The anti-mixer arm of Congress

[NotATether]

Let's take a look at the section of Congress who appears to be totally against Bitcoin privacy of any kind.

Late yesterday afternoon news broke of the House Financial Services Committee Democrats' new crypto legislation. First things first I want to acknowledge the monster in the room concerning this and don't worry this legislation is already dead on arrival. Moves like this are sadly to be expected in the coming months as these bills are introduced with the Members knowing it doesn't have the slightest chance to get a vote but instead is done as a messaging thing that they can point at.

Who is Behind This Legislation

Another HUGE thing to highlight is Rep. Sean Casten and his ties to the crypto industry. Guess whose brother was on his staff and served as a Legislative assistant?

None other than SBF's brother Gabe! While Rep. Casten says that Gabe played no role in his crypto views or did anything in that realm Gabe was able to use his relationship with Casten to help his brother out whether anyone wants to admit to it or not. I would bet that the contacts that Gabe had were a huge boost for his brother.

Looking at who else has already come out and been in support of this legislation we have the expected actors, Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), and Bill Foster (D-Ill.). Having worked or currently work on the other side of the aisle of these people it's to be expected. In particular, Rep. Sherman is someone who truly I do not understand how he got his job and more importantly what technology did to him to hurt him. The guy is consistently against cutting-edge innovation and made what I find to be the funniest comment about crypto years ago.

> He asked a witness testifying before a Committee why we don't "just flip the switch and turn off crypto".

I wish I had made up that quote but sadly.... nope.

What Would This Do

While the full text has not been released as far as I can tell, I also cant even find a circulating draft so it is clear they left this on the Dem side exclusively, the bill is rather straightforward. The legislation would place a 2-year "prohibition" on financial services (CEXs) from dealing with crypto that has been funneled through mixer.

During the two year "prohibition" the SEC, CFTC, and Justice Department are required to study the use of mixers and what role they play in helping to facilitate illicit finance. Below is Casten's comment.

> "The presumption should be that these are money laundering channels," Casten said, unless sufficient audit work shows otherwise. "Let's go through and get that cleaned up and fixed."

Why This is a Stupid Waste of Time

Within the released text this bill is only going to affect entities that the US government is already monitoring/controlling. This legislation further fails to address what if some of your BTC had previously been through a mixer? Would Coinbase or whoever else was in possession of it have to divest it and then buy "new" BTC that wasn't touched by a mixer? We also already have the Justice Department working with numerous blockchain analysis companies that are able to track BTC that has passed through mixers. We literally have these answers yet this group of Congressman either A) are not being kept in the loop by their staff or B) just ignoring what we know to push an agenda that is knownly NOT POPULAR with people.

The executive summary here is three parts.

Number one: The bill they are trying to pass is dead in the water (at least as long as there is a republican-controlled House, although it goes on to show that if Democrats take control of it, they will use it to completely destroy crypto privacy).

Number two: This bill was co-authored by SBF's brother. Let that sink into you for a second. It underscores why SBF deserves to rot in jail for an eternity. He does not care about crypto, but he is for "Big Government".

The third and most important thing is that the lawmakers is just going to automatically assume that mixing == money laundering and not change their opinion about it, as if a bunch of stuborn 10-year olds are writing the laws! It doesn't matter what sort of explanation or analysis you give them, it's "guilty unless proven innocenent" and it fits into their sinister plan to strip every crypto user of financial privacy worldwide.

[MrSpasybo]

The executive summary here is three parts.

Number one: The bill they are trying to pass is dead in the water (at least as long as there is a republican-controlled House, although it goes on to show that if Democrats take control of it, they will use it to completely destroy crypto privacy).

Number two: This bill was co-authored by SBF's brother. Let that sink into you for a second. It underscores why SBF deserves to rot in jail for an eternity. He does not care about crypto, but he is for "Big Government".

The third and most important thing is that the lawmakers is just going to automatically assume that mixing == money laundering and not change their opinion about it, as if a bunch of stuborn 10-year olds are writing the laws! It doesn't matter what sort of explanation or analysis you give them, it's "guilty unless proven innocenent" and it fits into their sinister plan to strip every crypto user of financial privacy worldwide.

BTC mixing is a serious problem in this market and we still haven't found the most appropriate way to view them. Many people support Mixers because they care about anonymity, but many others also oppose Mixers because Mixers can be exploited by criminals. Personally, I just want BTC to be more widely accepted, which means BTC needs to comply with anti-money laundering laws. I don't want BTC to be delisted from CEXs like many other privacy coins in the market.

I also don't find this proposal feasible, it could affect many investors in the market, they cannot guarantee that every satoshi in their account has never been involved in crime or Mixers. I just hope that the lawmakers can find a way that is both effective in limiting money laundering through Mixers and protecting the rights of users. Of course, I also know that this is a complex issue

[yhiaali3]

This bill was co-authored by SBF's brother!!! What a painful and ridiculous thing at the same time, and also a number of old Democrats who probably don't understand anything about technology and still live in the corrupt era of central banks, but unfortunately they are in control.

They really know that it is difficult to isolate the mixed Bitcoin because when this mixed Bitcoin enters the CEXs how can it be isolated from the clean Bitcoin? On the other hand, can they assure us that every dollar bill is a clean bill that has not been used by criminals before?