The FATF (Financial Action Task Force) has revealed updated
guidelines that would require cryptocurrency and digital asset
exchanges—and potentially independent business owners and crypto
holders—to share sensitive customer information as VASPs (Virtual Asset
Service Providers), compromising user privacy and restricting crypto
market access.
Also read: BCH Development Fund Doubles Its Goal After a Successful Month
The Incoming Deluge
Regulations have value. In a private
business they are boundaries and expectations set by the owner, and
adhered to voluntarily by those that utilize their service.
Management-imposed regulations in a private brokerage firm can keep
irresponsible practices such as selling heavily margined stocks and
other credit scams to naïve, desperate, and gullible investors to a
minimum, for example. However, when regulations move beyond the realm of
private property, and into the field of force and coercion—applied to
all individuals regardless of property or individual self-ownership—the regulations then become immoral and violent.
The potential enforcement of updated crypto guidelines
from the FATF has far-reaching implications for the privacy markets
worldwide, and is being undertaken ostensibly to combat terrorism, money
laundering, and other related cyber-crimes. For those abreast of the
current world situation, where the very same G20 nations that would be enforcing VASP guidelines are waging endless war, inflating currencies, trafficking drugs and humans,
and destroying whole countries and economies, the irony here is a
little hard to shake. It seems a whole new influx of laws are coming,
and how the market handles this new deluge will be very telling.
The Soft Power Sway of ‘Guidelines’
What’s interesting about these new
FATF guidelines is that, in and of themselves, they are just that:
guidelines. There is nothing technically binding about any of them,
legally speaking. However, with this news emerging just before the G20 summit in Osaka
in Japan on June 28-29, where blockchain tech and cryptocurrency will
be a central topic, it’s probably not presumptuous to begin connecting
the dots. (In fact, Japan is already considered by many to be the world
leader in cryptocurrency adoption and regulatory action.)
Participant countries will be
creating their own VASP and FATF-compliant legislation, and those
exchanges and traders refusing to comply will then presumably be
blacklisted and made “irrelevant” or “radioactive” by default. As an
important aside, this style of “soft power”
governance is becoming more and more common, and is not a coincidental
phenomenon. Where statism has always been about control via direct
force, more or less, it is increasingly sold as “winning hearts and
minds,” “convenience,” and “social progress,” with the violent force
component hiding just beneath the surface.
What do the FATF Guidelines Require?
Among other things, the final,
updated “guidance” encourages the dissemination of basically any and all
sensitive trader information—up to and including national ID numbers,
IP addresses, browsing histories, and potentially even emails—in the
supposed interest of combating anonymity—ostensibly that anonymity being
used for cover in illegal actions. As you and I know, this is an
especially scary prospect considering that legality and morality are
never synonymous, and often are at direct and vehement odds with one
another.
Later in the guidelines, on page 43 it is written:
Examples of existing
technologies that providers could consider as a foundation for enabling
the identification of beneficiaries of VA transfers…include…Public and
private keys…Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL) connections, which make use
of public and private keys among parties when establishing a connection
and secure almost all transmissions on the Internet, including emails,
web browsing, logins, and financial transactions.
Wow. So much for anything “crypto” or “secure” about these suggested courses of action.
Iran as a Central Factor
Do the current U.S. military tensions
regarding Iran play into all of this FATF and G20 excitement? First, a
couple things to note. One is that Iran has already announced plans to drop the U.S. dollar soon
in foreign trade. The resource-rich country seems to be an obsession
for the U.S. military and political machine in general, with almost
constant saber-rattling
in major news media outlets for the past decades regarding the Iranian
nuclear program and supposed links to terrorist organizations.
Second, the country is—in a
sense—financially independent and oil-rich, and thus not easily swayed
by Western interests. Iraq and Libya have previously ventured down
similar independent paths, and the wake of destruction resulting from
NATO aggression and U.S.-allied military action can be seen all too
clearly. The message? Use our money, submit to our governance, or pay
dearly.
While fiat currencies, the USD in particular, have held court for a long, long time now via their Keynesian magic
of unlimited printing (“quantitative easing”) and force-based
participation (the gun to your head telling you “THIS HAS VALUE”), the
crypto space provides a whole new paradigm. Doesn’t it make sense to
fear this innovation’s adoption by one’s enemies—including Iranian
interests—if the objective is to control the flow of capital and
resources? Listen to how often the supposed threat of “terror” is
hammered into our heads in regard to crypto and the “necessary”
legislation and regulation which must supposedly surround it.
What the FATF Guidance Means for the ‘Little Guy’
By ‘little guy’ I mean the average
investor, small business owner, entrepreneur, or trader. Heck, it even
could include that random, oddball, lucky individual who already has his
“moon Lambo” from investing wisely back when this whole crypto thing
was just getting off the ground floor.
Quite simply, all these FATF
guidelines mean is: we want to know what you are doing with your assets
at all times. Of course private businesses have every right to govern
themselves as they see fit. Property owners may determine how their
private exchanges are run as they are, in the end, the rightful owners
of the business, However, when it comes to the blanket legislation and
violence-backed regulation engendered by “soft power guidelines” such as
those just issued by the FATF to be enacted over anyone and everyone
regardless of property rights, it’s clear an imminent financial and
philosophical conflict is at hand.
Surfing the Tidal Wave of Legislation
This tsunami of red tape and state
violence heading our way is certainly picking up momentous speed. Every
year, every month and every day some new measure is taken by the
bureaucracies, politicians and bankers of the world, which compromises
the freedom of the individual, and increases the power of the state. It
is my hope and vision that innovation and peaceful non-compliance,
secured on a sound philosophical base, is truly the ticket that will win
the day. In that way, instead of being engulfed by the deluge, perhaps
we can instead surf the wave, already having some knowledge of how the
technology works, with the state at large lagging behind, as per usual.
Then, when it comes time to pay for
more war, more extortion, more trafficking, more destroyed families,
communities, homes, dreams and lives, people can begin to simply
say—with their wallets…“No.” Shielded by the relative privacy and
anonymity blockchain tech and encryption (when properly used) can
afford, I don’t think this scenario is too hard to imagine, although
self-defense against state violence is always a necessary consideration.
As Buckminster Fuller so aptly
stated: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To
change something, build a new model that makes the existing model
obsolete.”
Only Time Will Tell
At the time of writing, BTC currently sits at almost $11,000 and BCH
is approaching $500. There is definitely an excitement in the space,
and it feels good. The FATF will issue their guidelines, and major
nation states around the world will likely adhere. None of this changes
the most critical thing, however: more and more people will begin to be
financially empowered, and presented the opportunity to take control of
their own financial destiny, instead of bowing to an increasingly
irrelevant and obsolete system whose extinction is certain.
What are your thoughts on the FATF’s proposed guidelines? Let us know in the comments section below.
OP-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed
article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own.
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