While the Bitcoin exchange rate has been in the green again for a long time, authorities are again asking themselves the question: How can we regulate crypto currencies? How can these new currencies be brought within a reasonable framework? The answer: Europe must work together.
And what about the Bitcoin revolution?
The Bitcoin exchange rate seems to have been moving upwards again for a long time, and the old coins are also looking good. While we are wondering when the cops will come and how to preserve some of the Bitcoin revolution ICO madness, the authorities are gnawing at the old questions:
How can you avoid using crypto currencies to launder money and finance terrorism? How can you cope with this new technology and ship it into regulated ferry waters?
100 pages of clarity
In a working paper of more than 100 pages, experts from the European Parliament of the Policy Department for Economics, Science and Quality of Life discussed Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. After a lengthy comparison of the top 10 crypto currencies with the highest market capitalisation, they come to the intermediate result: Most crypto currencies are not that anonymous at all. Nevertheless: outliers like Monero, Dash or Zcash threaten the security of the countries according to report, by making money laundering & CO. possible. Some papers later the result: Bitcoin and other crypto currencies can help to unite Europe:
"Crypto currencies are not bound by borders. Therefore, it is certain that the national level is not the right level to fight money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion via crypto currencies. The European level is better suited."
Bitcoin loophole connects Europe
Fact: Bitcoin loophole is not a scam connects the European authorities. At least on paper. But the researchers are still thinking a little further: "But the international level is even more appropriate, since crypto activity is not limited by the European border either. Therefore, international cooperation, e.g. within the Bitcoin loophole UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the FATF and the Egmont Group, is crucial to the successful enforcement of rules to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion."
In the area of blockchain, however, it is not yet possible to venture into excessively deep waters. This new technology, on which crypto currencies are based, is too extensive and too diverse:
"As already mentioned [...], Blockchain is a technology on which crypto currencies can run. However, the size of the blockchain is much larger than that of the crypto currencies. It can be used in a variety of sectors (e.g. commerce, healthcare, governance), has many promising applications, e.g. in relation to securities, the registration of shares, bonds and other assets, the operation of land registers, etc.".
European scientists conclude that the technology is, in principle, innocent:
"It would be too blunt to associate the blockchain with money laundering, terrorist financing or tax evasion. It is only a technology that is not intended to launder money, facilitate the financing of terrorism or avoid taxes. It has many applications throughout the legal economy. It would not be advisable to discourage future innovations in this respect by banning the blockchain and its use cases [...] because of [...] crypto currencies".
Finally, the research group refers to the forthcoming G20 decision, from which they hope for more clarity. Perhaps it will then also work at the international level - depending on how willing one is to negotiate overseas.
Quo vadis, Europe?
So the classic: Blockchain is innocent, Bitcoin tempts you to commit crime. Just a small thought-provoking impulse: Who does it lead to crime? And how does that happen? Keyword: Combating symptoms. But let us let our readers know what this is all about.
What is remarkable about these findings is that it takes thousands of years of human development to arrive at a rather poor result. So it seems that you have to write a 100-page research paper to see that there are problems that cross borders.
