New US Senate Bill "Threatens" Cryptocurrency Innovation
Senate Bill 1241, also known as the "Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017", was introduced on May 25, 2017 by Senator Chuck Grassley. Aside from the obvious intent in the title, this bill also aims at deterring individuals entering the US from bringing with them undeclared assets in the form of Bitcoin or other digital currencies. It would allow for civil asset forfeitures of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and require users to declare crypto assets exceeding $10,000 whenever they cross the border.
"Civil Asset Forfeiture" is a term used to describe seizure of your private property by the state for an indefinite (usually permanent) amount of time without formal charges necessarily ever being filed.
However, there are several important things to bear in mind regarding this bill: one, that there is presently no reliable way to determine wallet ownership without knowing all transactions to and from a wallet and being able to match a transaction to a known wallet, a matching private key, or the willingness of the offending party to offer up said information; two, terrorist groups and money launderers much more often use the reliable and age-old methods of mules and foreign bank accounts to meet their ends; and three, there are already laws allowing the state to seize your assets, physical and software, which would fully encompass wallets.
It will be fantastic for tracking transactions for known criminals' wallets, finding associative wallets, etc., however this will still rely on at least two volatile variables:
1. Investigative parties being able to locate the information in the first place
2. Criminals not having the wherewithal to generate separate wallets for different crimes (as ransomware already does)
Ultimately, it is clear that this bill is a bullrush by a group of politicians who do not understand the technology they're attempting to limit, and being done in the best interest of regulatory bureaus that would otherwise have no such jurisdiction over cryptocurrency.
While ICOs will almost certainly become fully regulated within a short period of time, the likelihood that we will see successful, enforceable legislation regarding the limitation of unclaimed crypto assets seems nil.