" laws that apply to money transactions in the US and many other parts of the world?
You are saying that you support systems that make it easy for criminals to bypass systems created to stop them from being able to launder their ill gotten gains?
Did I miss anything?
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Re: So what you are saying...
You appear to be suggesting that anything that could be used by criminals to commit a crime is almost by definition deserving of being outlawed.
Should this include carpenters' tools (hammers), mechanics' tools (screwdrivers), motor vehicles, guns ... (all of which have been used to kill)?
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In no way can individual anonymity of normal everyday purchases be underestimated in its function of allowing a free and open democratic society pursue the cultural ways it wants to express itself in. (open ended statement) This shows up immediately in how we contribute to political/activist organizations we support that may be controversial to other parts of society following culture we do not believe in.
Lets examine, some of this, concept with currently hot topics;
In the case of Prenda vs. John Doe (various/many) where an typical defendant might have been trying to use the (somewhat/mostly) anonymity of torrents to download controversial content made easily available because of recent technological advances (the Internet). (duh)
Why did this cultural group use this method of obtaining items? A) It probably was not available from any other source. B) The on-line available source required an address and credit card or PayPal and destroyed any form of anonymity that a cash purchase might provide. C) Other. (the concept of honey-pots/forced-rarity comes to mind)
Considering the religious and puritanical wars current politics wages their battles in... anonymity is the only way to defend ones personal cultural habits. Lets face the facts that marital infidelity (gimme a break!) is more damaging to a politicians career than fraud, waste, mismanagement of public funds, deception, theft, lying under oath, spying on the public, violating constitutional right, etc, etc, etc. (Citizen awareness is at an all-time low?)
Would the defendant in the Prenda case use a legitimate source to purchase these items if there was an reasonably anonymous and easy way to obtain them? A 100%, Likely, yes. It would, at least, be guaranteed to increase licensing profits.
This has wider implications than providing a way to pursue ones happiness in whatever form. How do we protect the anonymity of political contributions?? With US (and other) governments routinely abusing the tax collection agencies (IRS) to enforce audits and non-profit-status on any opposing group (Tea Party, candidates, etc... So much evidence, over so many administrations, please google it yourself) this should not be an argument?
The accusations of laundering and terrorist support are baseless in respect to the anonymity of an cash donation to whatever group/person/industry/item/whatever/etc anyone wants. Screw the critics. If anyone has evidence of wrongdoing don't please provide the evidence and not just mess up democratic society with some tyrannical scheme.
“Some” money laundering is no excuse to destroy or confiscate any exchange in the same way the Safe Harbors Act protects Internet Service Providers from random content. One might complain that the US Dollar is used for firecrackers or porn. Its always idiotic to enforce opinion/religious/puritanical values over democratic civilization as a whole. When one culture is allowed to pick on another we have the classic war of one class over another.
In a good democratic society we know that each individual will not always make a choice that others will agree on. Thats life. What is important is that we understand the diversity of our own population and allow for all the possibilities.
STUPID NOTE; The terms counterfeiters, hackers, down-loaders, IP, activist, protester have been misused/abused by malicious-special-interest-groups/government-bureaucracy so much that it must be painfully pointed out that only the normal dictionary meanings are used in this opinion here.
Reactionary,
Ninja. Control over the habits of average citizens by an industry influenced government is an obvious pitfall that any aware citizenry must try to avoid. Megaupload is a good example where the only thing that may be the media industry fears is the dissemination of creative commons based licensed content not under their control?
Control is a topic that should send shivers down any democratic citizens spine.
AC. The Bitcoin concept is in its infancy. Its value is dependent on both some leveling/averaging of world currency (evaluation/devaluation) and scarcity. The scarcity might be solved by increasing the bit level depth of encryption. (both a suggestion and complaint as weak bit level encryption is a vital concern.)
Key Take Away/Gwiz. Trust is a major factor in any currency. Current Fed money printing policies combined with current administration(s) lack of wise investment of such a windfall does not make for a promising economic future. In matters of trust would anyone feel that a US Fed based Bitcoin implementation a good thing? Would they likely manage it in the same was as the US Dollar?
Tax law has been a traditionally abused way to force purchasing habits of the average citizen. Tax refunds and even purchase rebates on your tax refunds are normally provided for any industry with the political special interest savvy to incorporate such motivations.
It is an opinion of mine that any purchases under 20,000$ usd (inflectionally adjusted) should be anonymous. Argue with me.
Rome is Burning. Democratic ideals are not dead. What is important is average citizen awareness. The current dangers to this is the DMCA and the indiscriminate Take-Down notice that requires no peer review.
Horse with no name. One must believe in democracy. To not believe in democratic society is to support some other society. What are your suggesting?
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/01205823144/authoritarian-governments-still-tryi ng-to-seek-more-control-over-internet.shtml#c332
Most of my essays try to be self referential conceptually in that an augment is built up with reason and evidence and some conclusion is reached. Many times has the conclusion surprised me and like that a lot.
It does take some time and usually they end up at the bottom of the posting stack. Oh well.
It pains me to admit that there could be better examples rather than what comes 'out of mind' in real time and that there should be more linked references for better relevance. But if one takes the time to do all that it gets posted very late and whats the point if nobody reads it?
Thanks for the response.
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Bitcoin is a threat to that control and Governments will stop at nothing to guard and retain that control!
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???
How does the US Gov get off shutting down a currency system? if they want to get rid of fraudulent money laundering and ponzi's, take a look at their own currency system!
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Notes
So are US Treasury notes.
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LIBERTY RESERVE
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