- cross-posted to:
- europe@lemmy.ml
- monero@monero.town
- shrugal ( @shrugal@lemm.ee ) 136•8 months ago
Clickbait headline. The underlying article lists much more reasonable restrictions:
- Anonymous cash payments over €3,000 will be banned in commercial transactions
- Cash payments over €10,000 will even be completely banned in business transactions
- Anonymous payments in cryptocurrencies to wallets operated by providers will be prohibited
So non-commercial transations are fine, as are crypto transactions to non-custodial wallets.
Commercial transactions -
Aaah, the kind of transaction that most transactions are?
Operated by providers
Aah, so any business which accept crypto must KYC every one of their customers. This makes accepting crypto especially burdensome, which is half the point of this legislation in the first place.
So non-commercial transations are fine, as are crypto transactions to non-custodial wallets.
Unless you’re using the wallet to buy or sell something. You know, the thing people use money for.
Why does the government need to have every transaction reported to them? Crime is bad because it causes harm. If harm is being caused, that means a person or entity is causing that harm. That means there is evidence. Follow that.
Police have more surveillance and crime-detecting tools than at any point in human history. Nearly every category of crime, particularly violent crime, is on a decades-long downtrend. We all travel with GPS monitors in our pockets. We all use credit cards instead of cash. We all are recorded by CCTV 90% of the places we go. We don’t need to give them more financial surveillance because ‘crime’.
- shrugal ( @shrugal@lemm.ee ) 17•8 months ago
I’m not saying these rules are perfect, but it doesn’t help if you argue against rules that don’t exist.
Commercial transactions are not “all” tx, and above 3000€ are obviously not the most common tx.
I do think the crypto restriction with no lower limit is too much, and I don’t get why they focus on custodial wallets, but it’s again not “all” tx.
Why does the government …
Money laundering, tax evasion and corruption are real crimes with real consequences, and knowing about the flow of money is pretty much required to be able to detect them. It’s a trade-off with privacy, so imo setting some limit for anonymous payments is the right thing to do. Idk if 3000€ is perfect, but it does seem reasonable.
Police have more surveillance and crime-detecting tools …
We need some amount of oversight and surveillance, so imo it’s not good enough to just exaggerate every proposal to the extreme and reject it on those grounds. These rules are not a total crackdown on anonymous payments, but they might still be too restrictive. But you kill every discussion about that if you just make up different rules entirely, instead of arguing about the rules that were actually adopted.
- Snot Flickerman ( @SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English18•8 months ago
That’s all pretty damn reasonable…
- Possibly linux ( @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ) English17•8 months ago
Unless you want to buy something with cash. Once they cross the line they won’t stop until cash and anonymity are gone
- OsrsNeedsF2P ( @OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml ) 11•8 months ago
And these limits will be tied to inflation?
- FarraigePlaisteach ( @FarraigePlaisteach@fedia.io ) 9•8 months ago
What’s the difference between commercial and business? I thought they were synonymous.
- shrugal ( @shrugal@lemm.ee ) 8•8 months ago
I think they are used synonymously in this article, but business could also mean B2B transactions, so between two businesses.
- katy ✨ ( @cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 59•8 months ago
sorry but banning anonymous payments is pretty good for fighting corruption…
- LWD ( @LWD@lemm.ee ) 22•8 months ago
Corrupt politicians can simply ignore the law. If they didn’t ignore it, they wouldn’t be very corrupt.
- jol ( @jol@discuss.tchncs.de ) 9•8 months ago
Yes, but now there’s an explicit law over which they can be prosecuted
- LWD ( @LWD@lemm.ee ) 1•8 months ago
Good point. My statement was a bit reductive, I just worry when it comes to creating the kind of blanket ban on stuff that people can work around if they’re powerful enough.
- Akisamb ( @Akisamb@programming.dev ) 2•8 months ago
This is not true in France. Politicians that have proven fraud are arrested and charged. In France we have Sarkozy, Cahuzac, Fillon that were all charged with crimes.
They were president, minister and presidential candidate respectively. I’d be surprised if it was different in the USA. I’m seeing that trump is also being charged, the system seems to be working.
- Kwakigra ( @Kwakigra@beehaw.org ) 18•8 months ago
After the Panama Papers and everything like it I’ve experienced in my life, I truly believe it doesn’t matter if very wealthy or powerful people are exposed on anything they do unless it involves what Epstein did. Financial crime is not generally of interest, regardless of how interesting it might be to you and me. Sure this can be used to fight corruption, but why is the system corrupt in the first place? Is this really going to be used against those corrupting influences or is it going to be used as another of the many tools in the drug war?
