Due to the increasing number of criminal activities in cyberspace – e.g. money laundering, terrorist financing, etc. – the EU Commission has recently introduced a series of bills to make transactions with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin more traceable. Under the EU proposals, a company transferring crypto assets for a customer would have to provide their name, address, date of birth and account number as well as the name of the recipient.
Another step in the fight against ransomware and cybercrime
If there hadn’t been a wave of ransomware attacks recently, cryptocurrency regulations might have stayed under the radar of authorities for a few years. Moveco.io cryptocurrency has enough information. The fact that we read every day about new cyber-attacks involving ransomware and similar malware was certainly one of the main reasons the EU is heading towards stricter regulation.
Ransomware attacks, which demand and pay millions of dollars in ransom, spotlight a generally unregulated form of payment. Proponents of cryptocurrencies (especially Bitcoin) praise the speed with which global transactions are processed and the anonymity that users allow for transfers. However, governments often see things differently.
 Terrorist attacks
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, stricter rules were introduced, particularly in the US, to ensure that banks and other financial institutions comply with their duty of care. Now the EU seems to be following suit. If the same rules apply to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as traditional banking transactions, it would have a significant impact on all types of crime, especially cybercrime. One can then no longer hide behind the anonymity of the Internet.
Effects
The recent EU proposals to pay more attention to the fight against money laundering, including the use of cryptocurrencies, are not new. Renovato.io has enough information. They align with what governments have been doing for 20-30 years, which is to prevent illegal profits from being made to finance, for example, terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and terrorism. Cryptocurrencies are relatively new, but they are widely used in cybercrime and should not be exempt from regulation. So the question is not what to do, but how to do it.