Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency Could Be Misused By Terrorists, Says Treasury Chief Mnuchin (cnbc.com) 97
In a press conference Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Facebook's proposed digital currency, Libra, "could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers" and that it was a "national security issue." CNBC reports: "Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cyber crime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs and human trafficking," Mnuchin said, adding that he is "not comfortable today" with Facebook's launch. "They have a lot of work to do," he said. The press conference comes days after President Donald Trump said in a tweet that he was "not a fan" of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. He also suggested Facebook, which plans on launching the global cryptocurrency next year, would need a bank charter to do so. Bitcoin dropped sharply on Monday following the president's criticism on Twitter. The world's first and most valuable digital currency fell roughly 10% to a low of $9,872 to start the week.
"The president does have concerns as it relates to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies -- those are legitimate concerns that we have been working on for a long period of time," Mnuchin said. In response to the Treasury secretary's comments, Facebook told CNBC that "they anticipated critical feedback from regulators, central banks, lawmakers around the world." The tech giant also said they announced Libra a year before its anticipated launch date, "so that we could have those conversations."
"The president does have concerns as it relates to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies -- those are legitimate concerns that we have been working on for a long period of time," Mnuchin said. In response to the Treasury secretary's comments, Facebook told CNBC that "they anticipated critical feedback from regulators, central banks, lawmakers around the world." The tech giant also said they announced Libra a year before its anticipated launch date, "so that we could have those conversations."
LOL (Score:1)
Cryptocurrency Is Being used By Terrorists, Says Treasury Chief Mnuchin
FTFY.
Re:LOL (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:LOL (Score:5, Interesting)
This all doesn't matter. There are laws that prohibit the activities of terrorists. If the punishments of those laws need to be strengthened, then lets strengthen those laws. We do not need additional laws to govern how we spend money. If the activity we are spending money on is already illegal, then we're covered.
What I do have an issue with is the Government's misuse of the financial system. Through quantitive easing, essentially free reign to print more US currency, the government is taxing our dollars by diluting the spending power, and funneling the result for its own uses. The US economy is worth more with each passing year. Yet, our dollars devalue, because while we work hard to earn our dollars, the Fed prints more, diluting our spending power.
In my opinion, this is a major breach of trust with the Government. If the government were entrusted with out labor, say storing our mined precious metals or farmed produce, and we return later to withdraw our stored labor, the return would be less, because they simply siphoned off the top, separately from taxes to spend how they please.
This is why the world needs crypto. We do not currently have control over how much QE is being used to devalue the currency, and with crypto, it is a mathematical certainty.
Re: LOL (Score:3)
Holy fuck calm down Karl Marx. He's simply saying he would rather have the individual choice of how much service to pay for through his own voluntary cooperation, as opposed to taxes and quantitive easing payments he is involuntarily paying for now.
On some services, I agree with him. We don't need the government spending for us when we are perfectly paying for those services ourselves. We buy our own food. We pay for our own electricity. We don't need government taxing and paying for those things. It's only
We need laws (Score:2)
And the reason interest rates have to be kept low is to protect the dodgy loans banks have been allowed to give out. Speaking of which the Trump admin (with the help of
Re: We need laws (Score:2)
This is horseshit.
AT&T enables illegal activity for profit. Someone pays AT&T for connectivity, and then uses that connection to order a hit on someone. Therefore what I said is true.
Using the connection shouldn't be illegal. Ordering a hit on someone should be, as should killing someone. But the connections use isn't. Same thing with money. Using the money shouldn't be illegal, or regulated.
Now with regards to QE, no. Interest rates at the Fed level are only available to the 9 member banks, everyon
Re: (Score:1)
Both YOU and the all but 0.0001% of the people have any real idea how even your own precious fucking FIAT that you worship all day long... works.