- hglman ( @hglman@lemmy.ml ) English7•8 months ago
The solution isn’t to do nothing. This post reads like it’s not in good faith. Like it’s trying to promote giving up.
- Kwakigra ( @Kwakigra@beehaw.org ) 4•8 months ago
Of course. By suggesting that I don’t think this will do anything about corruption and will if anything be a tool used for corrupt purposes, I don’t mean to suggest that there is nothing to do about corruption. Even though I think the solutions to social and economic problems are rarely solved from the top down, I do think the issues can be addressed bottom up. The people have the power and it’s only by circumstance that some people appear to hold the power.
- ToxicWaste ( @ToxicWaste@lemm.ee ) 14•8 months ago
I am pretty sure the lesser part of corruption is cash. Probably more stuff like exchanging a lucrative contract for political support.
They are not stupid. Afterall cash needs to be explained, a good contract gives you cash and the explanation.
- utopiah ( @utopiah@lemmy.ml ) 5•8 months ago
Can’t say in terms of proportion cash vs. non-cash but one might want to watch the Qatargate recent documentary on Arte which shows that somehow a 700k EUR luggage was found in the house of a MEP. Piles of cash sound outdated yet clearly still exist nowadays.
- Safipok ( @Safipok@lemmy.ml ) 1•8 months ago
Geoblocked
- utopiah ( @utopiah@lemmy.ml ) 2•7 months ago
Video, audio and subtitles via yt-dlp at https://fabien.benetou.fr/pub/home/ytdl/
I’ll leave that for few days.
- Safipok ( @Safipok@lemmy.ml ) 1•7 months ago
Thanks!
- katy ✨ ( @cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 5•8 months ago
Cash is mostly traceable at point of contact unless you keep it in a money bin and don’t spend it, though…
- AggressivelyPassive ( @agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ) 4•8 months ago
The 500€ bill was removed from circulation because it was used almost exclusively for corruption and illegal trade.
- tooLikeTheNope ( @tooLikeTheNope@lemmy.ml ) 13•8 months ago
Consumers payments deserves their privacy, but business ones needs absolutely to be fully traceable.
Could it be possible to use two different yet identical interchangeable currencies, one traceable for making business only, and one untraceable for consumers retail transactions?
loosely i.e.
- wages are Business currency converted and paid in Consumer currency, accounted for the amount paid to the consumer in his name
- end-users/home/consumer purchases are made from consumers anonymously in Consumer currency, and this is converted converted into Business currency upon transaction, keeping only the consumer name anonymous but tracing everything else
- B2B transactions are made in Business currency, fully traceable
… I don’t know there is probably still a loophole
- BruceLee ( @BruceLee@lemmy.ml ) English8•8 months ago
I order to participate in the fight again corruption, would you mind sharing with us the list of payement you made this week? Please use the following format :
[date], [time] - [nature of the payement] - [transaction amount] - [beneficiary]One transaction per ligne, in a chronological order.
- Lmaydev ( @Lmaydev@programming.dev ) 9•8 months ago
You’ve just invented accounting haha
- katy ✨ ( @cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 5•8 months ago
i mean banks and law enforcement can already get that information
- Endward23 ( @Endward23@futurology.today ) English8•8 months ago
But fighting corruption is not a goal I’m ready to pay any prize for.
- humbletightband ( @humbletightband@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 6•8 months ago
Russia almost did it. Now it’s finally free of corruption!
Haha , nope. It’s way more corrupt than before. You can even purchase on the dark web a list of items your person of interest bought this year.
- naut ( @naut@lemmy.ml ) 3•8 months ago
so ban it only for government (people and assets) related transactions
- summerof69 ( @summerof69@lemm.ee ) 2•8 months ago
True that. The system that we have is the product of many painful lessons, taught to us by global crises and crimes. People, who oppose this system, should stop reading nonsense on reddit and 4chan, and start with books and lectures from educated economists.
- uis ( @uis@lemm.ee ) 0•8 months ago
Putin’s corruption works fine without anonymous payments
- katy ✨ ( @cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 0•8 months ago
i mean does it really? russia is heavily sanctioned to the rest of the western world.
- uis ( @uis@lemm.ee ) 1•8 months ago
Putin is not Russia
- Snot Flickerman ( @SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English54•8 months ago
This doesn’t seem that much worse than American rules that have already been in place for a long, long time.
As it is, large payments or withdrawals must be reported to federal agencies, anything over $10k. This applies to cash transactions as well and the forms the IRS requires you to fill in a $10k+ cash transaction can be found here.
