🚨 EU TAKES MASSIVE SURVEILLANCE STEP FORWARD ON CRYPTO TRANSACTIONS UNDER THE GUISE OF STANDARD INDUSTRY PROTOCOL 🚨
“On Thursday, MEPs approved with 529 votes in favour to 29 against and 14 abstentions, the first piece of EU legislation for tracing transfers of crypto-assets like bitcoins and electronic money tokens. The text –which was provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators in June 2022- aims to ensure that crypto transfers, as is the case with any other financial operation, can always be traced and suspicious transactions blocked. The so-called “travel rule”, already used in traditional finance, will in future cover transfers of crypto assets. Information on the source of the asset and its beneficiary will have to “travel” with the transaction and be stored on both sides of the transfer.”
Particularly concerning language: “…aims to ensure that crypto transfers, as is the case with any other financial operation, can always be traced and suspicious transactions blocked.”
However, the rule also goes on to say, “The rules do not apply to person-to-person transfers conducted without a provider or among providers acting on their own behalf.”
I will continue to research and consult with nostr:npub13ajk3hhvqys2ev4y68jwxywgs8fsdsuk4y5gkzs874jdyrccvf5qak2yd9 and others keeping a close eye on this and write a more thorough newsletter response on this. While this seems to specifically target the industry, at least for now it seems this rule DOES NOT apply to a self-hosted to self-hosted, peer-to-peer transaction.
Take self-custody of your bitcoin folks!