Altcoins Talks - Cryptocurrency Forum
Learning & News => News related to Crypto => Topic started by: ABCbits on August 05, 2024, 12:57:25 PM
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US Senators Propose Bill to Enhance Secret Service’s Authority to Tackle Crypto Crimes
Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Charles Grassley of Iowa have unveiled a new bill (https://www.cortezmasto.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Secret-Service.pdf) to increase the Secret Service’s authority to bolster the fight against cryptocurrency-related crimes.
The bill, dubbed the “Combatting Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act of 2024,” aims to grant the Secret Service expanded powers to probe cryptocurrency transactions conducted by unlicensed money transmitters and potential frauds targeting US financial institutions... Read more here (https://cryptonews.com/news/us-senators-propose-bill-to-enhance-secret-services-authority-to-tackle-crypto-crimes.htm).
The news doesn't talk in detail about what kind of authority would be given and the shared PDF is only 3 page long. But i'm worried this may further reduce people's freedom, when some wallet/coinjoin already reject accept US citizen. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.
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I am amazed at the ability of politicians to turn any event to their advantage, for example, the increase in the authority of the Secret Service occurred after the failed assassination attempt on Trump, but what does it have to do with crimes related to cryptocurrencies? Unfortunately, such legislation may be passed as laws due to the events related to it, and I hope that its impact will not be significant on wallets or decentralized services.
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Not surprised at all, i know they say it is a fight against crypto crimes such as money laundering, but that usually means a fight against privacy for crypto users in the U.S.
I have said this a few times, and it is that i think in a few years there would be almost no privacy when you use BTC or crypto in the U.S, they don't really mind if people use BTC, but they don't want you to use it without them knowing.
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I understand something needs to be done about this, but secret service? I mean these are the same group of people that failed to stop an attempt on an ex-president and current nominee's life. Are we really sure that we want to give the job to those people? I think we need to make sure that we know what we are doing before we set out on something like this, if we really want to stop all these crypto scams, at least USA based ones, then we should give it to CIA, we know how good they are. I mean CIA is the one that literally topples nations and governments, they will have no hard time with crypto scammers.
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I am amazed at the ability of politicians to turn any event to their advantage, for example, the increase in the authority of the Secret Service occurred after the failed assassination attempt on Trump, but what does it have to do with crimes related to cryptocurrencies? Unfortunately, such legislation may be passed as laws due to the events related to it, and I hope that its impact will not be significant on wallets or decentralized services.
All goes back to 911 world trade center attacks.
Basically no country wants to suffer from that kind of attack. So all countries use threat of terrorism to make laws to take our freedoms away.
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The news doesn't talk in detail about what kind of authority would be given and the shared PDF is only 3 page long. But i'm worried this may further reduce people's freedom, when some wallet/coinjoin already reject accept US citizen.
Without first getting into the details on this proposed bill, I don't think this is really needed...as it is not really the job of SS to get into such crypto-related crimes...they already have other agencies taking care of that. This will only take the focus of Secret Service away from their main jobs and in my view SS can easily coordinate with other governmental organizations who are lawfully tasked to do such a thing. This can indeed put more burden to SS aand yes can squeeze away freedom and privacy from the people. I am hoping that this bill will not see the light of the day.
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Without first getting into the details on this proposed bill, I don't think this is really needed...as it is not really the job of SS to get into such crypto-related crimes...they already have other agencies taking care of that. This will only take the focus of Secret Service away from their main jobs and in my view SS can easily coordinate with other governmental organizations who are lawfully tasked to do such a thing. This can indeed put more burden to SS aand yes can squeeze away freedom and privacy from the people. I am hoping that this bill will not see the light of the day.
While SS known to protect political figures, they actually already handle financial-related crime since long time ago. Although it's true other organization also handle such crime and IMO SS should focus more on protection rather than burdened with additional task.
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This will only take the focus of Secret Service away from their main jobs and in my view SS can easily coordinate with other governmental organizations who are lawfully tasked to do such a thing. This can indeed put more burden to SS aand yes can squeeze away freedom and privacy from the people. I am hoping that this bill will not see the light of the day.
In fact, when the US Secret Service was established, it was not interested in protecting political or legal figures, but rather in suppressing widespread counterfeiting, as it was an office affiliated with the Treasury Department.