The biggest difference would be the impact on cash transactions and crypto transactions in the EU.
I’m pro-privacy, but a lot more crypto facilitates crime than not, so I don’t really know why people would be shocked that governments would attack crypto specifically here (literally almost all ransomware uses crypto). Looks like way more of a crackdown on crypto than cash, but maybe that’s just me. (On top of the fact that a lot of crypto isn’t privacy-oriented. Looking at you, Bitcoin)
Related: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/venmo-paypal-zelle-must-report-600-transactions-irs-rcna11260
Two years ago USA put in rules for commercial digital transfers over $600 to be reported. Just pointing out that the EU’s rules don’t seem particularly draconian when weighed against already existing rules elsewhere.
- Possibly linux ( @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ) English22•8 months ago
Just because one country has it doesn’t mean another should adopt it
- Juviz ( @Juviz@feddit.de ) 16•8 months ago
Here in Germany Cash payments for houses are a great way of laundering money for the mafia. Similar roles have als been proposed a while ago
- AnagrammadiCodeina ( @AnagrammadiCodeina@feddit.it ) 11•8 months ago
Italian here. Our right wing government who blinks an eye to all small entrepreneur in Italy (there are A TON here) recently increased the max cash payment from 2k to 5k. This is definitely a way to say “please be free to recycle a bit more oney” and to gain votes in exchange.
It’s incredible how Germany, Austria, or Switzerland to name a few have this crazy high cash payment.
In fact our “ndrangheta” for example (Mafia from Calabria) expanded a lot in Germany due to this.
- Crow of Minerva ( @Crow_of_Minerva@feddit.it ) 3•8 months ago
Italian here too. It’s sad how the EU has to make us do the smart things as we are incapable of them
- LWD ( @LWD@lemm.ee ) 47•8 months ago
OP, your post is a mess.
- It’s not “total monetary surveillance,” it’s limited to cryptocurrency and high (>$11,000) cash payments.
- You shouldn’t encourage people to contact the EU before showing them what’s actually happening
- Your Snort post doesn’t work on my browser and it’s a pretty bad social network anyway.
For people who are looking for actual info:
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-seeks-cash-payment-limit-tougher-money-laundering-rules/a-68024075
https://finbold.com/anonymous-crypto-wallets-now-illegal-in-the-eu/
Or the source OP was using:
(ETA better info and links)
- naut ( @naut@lemmy.ml ) 4•8 months ago
why would someone limit me how I can spend my earned and 40% already taxed (taken) money? I gave my life time to earn it, they take half of it and still forbidding me to use it?
- Lowlee Kun ( @Obonga@feddit.de ) 31•8 months ago
This thread is a dumpster fire. Can someone explain to me why i should be concerned about the tracking of payments that as an average person will not happen outside of buying huge stuff like a car? While no one is forced to answer me i would like you to refrain from vague statements like “this is attacking your privacy”, because i am interested in how. If you think its obvious feel free to ignore.
I think the biggest point that i could see being a problem is the crypto stuff because i once made a anonymous donation via monero (that because i was concerned but the target needed privacy). It was about 30€ or something. Would that be illegal under the new guidelines? And if so, why would i care, since it is supposed to be anonymous.
- Shyfer ( @Shyfer@ttrpg.network ) 29•8 months ago
Anonymity is important for various reasons. You can’t predict everything bad a government will try to do to stifle freedom that a person may want to avoid. Off the top of my head, I could see someone trying to pay for an abortion or something like that in a southern state where it’s illegal, for health reasons to save their own life.
- Lowlee Kun ( @Obonga@feddit.de ) 12•8 months ago
I think this is actually a very good example, thank you.
People from europe sometimes come a long as assholes (“wE aRe NoT iN tHe ShItTy UsA”) while ignoring that political stability is not guaranteed. Neither is democracy. Sitting here germany i look very nervously at the many countries shifting to the right and getting more authoritarian.
I pray to all gods that the times we live in wont be very interesting for historians to come…
- Shyfer ( @Shyfer@ttrpg.network ) 5•8 months ago
I think that’s a big reason I’m so pro-privacy. I’m sure if the US weren’t a couple steps ahead of you guys towards fascism, I’d prioritize other things, too. Hopefully you all can stop the march towards the right of your government before it gets worse.
- Lmaydev ( @Lmaydev@programming.dev ) 4•8 months ago
This is Europe not that dumpster fire of a country.
- ToxicWaste ( @ToxicWaste@lemm.ee ) 9•8 months ago
To me the problem is that you wouldn’t be able to buy a car anonymously anymore, while it leaves the really rich pretty much untouched.