Here's how the complete and total SHITCOIN that is Government FIAT works...
http://hiddensecretsofmoney.com/
True legit cryptocurrencies... p2p transaction mineable scaling private fixed issuance uncensorable decentralized... those are what will win. NOT Govt Fiat, and NOT Corp Fiat.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Funny)
Cash Is Being used By Terrorists, Says Treasury Chief Mnuchin
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You think that isn't what they're already trying to do by saying any transaction (cash / bank / etc) over $10k has to be reported to FinCEN?
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Terrorists are freely breathing air that should only be available to non-terrorists!
-- Treasury Chief Dumbass
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Clearly the message being put out is not the actual one, more a kind of declaration of WAR. Good on you Facebook, the idiots who took one step to far, the proverbial straw on the camels back. It does not look good for crypto going forward, well at least unbacked and unregulated crypto with no central market controlled by the USA (run), energy needs to be traded.
Re: (Score:2)
Cryptocurrency Is Being used By Terrorists, Says Treasury Chief Mnuchin
FTFY.
I watched 3/4s of the allegedly futuristic '91 movie Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man yesterday evening, and in one scene the Don Johnson character is calling his gal pal on a pay phone. Like the buggy whip, the old movie trope of physically delivering the cash ransom for blackmail will one day draw quizzical sideways glances from youthful viewers.
Damn! Why didn't they ask for Libra?
Currency more dangerous that crypto (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Crypto is too volatile to be a useful medium of exchange. Cash printing is highly controlled, actually difficult (just not impossible) to counterfeit, and is the basis of the M2 and M3 money supply, which is mostly electronic dollars, not real cash.
Cash can be counterfeited, but that's only the M0 money supply. M1, M2, and M3 money is mostly done with ledger transactions, which can be validated, verified, taxed, and is difficult to launder.
You are wrong (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"impossible to track"
Every bill has a serial number
You'd be surprised how easily tracked USD is (Score:2)
It's similar to how we could stop illegal immigration tomorrow if we'd come down like a ton of bricks on employers, but let's face it nobody wants to go without cheap labor in meat packing, restaurants a
when cryptocurrency started getting enough users (Score:3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:1)
No. Cryptocurrency is today at best for fringe users and will never gain enough average joe users to become legitimate the way it's going. Instead, when a big organization decides to tackle it (like Facebook), then the number of users will spread as it becomes more open to the non-fringe people. In that case the banks will finance it to control it and the government will regulate it, tax it, and use it to create a database to monitor all financial transactions, as it's not nearly as anonymous as people t
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Even in states that allow minor amounts for personal use and have medical dispensaries, getting a mainstream bank to work with is difficult in the extreme. Cannabis is still against federal law. Dispensaries can be raided at any time. The politics around this is a mess and it will take a generation for this to sort out. I can't partake because I have a government clearance and it just isn't worth losing everything over. Not everyone is in that position. Use discretion as required.
Cryptocurrencies will event
Like the NSA (Score:2)
Yes, this is a problem (Score:1)
We would rather they keep using the US dollar.
9 out of 10 accept nothing else...
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My concern is Facebook standardizing something that then becomes a defacto coinage and thus effecting monetary policy. I'm not sure that's a thing, but it's a risk.
some cryptocurrency but... (Score:2)
... not FB Libra as it is centrally controlled.... like a bank and we all know FB is friendly with.....gov.
currencies (Score:1)
In a press conference Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said America's currency, Dollars, "could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers" and that it was a "national security issue." CNBC reports:
"Currencies have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cyber crime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs and human trafficking," Mnuchin said, adding that he is "not comfortable today" with the concept of money. "They have a lot of work to do," h
When they say terrrorists... (Score:2, Insightful)
they actually mean 'tax avoidance'. Not getting a cut is what really terrifies the government.
Oh, what a big steaming load. As opposed to... (Score:4, Insightful)
So could cash. So could gold. So could anything, although the lack of a physical manifestation makes cryptocurrency attractive for some uses.
