Topic: Economic Totalitarianism - page 30. (Read 345738 times)

One of my friends used the 23andme service a couple of years ago (sending in both material from him as well as his wife), before it was clear that genetic info was at risk to being turned over to .gov.  He got a lot of interesting information (including a surprise that his wife may have some TAIWANESE ancestry -- she doubts that and has no Oriental features at all).

He also found certain propensities to health problems and other factoids.  He still gets an occasional update from them when they invent a new procedure.

I WAS interested.  Now not so much.

Our .gov has proved over and over that you give them an inch (one iPhone's password info), and they want a mile (tap into iPhones to catch a drug dealer).

http://futurism.com/echoing-apples-concerns-privacy-ancestry-com-23andme-fighting-cops-request-customer-dna/

Well, well, if you consider that my post today basically points out that scripting on a block chain can never be secure unless the security is centralized (and you trust that centralized manager), then basically the writing is on the wall that China already controls Bitcoin and they also want to control the centralized scripting block chain.

Decentralized crypto currency and block chains are currently dead. We only have centralized. The internet is being destroyed.

China may be mining BTC with free electricity (cost charged to the collective), thus the ETH is essentially free for them at any price. And they can't sell all the BTC they mine without driving the BTC price down.

On the next halving, China's % of the hashrate will increase from the current 65%.

Recently the European Commission (EC) announced plans to apply the EU anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations (the Fourth AML Directive or 4AMLD) to digital currency exchanges and possibly wallet providers.

This move is a part of the EC’s broadening action against terrorist financing.

But while this news comes as no surprise, another EC proposal, far less publicized and somewhat overlooked, has the potential to revolutionize the current state of affairs in digital currency regulation in the EU.

The EC announced that it will consider applying the licensing and supervision rules of the Payment Services Directive (PSD; a new version of which, 2PSD, has been adopted in 2015) to digital currency exchanges in order to "promote better control and understanding of the market".

PSD is one of the cornerstones of the EU single market for payments. It sets out rules for regulated payment services and contains a catalogue of such services.

Firms which render payment services have to comply with many regulations, including licensing and supervision rules, which now the EC apparently also intends to apply to digital currency exchanges.

Such a plan seems to be sensible. It is clear that there are two legal acts in the EU that would be well-suited for regulating cryptocurrencies: PSD and another related directive, the E-Money Directive (EMD). Works on the new '3EMD' are now under way, so some changes could be introduced there as well.
Revising basic assumptions

What matters, however, is what the current PSD regulatory methodology looks like.

A crucial piece of the PSD is the definition of "funds", which so far has included only cash, bank (scriptural) money and e-money (regulated by the EMD). Cryptocurrencies do not fall into any of those categories – a fact confirmed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and others.

It follows that, for the EC, digital currency exchanges would be best covered by some provisions of the PSD, although in the current form it does not apply to digital currencies at all.

It therefore appears that regulatory change might have to be much deeper than merely adding a few provisions extending the scope of licensing and supervision regulations on digital currency exchanges.

New regulations would probably have to revise some of the basic assumptions and concepts of the PSD, including definitions of "funds", "payment transaction" or "payment institution".
How should stakeholders react?

It is difficult to evaluate the EC's plan, since at the moment it is extremely general and vague. However, very likely it will open the door for the introduction of cryptocurrencies to the EU payment services regulations.

Various proposals may emerge afterwards, from cautious and restrained ones to those proposing comprehensive and broad regulation.

Firms that may be affected by any regulatory change should monitor developments closely and be ready to react.