Good News! Germany to oppose to the prohibition for exchanges to transfer bitcoins to purse removal from the European MiCa bill.
Not your key, not your bitcoin
In a letter from Secretary of State Florian Toncar to MEP Schaeffler, the German Ministry of Finance opposed the full verification of purse “not hosted”
The IS purse not hosted (‘unhosted wallet‘in English) are the purse that anyone can create to host their own private keys. Their counterparts are the purse exchanges that do not, by definition, allow you to control your keys. Not your key, not your bitcoin…
The IS purse best known are Samourai, Electrum, blue wallet, sparrow wallet (muun to connect to the Lightning Network).
Find HERE our article on MiCa law and the part of the ban on ” unhosted wallet “.
The German Ministry of Finance is also opposed exchanges they can unilaterally determine whether a transaction is suspicious and report it to the anti-money laundering authorities (AMLs) Anti-Money Laundering).
In fact, exchanges could take advantage of this to block BTC withdrawals under false pretenses. Such power we have discussed in this article has led to serious abuses.
According to the letter, it is difficult to meet the requirements of the European Parliament with techniques to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (AML / CFT). They would go too “Outside FATF requirements”.
The FATF (Financial Action Task Force) is an intergovernmental organization for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Based in Paris, this organization is often seen as a tool of Western domination. Iran, for example, is a country on the FATF red list.
The letter recommends the use of blockchain (Chain) analysis tools instead to assess the risks when BTC is transferred to its purse private. The Ministry of Finance prefers to adhere to the FATF standards implemented in Germany last year.
The chainalysis estimates that the total volume of crime-related cryptocurrency transactions was $ 14 billion in 2021. Or 0.14% of the total volume of transactions.
The company also reports that it was caused by laundering “Equivalent to $ 8.6 billion in cash in 2021”. That’s 0.05% of the total. In other words, we are talking about a storm in a teacup.
That is why the Council of the EU is currently negotiating against these demands at the level of trilogues with the Commission and the European Parliament.
The efforts of bitcoiners to counter the propaganda of delegates like Aurore Lalucq on twitter paid off.
We can read in the letter:
“Concerns about the European Parliament’s demands are also shared by a large number of views from relevant industry parties. »
It remains to be seen whether the Council can persuade the European Parliament in the ongoing negotiations. However, it is a good thing that the largest EU member state is taking up this post.
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Nicolas Teterel
Journalist reporting on the Bitcoin revolution. My papers deal with bitcoin through geopolitical, economic and libertarian prisms.
