BoE Governor says that Bitcoin should not be anonymous

[odyssey06]

For small amounts it is. But if someone wanted to evade tax with a larger amount, it could look attractive. Could someone use a web of exchanges in far flung jurisdictions and simply leave the crypto there?

At some point it has to come back to earth though?

 

[jman0war]

If someone accepts Bitcoin for payment, they could presumably (I'm not an export) transfer these Bitcoins between a number of exchanges that they use (probably under different names) and eventually cash out to FIAT. There would want to be a LOT of money at stake for Revenue to feasibly get warrants for each and every exchange and do all the trawling.

That's revenues problem.
Look, technology has now moved beyond the conventional jursidictional regulatory and tax systems that our best and brightest civil servants have created.
That is not a problem for Bitcoin to solve.
If those regulators and tax authorities want to stay relevant, they'll have to adjust.

 

[jman0war]

Do you remember torrents and illegal downloads of movies, PirateBay etc?
The torrent protocol was distrupting a couple of particular industries.
Those industries appealed to authority to create and enforce coercive laws to protect their revenue.
They had some moderate success but didn't really stop the pirating as downloading still occurs today.

The real answer, was for those industries to adapt to the new landscape.
They started streaming services which gave people easier access to their product at a more reasonable price.
This captured some of that market away from torrents.

 

[ant dee]

Could someone use a web of exchanges in far flung jurisdictions and simply leave the crypto there?

You need a different approach regarding crypto and jurisdictions.
Crypto is on the network, existing everywhere at the same time, it never goes into jurisdictions.
The keys could travel, but they can also be duplicated, sent over SMS, uploaded on the internet. You can encrypt them, upload them, cross a border and download them.
Its the borderless property of the cryptos.

But, one could say to tax-evade with crypto, all you need is contacts to sell it for cash

 

[tecate]

Yes, but to read that link of yours you would think blockchain is the greatest invention since the wheel.

Eh, whatever about the wheel, the tech is more significant than the Lever Arch File.

 

[fpalb]

It's not just crypto either. The internet being global is in many ways incompatible with legacy geographic borders, leading to regulatory arbitrage all over the place. Brendan or boards may fear people mentioning a topic here for fear of libel, but we can just have the same discussion on reddit and there's no risk. Media companies releasing media in certain geographic areas before others. Censorship of media. The Streisand effect. Companies like Apple claiming massive profits were 'earned' in Ireland despite very little of their actual work or sales occurring here.

Things will just keep bumbling along... or everything will change.

 

[jman0war]

By the way, what about precious gems like diamonds?
They are a store of value that is easily transported.

Is exchanging precious gems to Fiat a difficult task, KYC and AML controls?
Does it take days to complete the transaction?