Drugs, guns and human trafficking: Cryotocurrencies are not the real issue here
A senior official from the US Secret Service has called on Congress to regulate Privacy Coins. This is to prevent anonymous cryptocurrencies such as ZCash, Monero or ZCoin from financing trade in drugs, people or weapons. From Cain, Abel and classic symptom control.
Crime has existed since the beginning of humanity. That started shortly after the creation. After Adam and Eve left Paradise for known reasons, they were given two sons – Cain and Abel. After the former had killed the second out of jealousy, there were already several cases of crime in the second generation of humanity. And all because of an apple. But did God come up with the idea of banning apples? Not at all.
Leaping into the present: crimes are still committed. Some heavier, others less severe. Now it is probably only rarely apples, but the motives behind the crimes probably remain the same as in the old days: jealousy, greed, hate. Especially crimes that revolve around trafficking of illegal goods where anonymity is a must are increasingly being paid for with privacy coins – which is simply more practical than cash. Even if this is just as anonymous.
For that reason, the US Congress has now filed a motion to ban privacy coins. Thomas Ott from FinCEN’s Enforcement Division said (LINK): ”We have seen virtual currency exploited to support billions of dollars in what we would consider suspicious activity.” Applicant Robert Novy, Deputy Chairman of the United States Secret Service, added: ”We should … consider additional legislative or regulatory actions to address potential challenges related to anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies. Continued Congressional attention is warranted to ensure law enforcement agencies maintain lawful access to critical sources of evidence, regardless of where, or in what form, that information is stored.”
Such statements are examples of classic allegations against cryptocurrencies. Whether it is the mother of all cryptocurrencies Bitcoin or the more anonymous variants like Monero or ZCash: they finance human trafficking, money laundering, and drug trafficking. The greed, the envy, the jealousy, or the injustice that leads to such activities are based on humans and the social system they have created. Fighting cryptocurrencies or privacy coins would not change these causes, it would only be symptom control. Because the problems come from human nature. They come neither from cryptocurrencies nor from cash – nor from apples.