On Dec 18th, FinCEN announced a proposed rule that will require collection of personal information for transactions of >$3,000 sent to self-hosted wallets.
https://t.co/h1GT64oOqo

We are very concerned about this proposal @OKCoin.

Key takeaways below:

1/ The results seem to be pre-determined.

Transparency and full public participation is needed for sound policy making on complex topics like this. However, with a shortened 15d window (holiday included) vs standard 60d, we are not getting a genuine opportunity to participate.
2/ Cyber-crime is not unique to crypto. An FBI report in June said that daily digital crime has risen 75% since March.

No evidence indicates that illicit crypto activity has risen disproportionally to threaten national security that warrants such a rush.
3/ A unique nature of #bitcoin is to transmit value without intermediary.

This is revolutionary in human history and will greatly promote financial inclusion and freedom. It would also lead to innovations and paradigm shifts that we cannot imagine today.
4/ This is the “responsible innovation” that sound policy making is supposed to protect.

It is also very nascent that needs very careful and thoughtful policy-making.
5/ However, if this proposed rule on self-hosted wallets is implemented, FINCEN registered exchanges will be forced to either non-comply or significantly increase the friction w/r/t self-hosted wallets, which are the major medium where such innovations actually happen.
6/ It is essentially slamming the door closed on crypto-related innovation in US.
7/ This proposed rule won’t succeed in “protecting national security”.

Good guys will have increased burden of compliance, less access to the system, and potential risk of data leakage.

Bad guys can off-ramp in other jurisdictions, which weakens law enforcement.
8/ Nor can this proposal be practically implemented without unintended consequences:
9/ There are fundamental differences between crypto and banking system.

The former being decentralized in nature (and by design), and therefore does not have a centralized, secure messaging network like SWIFT for Travel Rule compliance by banks.
10/ In other words, there is no practical tools available yet that allows effective identity checking while protecting individual privacy.
11/ Most concerningly, such a proposal is a serious infringement on our privacy and constitutional rights.

It would force crypto exchanges to store and hand over customer information automatically, every time, while today law enforcement has to subpoena to get such information
12/ Such monitoring may be needed where intermediaries are indispensable.

But when we are building a more sovereign financial world where trust is built into code and enabled through smart contracts, people are entitled to their financial privacy when using self-hosted wallets
13/ Like many others in the industry, we find it to be our social responsibility to have our voices heard.
14/ There are sensible voices among policy-makers, as demonstrated by @CynthiaMLummis.
https://t.co/RDxcWZLWFB

We hope that sound policy-making can finally prevail.
15/ End.

More from Crypto

Excited to share our 2020 #Bitcoin review.

2020 will be remembered as the year the long fabled institutions finally arrived and #Bitcoin became a bonafide macroeconomic asset.

Below are the top highlights of each month for Bitcoin’s historic year.

1/


Bitcoin is now at all-time highs capping off an extremely successful year.

But it was by no means stable ride up.

2020 was a historically volatile year.

@YoungCryptoPM and I provided a detailed overview of every month of 2020 in all its

Jan.

3 days into the new year the US assassinated Iran’s top general Soleimani.

BTC surprisingly reacted to the events behaving like a safe haven as the risk of war increased.

The events provided the first hints of BTC potentially having graduated to a legitimate macro asset.


Feb.

COVID-19 reached a tipping point causing markets to crash.

BTC’s correlation with the S&P 500 reached an ATH in the following weeks.

This is when everyone learned BTC was not a recession hedge, it was a hedge against inflation and loss of confidence in fiat currencies.
https://t.co/JB7dJ3qp6M


Mar.

Financial markets in free fall.

The liquidity crisis was so severe BTC experienced one of it’s worst days ever.

Now known as Black Thursday, on March 12, BTC plummeted as much as 50% to below $4,000 at its lowest point on the day.

BTC closed the day down 40%

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A thread

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A top 7 with:
https://t.co/6gBjO6jXtB @Booligoosh
https://t.co/fwfKbQha57 @stephsmithio
https://t.co/LsSRNV9Jrf @anthilemoon
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Spotify Ctrl @shahroozme
https://t.co/37EoJAXEeG @kossnocorp
https://t.co/fMawYGlnro

If you want some top picks, see @deadcoder0904's thread,

We were going to have a go at doing this, but he nailed it.

It also comes with voting links 🖐so go do your


Over the following days the 24hr startup crew had more than their fair share of launches

Lots of variety: web, bots, extensions and even native apps

eg. @jordibruin with