Art is a well known angle for money laundering or giving someone a huge sum of money pretty much without any regulation. Contracts for construction or even consulting are another way.
I don’t have access to this kind of playground - chances are, you neither. But the people supposedly targeted by this kind of law (corrupt politicians, organised crime, …), do have access to these things and are therefore not impacted.
- AggressivelyPassive ( @agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ) 9•8 months ago
You have to register a car anyway. Where exactly is the problem?
- ToxicWaste ( @ToxicWaste@lemm.ee ) 4•8 months ago
nothing to hide nothing to fear, huh?
And i thought at least after Snowden we learnt this is bs…
- AggressivelyPassive ( @agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ) 5•8 months ago
So you want people to be able to drive several tons of literal murder machines without any form of registration?
- ToxicWaste ( @ToxicWaste@lemm.ee ) 1•8 months ago
don’t try to misunderstand ppl on purpose
- AggressivelyPassive ( @agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ) 1•8 months ago
Then what else could you possibly mean?
- Safipok ( @Safipok@lemmy.ml ) 5•8 months ago
Let’s say you have political beliefs and would like to donate to such causes, March against genocide, stand with local essential workers, union fee. Some places like Hungary might be very dangerous if everyone knows what you spend money on.
- Mubelotix ( @Mubelotix@jlai.lu ) 4•8 months ago
“It’s not about me so I don’t care”
Principles
- pedroapero ( @pedroapero@lemmy.ml ) 4•8 months ago
I use Monero for donations too on a regular basis. From what I understand, the people accepting donations would no longer be allowed to sell them to professional platforms (silly as those are the ones KYCing).
- Kairos ( @LodeMike@lemmy.today ) 3•8 months ago
You don’t need it right up until you need it.
- LemmyHead ( @LemmyHead@lemmy.ml ) 2•8 months ago
- tacking of payments gives those in power (banks, [bad] governments,…) Mechanism to completely profile and manipulate you. Your spendings says EVERYTHING about you. You might not care because you’re living in peaceful and stable (e.g. not in economic crisis like Venezuela) times, but the world and many governments are visibly changing for the worst. It gives them unlimited power to introduce any kind of taxes and fines or means of blocking you from moving away with your money to somewhere else. You don’t agree? They can still get to your money.
- limiting cash or anynomous payments takes away your financial freedom and strongly increases your dependency on banks. Banks put limits on your money that you can’t fully control, they block your transactions for whatever they find suspicous. They can charge you whatever they want. There’s a lot of corruption and money laundering with banks, that are the the most regulated institutions in the world ( except for armies probably), proving that even with a lot of control and legislation, those in power can still do whatever the fuck they want. Banks also take risks with your money and there have been crisises caused by them before. Most of them invest in oil, war and other ventures that are profitable for them. They manipulate markets for profit and for the worse of the common man. There’s a lot you can read about those things. Becoming so strongly dependant on banks give governments limitless power on what to do with your money and block it whenever they want. Truckers protested against government in Canada => bank accounts blocked.
Whether or not some or all of these examples matter to you, one thing you have to understand and always defend is: you are the boss of your of money. Your ownership and control over your money is evenly linked to how much freedom you have.
Another thing you also have to understand, even if you think full visibility and control for governments is a good thing to solve crime, corruption and/or money laundering: there are and have ALWAYS been black markets. And the worse countries are off, the stronger these markets become.
- shortwavesurfer ( @shortwavesurfer@monero.town ) English19•8 months ago
So, Europe limiting people’s freedom, even more. Why am I not surprised? Use Monero and build the circular economy. Give the middle finger to these clowns. People in the US need to do the same thing because we are headed down the same path. That’s why I always suggest if you have Monero not turning it back into Fiat ever.
- smileyhead ( @smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de ) 5•8 months ago
Use Monero, burn the planet, don’t buy anything useful with it as it can be made illegal after one legislation and don’t forget to actively swap it between 10 other different cryptocurrencies. Also thanks to Microsoft for hosting Monero official source code repository.
- shortwavesurfer ( @shortwavesurfer@monero.town ) English5•8 months ago
burn the planet
How much energy does it take to run the banking sector?
don’t buy anything useful with it as it can be made illegal after one legislation
Yeah, good luck with that. It’s censorship resistant. So that legislation doesn’t fucking matter.
actively swap it between 10 other different cryptocurrencies
Funny as most stuff can be purchased in Monero without swapping.
