Elizabeth Warren Introduces Anti-Bitcoin Bill – Bitcoin Magazine

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Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan) introduced the “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act Of 2022,” a bill that would have far-reaching implications for the privacy of Internet users. bitcoins.

If passed, the bill would require custodial and autocustodian wallet providers and miners to implement know-your-customer (KYC) systems. It would also prohibit financial institutions from interacting with privacy tools such as CoinJoin in an attempt to limit users’ ability to maintain their privacy. While the bill focuses on such measures in order to combat money laundering, tools such as CoinJoin simply restore users’ ability to use bitcoin in a way that is more like physical cash. . In other words, the bank knows when a customer withdraws money from an ATM, but has limited knowledge of what any user does with it afterwards. This money-like attribute is only realized in cryptocurrencies through tools like CoinJoins. On top of that, regulators would be allowed to file reports and monitor users without the need for a warrant or government request.

According to the bill, it also calls for a “rule classifying custodian and non-hosted wallet providers, cryptocurrency miners, validators or other nodes that may act to validate or secure third-party transactions, independent network participants, including MEV researchers and other validators with control of network protocols as money-services businesses,” which would imply that Bitcoin nodes would also be classified as such.

The bill directs the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to implement the guidelines which, according to blockchain advocacy group CoinCenter, “constitute the most direct attack on the personal freedom and privacy of users and cryptocurrency developers we have yet seen”.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has previously expressed her desire to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, most recently following the collapse of FTX. The bill would likely come under scrutiny because, among many other issues, it would require non-hosted wallet providers to register before publishing their products, effectively limiting free speech, because the code turned out to be free speech.

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