Topic: [2021-09-21] U.S. to Target Crypto Ransomware Payments With Sanctions (Read 89 times)

How so? US isn't the whole world so I don't think that we will see it from ever affecting everyone and I don't think they will be able to shutdown any of them. What you're saying is a scary prospect for the future.

I think this was the another reason of the recent bitcoin dump to 40,000K. What makes me surprise is that whenever there is a big dump in the market we hear bad news altogether making the panic to the next level. I feel all this is planned manipulation. SEC cont stop the bitcoin and even they can control the exchanges outside US.

You aren't stretching it too far at all.  This is the issue.  The US government and corporate toadies are already choking off payments to people who they disagree with and I am sure it is going on everywhere and will continue to spread.  Bitcoin as peer to peer helps to get around this.  Governments around the world are teaming up with private companies to shut down speech, a perfect setup that fascists would love and yet look at Twitter, Facebook etc and the US Government.

Eventually one hopes one can remain completely in crypto so you don't need to deal with the totalitarian/authoritarians around the world.  

The honest people are the ones who pay the price, the dishonest find a way around it causing them to demand more control.  Bitcoin is one of the escape valves that will keep the people of the world free.

 

I'm not sure how to feel about this.

While the enforcement effort is certainly good on the surface to combat these activities, I think that they will increasingly be used as justification to impose stricter KYC/AML.

That is definitely not something that is good in any means for the regular consumer - more potential for hacks of personal info, as well as potential tracking from the government.

Ok, let's be honest..... if they do this, they will only stop the script kiddies from converting their ransomware into fiat currencies. A lot of these hackers do not even use centralized services to convert their Crypto into fiat currencies.

A hacker that knows his trade (if you can call hacking that) ...will push the coins through several mixers and then into unregulated "services" to launder the money. (They will not touch regulated services, where KYC requirements have to be adhered) 

At least this time they're not trying to actually sanction individual wallet addresses like they did in the past, but exchanges as entities. Have to say US sanctions may no longer carry the same weight they used to, as even their allies in the EU are already tiring of it being used as little more than political tooling. Iran on-off-back on sanctionings wore their patience thin and they might not go along so easily in the coming years. After all, the most banks and FI get are AML-related fines when caught red-handed facilitating terrorist financing.

Not too far at all. As usual, the law abiding citizen will suffer more (more barriers for those investing/using Bitcoin in this case), while the criminals will always find means to go around the law. They have the resources and the time for that and not much to lose either.
But this is how politicians (pretend to) "work", unfortunately.

For me, this is the problem. When fiat is being used for 99.9% of the instances of money laundering and ransomware, why they are focusing on cryptocurrency? The argument is that cryptocurrency is more suitable for such purposes. But real time data contradicts that assumption. IMO, the agencies are targeting cryptocurrency mostly because it has emerged as a competitor to fiat, and not because it is used in a large way for illegal purposes. No one supports usage of cryptocurrency for illegal purposes. But at the same time we can't allow agencies targeting the cryptocurrency users giving that excuse.

Sadly we are all going to be affected by this sanction, how do they define a potential chokepoint for the ransomware but exchanges and DEX. Are they planning to shut them all down? 

I wouldn't be surprised if they will really shut down. It's very extreme that the seizing of the Binance server is almost foreseeable already once they determine the location.

Sounds like a great idea, until you think it twice.  If they get to ban a certain set of payments by law then they can do much more about it and the bad news is we are the ones who will suffer from this.  Ransomware payments today, payments to addresses unknown to the Government tomorrow.  Or am I stretching this too far?

Money launderers and criminals in general will find a way around this law.  There are already enough Atomic Swap mechanisms and Peer-To-Peer Exchanges they can use to get so easily around it.  I kind of see it similar to the current situation with Know-Your-Customer.  Enforcing identity validation upon registration centralizes the personal information of legitimate customers rather than preventing crimes.  And what this provokes is a potential future leak of innocent people's information, putting them under threat.

With enough decentralized solutions existing around, moving from Bitcoin to Monero or obfuscating Bitcoin history through CoinJoins and Mixers is such an easy job.  Yet, the harshest laws come to us, the rest who have nothing to do with these crimes.

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Regards,
PrivacyG

Realistically, they could only target the cryptocurrency exchanges ^{[centralized]}, as opposed to non-custodial wallets and most of the mixers. AFAICS, this only makes them shift to other routes ^{[unfortunately, it'll have little to no effect on them]}!

All of us hate that part, but traditional methods are being used a lot more in those departments!

Though there may be a lot of people who will disagree with me and object to my statements, I feel this is a good move towards holding certain people accountable. I support Bitcoin with all of my heart, but it hurts to see people use it for money laundering and terror financing too. I do support government and authorities in taking all steps to prevent this. However, these steps should not come at the price of banning Bitcoin or targeting individuals with bona fide business or participation. Many of the Mixers have been used in the past for anti-social activities and this needs to be stop. US taking this up seems to be a good decision.

If you can’t stop the criminals, close off their means to profitability. It’s a familiar tactic and now the Biden administration is preparing an array of actions, including sanctions, to make it harder for hackers to use digital currency to profit from ransomware attacks, The Wall Street Journal reports. That means going after the digital wallets that receive ransom transactions, the crypto platforms that help exchange one set of blockchain coins for another to obscure the culprits and the people who own or manage those operations.

The Fight Against Ransomware
Hit them where it hurts: The government hopes to choke off access to cryptocurrency in certain situations in a bid to limit the potential payoff from ransomware, according to people familiar with the matter. The Treasury Department plans to impose sanctions as soon as this week, the people said, and will issue fresh guidance to businesses on the risks associated with facilitating ransomware payments, including fines and other penalties.

Later this year, expected new anti-money-laundering and terror-finance rules will seek to limit the use of cryptocurrency as a payment mechanism in ransomware attacks and other illicit activities. The actions collectively would represent the most significant attempt yet by the Biden administration to undercut the digital finance ecosystem of traders, exchanges and other elements that cybersecurity experts say has allowed debilitating ransomware attacks to flourish.