Also thanks to Microsoft for hosting Monero official source code repository.
which could be easily changed at any time.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English2•8 months ago
Also thanks to Microsoft for hosting Monero official source code repository.
which could be easily changed at any time.
Not just that. Git would let the devs know if the repository contents were maliciously changed.
- Possibly linux ( @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ) English2•8 months ago
Monero is a terrible investment long term. Pricing is hard because the value is always changing
- shortwavesurfer ( @shortwavesurfer@monero.town ) English3•8 months ago
What do you mean? I’ve been using Monero for over a year and in that time one Monero has always equaled one Monero. /s
It’s only when you price it in fiat currency that the price changes.
- Possibly linux ( @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ) English4•8 months ago
How about against the price of gold? You also will see it change
- shortwavesurfer ( @shortwavesurfer@monero.town ) English3•8 months ago
True, i have never measured it against gold. Though my guess is that price action would be pretty muted since both are decently stable.
- Possibly linux ( @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ) English1•8 months ago
Monero is not stable
- admin ( @admin@monero.town ) 4•8 months ago
Monero is actually the least volatile crypto asset that is not specifically designed to be pegged to fiat.
- shortwavesurfer ( @shortwavesurfer@monero.town ) English3•8 months ago
I did not say stable. I said decently stable. Since Monero is actually used as money and changes hands often, the price fluctuations do exist, but they are less than they might otherwise be. Monero took a big shock recently during the Binance de-listing and dropped 30% which lasted for all of about a week before it was back to a decent equilibrium and only a month to recover most of that loss. It has recovered 20% of the original drop, even though there are fewer people using it. Because it removed some speculation from the market. More people over time are realizing that Bitcoin is not the promise they understood it to be and are leaving for Monero.
- Shyfer ( @Shyfer@ttrpg.network ) 1•8 months ago
How does Monero avoid the problem of Bitcoin? Of just being used for investment and not currency?
- Gargari ( @Gargari@lemmy.ml ) English18•8 months ago
Grab #Monero
- pedroapero ( @pedroapero@lemmy.ml ) 7•8 months ago
So that you can’t sell later ?
- LWD ( @LWD@lemm.ee ) 3•8 months ago
Monero is like an unregulated stock. If you want to use it for a purchase, you want to wait until as late as possible to actually purchase any.
A better strategy for staying private would just be hoarding money under your bed.
- Mubelotix ( @Mubelotix@jlai.lu ) 1•8 months ago
Yeah but it’s hard to get hard money like gold coins or silver. Holding currency isn’t an option
- Fridgeratr ( @Fridgeratr@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 0•8 months ago
Yeah, lose all your money so you don’t have to worry about it being surveilled!
- Mubelotix ( @Mubelotix@jlai.lu ) 2•8 months ago
More than 97% of monero buyers are in profit right now. Nobody on earth lost more than 10% buying monero
- LWD ( @LWD@lemm.ee ) 1•8 months ago
Do you see the irony of people treating a cryptocurrency in name as a cryptostock in reality?
- MonkderZweite ( @MonkderZweite@feddit.ch ) 13•8 months ago
They track the trade of art too?
- AggressivelyPassive ( @agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ) 3•8 months ago
How do you think they’re paying for art?
- MonkderZweite ( @MonkderZweite@feddit.ch ) 3•8 months ago
Money > Art > Suspicious business.
Suspicious business > more Art > more money.
- AggressivelyPassive ( @agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ) 2•8 months ago
more money.
…soooo someone paid money? Which would fall under the regulation.
- Mubelotix ( @Mubelotix@jlai.lu ) 1•8 months ago
NFTs invented nothing, they copied the shady scam/money-laundering business of IRL art
- electric_nan ( @electric_nan@lemmy.ml ) 10•8 months ago
It’s OK to be an outlaw.
- Possibly linux ( @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ) English8•8 months ago
This feels like satire
- Arthur Besse ( @cypherpunks@lemmy.ml ) English8•8 months ago
that nostr link doesn’t load for me but this is the url that the post in the screenshot is ultimately linking to: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/eu-cash-cap-and-ban-on-anonymous-crypto-payments-results-in-financial-paternalism/
- Queen HawlSera ( @HawlSera@lemm.ee ) English6•8 months ago
creepy
- Pantherina ( @Pantherina@feddit.de ) 6•8 months ago
Wtfff
- onlinepersona ( @onlinepersona@programming.dev ) English5•8 months ago
How do you even ban anonymous crypto? It’s anonymous 😅
- naut ( @naut@lemmy.ml ) 3•8 months ago
Would it make sense to have #CashAwarenessMonth? https://lemmy.ml/post/7968927