The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of Bitcoin

Re:The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of B... by wpietri on Saturday May 29, 2021 @09:12PM (#27329741)

Yes, different people have different ideas about what's reasonable. But if you want to make a case for a reasonable balance between your desire for secrecy versus the desire of other people to be free of crime, you'll have to talk about more than what you personally dislike.

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Re:The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of B... by CryptoPunk on Sunday May 30, 2021 @01:34AM (#27330858)

I want to be free from the crimes of the state too, and the kind of suffocating repression [1] [2] and centralization of power [3] that highly controlled societies create.

We should oppose warrantless mass-surveillance of private financial transactions for the same reasons we oppose mass-surveillance of every one's private communications. The desire to live free from crime does not justify engaging in either.

I think most would agree, and that AML laws are only instituted due to:

1. the complexity of the subject matter obfuscating what these laws do

2. the euphemization of AML laws by the AML industry, like calling them anti-money laundering laws rather than the more descriptive 'financial surveillance laws', and

3. the stigmatization of money, as a result of the public relations efforts of the many who stand to gain from laws restricting people's ability to transact with it.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/MakerDAO/comments/de0sys/kyc_is_abs...

[2] https://www.coindesk.com/money-reimagined-ugly-side-kyc-aml-...

[3] https://twitter.com/SpencerKSchiff/status/125276128577685913...

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Re:The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of B... by wpietri on Monday May 31, 2021 @05:57PM (#27348452)

Again, that doesn't sound like balancing competing rights and concerns. It's sounds to me like a fundamentalist's stance.

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Re:The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of B... by CryptoPunk on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @05:43AM (#27352289)

Yes and I believe it is more morally correct to have a fundamental belief that innocent people shouldn't have their rights violated to achieve some larger social goal. The ends don't justify the means, and fundamental human rights shouldn't be voidable by majority vote.

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Re:The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of B... by wpietri on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @09:47AM (#27354393)

That is not all that is going on here and I suspect you know it. Rights are often in conflict. Insisting that a particular right you are personally fixated on trump all others is not a moral stance. It's narcissism dressed up in a noble cloak.

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Re:The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of B... by CryptoPunk on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @02:09PM (#27358810)

Rights are NOT often in conflict. Genuine rights are private, and do not overlap with others' equal rights.

What you are describing as a right: the ability to subject others to warrantless mass-surveillance, violates the core liberal principle of Western culture, namely the rights to privacy and the presumption of innocence.

And for good reason. There is no evidence at all that abrogating these core rights makes people safer, either from threats in general, or specifically from crime.

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