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Basically no country wants to suffer from that kind of attack. So all countries use threat of terrorism to make laws to take our freedoms away.
Yeah, and they are slowly taking that freedom and privacy away. They want almost all services to implement compulsory kyc, if you don't, they come for you, seize your domain and charge the owners for money laundering offences. I know the fight against money laundering is a serious one, but at some point it looks like it is partly an attack against crypto.
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Basically no country wants to suffer from that kind of attack. So all countries use threat of terrorism to make laws to take our freedoms away.
Yeah, and they are slowly taking that freedom and privacy away. They want almost all services to implement compulsory kyc, if you don't, they come for you, seize your domain and charge the owners for money laundering offences. I know the fight against money laundering is a serious one, but at some point it looks like it is partly an attack against crypto.
They still want cash to be a goto for terror. When crypto like grin or monero came out they realized it threatened cash as the terrorists goto method. So they make rule after rule to fuck with crypto. It is a shame to see them waste time and money trying to stop terrorism this way.
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The news doesn't talk in detail about what kind of authority would be given and the shared PDF is only 3 page long. But i'm worried this may further reduce people's freedom, when some wallet/coinjoin already reject accept US citizen. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.
They will definitely go after mixers and other platforms providing conjoin features. They will target them as in the name of unlicensed platforms providing services to US citizens but considering the location if somehow these mixing platforms could stop US citizens from using their services or stop the access of websites to US citizens like many other websites did, then maybe these authorities might not target them. But it's just an idea I know they have experts to deal with such shit.
BTW I think if the bill gets passed and the work starts and they catch some mixers like 2 out of 10 and the remaining ones will surely be proven as safe mixers which I think will be good for us because this way we won't be part of a project participating in illegal activities intentionally.
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The news doesn't talk in detail about what kind of authority would be given and the shared PDF is only 3 page long. But i'm worried this may further reduce people's freedom, when some wallet/coinjoin already reject accept US citizen. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.
They will definitely go after mixers and other platforms providing conjoin features. They will target them as in the name of unlicensed platforms providing services to US citizens but considering the location if somehow these mixing platforms could stop US citizens from using their services or stop the access of websites to US citizens like many other websites did, then maybe these authorities might not target them. But it's just an idea I know they have experts to deal with such shit.
I guess we only can see whether US government wouldn't go after service which reject US citizen. Ginger Wallet (which is fork of Wasabi wallet, where they run their own CoinJoin service) probably stands out right now.
BTW I think if the bill gets passed and the work starts and they catch some mixers like 2 out of 10 and the remaining ones will surely be proven as safe mixers which I think will be good for us because this way we won't be part of a project participating in illegal activities intentionally.
It's not best indicator to determine safety of certain mixer though. It's possible the other mixer aren't big/popular enough to be targeted by government.
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BTW I think if the bill gets passed and the work starts and they catch some mixers like 2 out of 10 and the remaining ones will surely be proven as safe mixers which I think will be good for us because this way we won't be part of a project participating in illegal activities intentionally.
That is never an indicator of a good and legitimate mixer, take note that the government also goes after perfectly legitimate mixers and shut them down, their attack is on privacy and not really about money laundering. If you want safe mixers, i am sure being a member of this forum, you should know where to look, and not what you are suggesting.
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Why does the Secret Service need to carry about any crypto-crime investigations? That is supposed to be the FBI's territory and the SEC's.
Unless I'm mistaken, I strongly believe that the USSS should just keep its focus on protecting the president, former presidents and their families, because clearly they're doing a bad job at that (Trump almost got killed).
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Why does the Secret Service need to carry about any crypto-crime investigations? That is supposed to be the FBI's territory and the SEC's.
Unless I'm mistaken, I strongly believe that the USSS should just keep its focus on protecting the president, former presidents and their families, because clearly they're doing a bad job at that (Trump almost got killed).
lots of conspiracy theories around Trump assassination which the SS is becoming very incompetent and if they work with bigger department that has authorities over the personal lives of individuals i guess they can make more anomalies to regular people. if they could do it to Trump, they could do it to anyone else.
secret service working with the IRS who hired more than 75,000 agents who are also provided with guns and more authorities = unstoppable.
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Unless I'm mistaken, I strongly believe that the USSS should just keep its focus on protecting the president, former presidents and their families, because clearly they're doing a bad job at that (Trump almost got killed).
