sr. member
Activity: 560
Merit: 253
You are being duped. You celebrate the lack of regulation around Bitcoin as a win for financial freedom, but you are being out maneuvered by the people who want to destroy it. These decisions are not being made democratically, they are made behind closed doors at places like the G20 conference and the Bilderberg group. Bitcoin will be legally considered an asset, not a payment system or currency. Time to celebrate? We've escaped the authoritarian regulation of the financial industry.
Except that is exactly how they will destroy Bitcoin. You see, if Bitcoin isn't a payment system or currency, banks are not behaving anti-competitively.They are simply refusing to do business with a high risk asset, and you have no legal recourse to challenge them. In Europe, every small business that deals with cryptocurrency is being locked out of finance. The door is closed, the bureaucrats decided. No vote was held, the democratically elected parliaments never had a debate. You cannot petition any branch of the government for aid or guidance. You have to close your business, lose your livelihood and accept that your fate was decided by illiberal bureaucrats. If it is any consolation, you're not alone. Private ATM operators, tech companies and anyone who threatens bank profits are also being suppressed.
In the Netherlands, Klaas Knot, the head of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank, a politician of exceptional corruption, has decided to wage war on cash and cryptocurrency. A politically exposed person who solicited a bank under his authority for a loan of 1.2 million eur for a house worth 950k eur. With the extremely favorable interest rate of 1.3%. Now if you are current with internationally accepted anti-money laundering policy, this is a blatant bribe of a politically exposed person. No ramifications have been implemented. He rules the DNB in a corporatist manner. Like the old Monarchy of the Netherlands or like Benito Mussolini, his banks are an extension of his authority. He is illiberal and does not answer to constitutional means to achieve his goals. In fact, a week after I personally submitted a complaint, all of my accounts came under strict scrutiny. My personal account, my professional account on Bitstamp, even the service I used on the weekends, satos.nl all began blocking the normal operation of our business. Probably for the fear of retaliation themselves.
We are the only company operating in the Netherlands that has no anonymous transaction policies. Our Bitstamp professional account was approved by Bitstamp during the time they were applying for a banking license from the UK. They were under intense scrutiny from UK regulators. So our AML policy was approved by the UK by proxy. We have since discovered weaknesses in that policy that could allow structuring and closed those gaps. We have reached out to numerous Dutch agencies including the FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) in order to strengthen our policies. We were completely ignored. The Dutch government has displayed no interest in preventing money laundering or implementing any sort of guidelines, they simply want to destroy the cryptocurrency market. We deal in cryptocurrency and cash, two high risk fields, but not as high risk as GWK Travelex, who deals in cash to cash transactions. Yet they have regulatory guidelines and continue to operate.
Furthermore, the current environment in the Netherlands is even more frightening. Under Klaas Knot, cash services are being more and more restricted. Now many Dutch businesses have been forced to go debit card only (pin). This forces all consumers to use a bank, since banks decide who you can do business with, this strengthens Klaas Knot's economic authority. None of this was decided democratically. Anti-money laundering policy is being used as a weapon to suppress legal business instead of being used to prevent money laundering. After all, it's the United States that keeps catching Dutch banks in the act of laundering money for cartels and terrorists, not the Netherlands.
As you see, we the most vulnerable, are the canary in the coal mine. Our duty is to warn the people of the rising toxicity. We do this by testing the legal system and symptomatically exposing corruption and anti-constitutional policies. We have to present legal challenges to financial authoritarianism, solid evidence that we have take to the press and the people. To do this, we will have to get involved, we have to unite. We will not be suppressed by exclusion.
As of today I am starting a civil rights group for cryptocurrencies and associated businesses in Europe. I will start the process with our law firm in France, a country that adheres to a more constitutional system. I ask you to keep an eye on this thread for updates, and join our foundation once it is formed and legally recognized. I will keep you posted.