US Senators Propose Bill to Enhance Secret Service’s Authority to Tackle Crypto

[ABCbits]

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 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.


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.

[hugeblack]

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.

[Z-tight]

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.

[Captain Corporate]

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.

[philipma1957]

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.

[TomPluz]

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.

[ABCbits]

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.

[hugeblack]

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.

[Z-tight]

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.

[philipma1957]

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.

[Faisal2202]

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.

[ABCbits]

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.

[Z-tight]

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.

[NotATether]

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).

[electronicash]

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.