You can say that again, i admit that i don't know too much about the duty of each security agency in the U.S, but i don't think i have heard of the secret service meddling in crypto investigations before now. I always saw them as an agency in charge of matters of national security and protection of the president, prominent politicians, et cetera.
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You can say that again, i admit that i don't know too much about the duty of each security agency in the U.S, but i don't think i have heard of the secret service meddling in crypto investigations before now. I always saw them as an agency in charge of matters of national security and protection of the president, prominent politicians, et cetera.
Exactly but what's making them jump into crypto cases as if the crypto platforms have committed crimes. This is a show that the government doesn't want to give up yet on the decentralized system because they lack control of the platforms and they have been using all concerted efforts to penetrate the system knowing fully well that they cannot destroy the decentralized system which have come to stay.
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You can say that again, i admit that i don't know too much about the duty of each security agency in the U.S, but i don't think i have heard of the secret service meddling in crypto investigations before now. I always saw them as an agency in charge of matters of national security and protection of the president, prominent politicians, et cetera.
Exactly but what's making them jump into crypto cases as if the crypto platforms have committed crimes. This is a show that the government doesn't want to give up yet on the decentralized system because they lack control of the platforms and they have been using all concerted efforts to penetrate the system knowing fully well that they cannot destroy the decentralized system which have come to stay.
they could produce a situation where secret service will be needed to get into crypto like an assassination to presidential and then they link the suspect being hired and paid in crypto. this isn't so far fetch i think this is the easiest way to get them involve. although there have been theories already the CIA and NASA was even part o the creation of BTC. no one knows if its really true.
if money laundering is the field for FBI, they will have to cooperate already when it comes to international crimes especially because they think Asia is just their backyard.
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Exactly but what's making them jump into crypto cases as if the crypto platforms have committed crimes. This is a show that the government doesn't want to give up yet on the decentralized system
It is not about decentralization, the problem is privacy, they are after most crypto privacy services and services that does not make kyc compulsory.
The accusation is the criminals use such platforms for money laundering, but they forget that there are also other genuine users who want to maintain their privacy with such services and that fiat is still more often used for money laundering than crypto.
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Unless I'm mistaken, I strongly believe that the USSS should just keep its focus on protecting the president, former presidents and their families, because clearly they're doing a bad job at that (Trump almost got killed).
You can say that again, i admit that i don't know too much about the duty of each security agency in the U.S, but i don't think i have heard of the secret service meddling in crypto investigations before now. I always saw them as an agency in charge of matters of national security and protection of the president, prominent politicians, et cetera.
Well they are Secret Service and if I'm not mistaken, their first task is not just the President but the family as well and perhaps high ranking government officials to protect.
So they are just adding another job description for them. There are a lot of agencies that can tackle crypto in any way shape or form. And so this bill might not get the support of the majority because it looks like non sense.
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Why does the Secret Service need to carry about any crypto-crime investigations? That is supposed to be the FBI's territory and the SEC's.
Unless I'm mistaken, I strongly believe that the USSS should just keep its focus on protecting the president, former presidents and their families, because clearly they're doing a bad job at that (Trump almost got killed).
lots of conspiracy theories around Trump assassination which the SS is becoming very incompetent and if they work with bigger department that has authorities over the personal lives of individuals i guess they can make more anomalies to regular people. if they could do it to Trump, they could do it to anyone else.
secret service working with the IRS who hired more than 75,000 agents who are also provided with guns and more authorities = unstoppable.
except the irs did not hire 75000 agents with guns.
that is internet legend created by us republicans to get votes for trump this year.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/aug/11/kevin-mccarthy/kevin-mccarthys-mostly-false-claim-about-army-8700/
the irs only has 87000 total employees not 87000 new agents with guns.
The irs has under 2500 employees for legal enforcement.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-irs-special-agent-gun-028823423140
its sad that people repeat the lies.
btw I know a lot about the irs.
my mom 24 years as an auditor then retired.
my wife 33 years the last ten as an unarmed agent then retired.
myself I worked as an unarmed tax collector for the irs. for a year went back to college and got a degree in accounting and filed taxes for people.
