European Union lawmakers have voted in favour of controversial proposals that require exchanges to collect personal data from individuals who transact more than EUR 1,000 using unhosted wallets.
— Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) March 31, 2022BREAKING: The ECON & LIBE committees of the EU Parliament voted in favor of the FTR compromises D & E that crack down on “unhosted” wallets.
Entire regulation draft to be voted on later today, but will certainly go through.
Breakdown of the vote & more updates in this thread.
Bad News for Exchanges
The proposals were passed, albeit narrowly, and purport to effectively prohibit anonymous crypto transactions:
— Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) March 31, 20222/ Very thin margins.
Compromise D: 58 yes | 52 no | 7 abstentions
Compromise E: 62|51|5It seems like a majority of (most) MEPs from S&D, GUE, Greens & Renew voted in favor, while a minority of (most) MEPs from EPP & ID voted against. ECR seems more split (tbd).
The underlying justification behind the proposals is that they intend to extend anti-money laundering (AML) requirements that apply to conventional payments over EUR 1,000 to the crypto sector. As Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong noted, however, the burden imposed on exchanges would be extremely onerous:
4/ This means before you can send or receive crypto from a self-hosted wallet, Coinbase will be required to collect, store, and verify information on the other party, which is a not our customer, before the transfer is allowed.
— Brian Armstrong – barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 30, 2022
5/ Moreover, any time you receive 1,000 euros or more in crypto from a self-hosted wallet, Coinbase will be required to report you to the authorities. This applies even if there is no indication of suspicious activity.
— Brian Armstrong – barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 30, 2022
5/ Moreover, any time you receive 1,000 euros or more in crypto from a self-hosted wallet, Coinbase will be required to report you to the authorities. This applies even if there is no indication of suspicious activity.
— Brian Armstrong – barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 30, 2022
Most of the pushback from industry is because non-custodial wallets aren’t necessarily customers, with commentators describing the measures as “anti-innovation and anti-privacy”.
Referring to Chainalysis data showing that less than 0.05 percent of crypto volume was related to crime, hardware wallet provider Ledger argued that the proposals were neither necessary nor proportionate. It further noted that they reduced financial freedom, consumer protection and financial inclusion, and put Europe at a competitive disadvantage relative to other jurisdictions.
While some noted that users would simply resort to decentralised exchanges or send EUR 999 at a time, others had a more humorous perspective:
— MrLuee 🧡⚡ (@MrLuee) March 30, 2022EU, please also ban "unhosted cars".
Cars have trunks! One might even smuggle meat or nasty #Bitcoin mining hardware! 👀
Only "hosted cars" should be legal from now on! https://t.co/vzsjbRk199
Turning Up the Regulatory Heat
This year has already shown that European lawmakers are increasingly scrutinising the digital asset sector. A few weeks ago, the EU Parliament finally decided not to ban proof-of-work cryptocurrencies (effectively Bitcoin), after going back and forth on the matter.
The next battle is clearly over unhosted wallets and for now it appears as if the regulators are in the driving seat. Importantly, the laws have not been enacted and still need to go through tripartite meetings between the EU Parliament, European Commission, and European Council.
Despite expectations that little will derail the proposals in question, if there is one thing we know about the crypto sector it’s that it will never go down without a fight.
- Crypto News
- Crypto Exchange
- Crypto Hardware Wallets
- Crypto Wallets
- Cryptocurrency Law
- Europe
- Regulation
Disclaimer: The content and views expressed in the articles are those of the original authors own and are not necessarily the views of Crypto News. We do actively check all our content for accuracy to help protect our readers. This article content and links to external third-parties is included for information and entertainment purposes. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research before participating.
Read More https://bitcofun.com/eu-parliament-votes-in-favour-of-kyc-for-private-crypto-wallets/?feed_id=18599&_unique_id=62764a8d4961e
No comments:
Post a Comment