Let's not kid ourselves, though, as to what's really happening: an increasing portion of the global populace has decided that something other than gaudily printed paper is suitable for all debts, public and private- and the governments don't have a hook into it. Thus: NO TAXES. Buh... TERRORISTS!!1!11!
Personally, I find it pretty amusing that gov'ts in general (but especially here in the US) are caught *again* with their pants down as a result of technological advances. Nakamoto wrote his paper 10 years ago, you goofs. I'm also pretty sure that's why they're stepping on Libra- no control.
Re:Oh, what a big steaming load. As opposed to... (Score:4, Insightful)
While your "no control" argument applies to bitcoin, Libra is under control of Facebook, which is a US corporation. So, that's really why they're stepping on Libra - they do have control.
Re: (Score:3)
an increasing portion of the global populace has decided that something other than gaudily printed paper is suitable for all debts, public and private- and the governments don't have a hook into it. Thus: NO TAXES.
I'm not sure what mystical value you're attributing to cryptocurrency which enables the user to dodge taxes. Employers and businesses report their financial dealings to the IRS, and crypto doesn't change that. Furthermore, crypto is pretty much useless for actually buying goods and services until you find some sucker to give you fiat currency for it, so exchanges also have the opportunity to rat you out to the tax man.
No, the real reason the government doesn't like cryptocurrency is same reason the FDA is
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I will never understand this argument: "cash is tracked by the government, so use Bitcoin which operates by keeping an electronic record of everything permanently and publicly so they can't track it!"
So long as you have access to any money of any sort, we can trace that money moved from wallet to wallet, and identify who had what wallet. Eventually we find out that you have a wallet that is also owned by whoever had these other historic wallets, and now we know Person X who owned those wallets is you.
Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cyber crime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs and human trafficking," Mnuchin says.
Sounds just like any other currency (US dollars) to me.
Oh and "billions," you say? Mnuchin is either bombasting, completely deluded or trying to assert that Bitcoin is used for illegal activities to the exclusion of all else.
If we combine the net worth of Bitcoin with that of Litecoin, Monero, Ethereum and all other cryptocurrencies, it comes out close to $100 billion.
REF: "Putting the World's Money into Perspective," https://www.investopedia.com/t... [investopedia.com]
Re: (Score:1)
but at this point I'm definitely going third party in the next election.
You can just stay home on election day, it accomplishes the same thing. It should be painfully obvious at this point that the message you send by voting 3rd party gets routed straight to /dev/null.
EvilCorp (Score:1)
What do you know... (Score:2)
So can knives and guns and ammunition and various fertilizers from Home Depot and Lowe's.
I guess they should rename Home Depot to Terror R Us.
Mnuchin is a tool (Score:1)
If they really wanted to do something about money laundering and terrorism, they would have shut down the world bank of narco money laundering and terrorists...HSBC.
They didn't. Instead it got a 'pass' as too big to fail....and all the banksters profited on HSBC's crimes.
So this is fucking Mnuchin with his thumb up his ass telling us his thumb doesn't stink.
Newsflash... It does.
Chief Munchkin? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, hey, BarbaraHudson is a lunatic and a giant asshole; leave all that other stuff out of it. Her GID and other such things are not a concern.
crypto news (Score:1)
True of all current cryptocurrencies (Score:2)
Ah, the old government battle cry.... (Score:2)
When you want to ban/regulate something, it's either terrorists or think of the children.
Never a logical argument.
Re: (Score:2)
Everyone who threatened the Fed got whacked (Score:2)
Remember the Federal Reserve is NOT federal, and it is hardly a reserve. Not many people seem to know that the "Federal Reserve" is a private institution in the hands of the 7 or 12 largest private banks of New York, of which the majority is owned by people overseas. No aspect of the Fed is under any control of any democratic institution, it has never been audited and probably never will be.
It is not a financial institution, it is not a democratic institution, it is nothing but a very influential trade asso