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That is never an indicator of a good and legitimate mixer, take note that the government also goes after perfectly legitimate mixers and shut them down, their attack is on privacy and not really about money laundering. If you want safe mixers, i am sure being a member of this forum, you should know where to look, and not what you are suggesting.
Can you name one mixer which was seized by governments while they were not involved in any illicit activities? Maybe there are some mixer and I don't know about them. I agree with your point that bad mixers are not the target of government but the privacy us and that's why they are trying hard to seize every privacy tools like recently they caught wasabi wallet owners although they were not involved in any illicit activity but that's just a wallet, not a full edge mixer.
I do know that we should not be judging a mixer because it has not been seized by the government as it's not an indicator but still it can be considered.
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I guess we only can see whether US government wouldn't go after service which reject US citizen. Ginger Wallet (which is fork of Wasabi wallet, where they run their own CoinJoin service) probably stands out right now.
I almost forgotten about ginger wallet, well its still anew wallet and I doubt if most of the users would be aware of it even, thy should work on marketing. BTW I did not aware that US citizen can't use it I just checked the thread of Ginger wallet opened by Icopress on BTT and he have mentioned their that US citizens can't use it.
Let's see how US authorities will take action against them.
It's not best indicator to determine safety of certain mixer though. It's possible the other mixer aren't big/popular enough to be targeted by government.
Good point and I agree with it, because authorities might not have enough proof to seize a mixer or the mixer is not too famous yet like Ginger wallet's coinjoin service.
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That is never an indicator of a good and legitimate mixer, take note that the government also goes after perfectly legitimate mixers and shut them down, their attack is on privacy and not really about money laundering. If you want safe mixers, i am sure being a member of this forum, you should know where to look, and not what you are suggesting.
Can you name one mixer which was seized by governments while they were not involved in any illicit activities? Maybe there are some mixer and I don't know about them. I agree with your point that bad mixers are not the target of government but the privacy us and that's why they are trying hard to seize every privacy tools like recently they caught wasabi wallet owners although they were not involved in any illicit activity but that's just a wallet, not a full edge mixer.
I do know that we should not be judging a mixer because it has not been seized by the government as it's not an indicator but still it can be considered.
Your views are very reasonable and relevant, especially regarding cryptocurrency and privacy tools.
There has been much debate about the legitimacy of coin mixers or privacy tools and their seizure by governments. While some mixers have indeed been linked to illegal activity, government intervention in some cases has been part of efforts to stop abuse of those tools, even if those tools do not have criminal intent for all users.
An example would be the Wasabi Wallet incident you mentioned, where the government targeted a tool designed to maintain privacy. Although it is not a fully decentralized mixer, it works as a privacy-focused bitcoin wallet that provides privacy similar to coin mixers in some cases.
As another example, a Bitcoin mixer called **"BestMixer.io"** can be mentioned. It was seized in 2019 by law enforcement agencies led by Europol. Although the mixer was providing privacy for some users, it was associated with illegal activities in many cases. However, the government's intervention was mainly due to the misuse of Mixer, even though Mixer itself was designed as a privacy tool.
You're right that Mixer or privacy tools shouldn't be judged as just being seized by the government. There are many mixers and privacy tools that provide important services to legitimate users, and actions taken against them don't always prove them guilty. This may be an indicator, but it requires a deeper analysis of the validity and necessity of privacy tools.
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I guess we only can see whether US government wouldn't go after service which reject US citizen. Ginger Wallet (which is fork of Wasabi wallet, where they run their own CoinJoin service) probably stands out right now.
I almost forgotten about ginger wallet, well its still anew wallet and I doubt if most of the users would be aware of it even, thy should work on marketing. BTW I did not aware that US citizen can't use it I just checked the thread of Ginger wallet opened by Icopress on BTT and he have mentioned their that US citizens can't use it.
Let's see how US authorities will take action against them.
They no longer show that information on the homepage. But you can see that when using their wallet or reading their legal document.
PROHIBITION OF ACCESS FROM THE USA, ITS STATES, AND TERRITORIES
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Users located in the United States of America, including its states and territories, are hereby prohibited from accessing this platform. InvisibleBit LLC does not provide services to individuals located in these regions and shall not be liable for any consequences resulting from unauthorized access. By accessing this platform, users outside of the United States confirm that they are not a national of or located within the United States or its territories and agree to abide by this restriction.
It's not best indicator to determine safety of certain mixer though. It's possible the other mixer aren't big/popular enough to be targeted by government.
Good point and I agree with it, because authorities might not have enough proof to seize a mixer or the mixer is not too famous yet like Ginger wallet's coinjoin service.
Or it's simply not worth their time and resource.
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You're right that Mixer or privacy tools shouldn't be judged as just being seized by the government. There are many mixers and privacy tools that provide important services to legitimate users, and actions taken against them don't always prove them guilty. This may be an indicator, but it requires a deeper analysis of the validity and necessity of privacy tools.
I don't remember any best mixer as I stepped into the crypto world in 2021 overall I can understand why governments are after these privacy tools and how bad actors are misusing them for their own purpose but sometimes I think about how these governments and authorities come to know that the following mixer is being used to launder money I mean if these decentralized mixers can be caught then it's mean they are not fully decentralized and not providing what they have promised.
And yeah we should not judge a mixer as good if it's not being banned by the authorities as it can be safe due to a lot of reasons.
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For your own safety, we will deny you all privacy, it is not a phrase that we can hear in any movie, it is the reality in which we live. I understand that countries are concerned about the fight against terrorism, but I think they take the citizens (of any country) for idiots, making decisions like this. With each passing day our freedoms are fewer and our obligations in the name of "freedom and security" are more. Now we have to wait to find out how many countries are going to take the same initiatives and, some time later, discover how many countries have already been doing the same thing for years.
I believe there will come a time when not only will we no longer be owners of our privacy, but we will also no longer be owners of our own lives, something that in a certain way already happens.
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Can you name one mixer which was seized by governments while they were not involved in any illicit activities?
My point is that, as long as a service is privacy enhancing and does not require kyc, the government are going to come for them and accuse them of money laundering. Mixers are just tools and they are not going to look at the origin of the coins sent to them or blacklist certain utxo's, because if they do, then it defeats the purpose of using a mixer.
So for you to say a mixer is involved in illicit activities, then i'll take you to mean mixers that were created and run by scammers, so can you name one of such mixers, with proof?
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My point is that, as long as a service is privacy enhancing and does not require kyc, the government are going to come for them and accuse them of money laundering. Mixers are just tools and they are not going to look at the origin of the coins sent to them or blacklist certain utxo's, because if they do, then it defeats the purpose of using a mixer.
So for you to say a mixer is involved in illicit activities, then i'll take you to mean mixers that were created and run by scammers, so can you name one of such mixers, with proof?
I agree with you that the government doesn't take mixers as a good tool because governments want control of their people and anything that makes them control their people is by controlling their money. Once you control that you control them and can make them do anything except a few. The point is with mixers and with cryptocurrency especially with BTC they can't do it. So they are investigating such tools providing anonymous transactions and privacy.
They just can't ban any mixer until they get some solid proof.
My statement about illicit activity should not reflect that such mixers are run by scammers because the owner or the founder of the mixer is not laundering money on purpose instead their product is mis0used by bad actors such as the founder of the Bitcoin Fog mixer (Roman Sterlingov) accused of providing a service to mix coins and bad actors laundered money from it. Authorities accused him of profiting from such illicit trades caught him and punished him for 50 years (source (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2024/03/28/amid-bitcoin-fog-operator-conviction-are-crypto-mixers-now-illegal/))
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They just can't ban any mixer until they get some solid proof.
I don't think they have any plans of making mixers illegal, they do not have to, because they are shutting down so many of them without doing that. The U.S government is after services that enhance privacy, so if your service does not require kyc, they can be at your door anytime, with charges of terrorism financing and offering services to customers from sanctioned regions.
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They no longer show that information on the homepage. But you can see that when using their wallet or reading their legal document.
Thanks for the document link as before visiting the thread started by ICOpress I visited their site and other platforms to find this statement. Well, now I have two sources.
Or it's simply not worth their time and resource.
I think it will be totally worth it for them because if they caught any wallet doing money laundering and they have proof and have the power to seize them then why would they not try? They go after money like a baby go after ice cream. Haha If they have proof and the mixer has a hell lot of money they will go after them. But till now I have seen that the mixer has been banned from being used by illicit actors for a long time for money laundering and authorities seize them after a long time like 2 to 4 years after. Which means they take a lot of time and procedure to start an investigation.