Some good wins for consumer choice, economic freedom, and financial liberties in today's slate of Supreme Court decisions
The SC has always been the pro-liberty branch of the federal government, even though it's sometimes erred
I haven’t seen too much analysis about it, but the new federal law requiring all LLCs to give FinCEN names and identifying details of their owners (updated Corporate Transparency Act) is a bad day for financial privacy (don’t really care about millionaires and billionaires, since they use strawman manager arrangements).
https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2018/04/what-you-may-not-know-about-the-beneficial-ownership-rule/
Ordinary middle-class Americans have used the privacy-preserving features of LLCs to protect their assets, investments, and property for years. If you wanted a modicum of privacy for your home or investments, whether from stalkers, tabloid press, or spiteful ex-partners, LLCs have always been ideal. These structures have been vital in the privacy community, and for good reason.
Beneficial owners have always had to report income to the IRS, but this new reporting mechanism is an additional step that will open up that information for all to view, as well as introduce new opportunities for your rights to be denied or abridged by other government agencies and companies they regulate.
Proponents (including the control whackos at FATF) say this is necessarily to deter crime and tax evasion. But court orders have always had the ability to unmask this information (especially with existing banking regulations). Not to mention the loathsome Bank Secrecy Act.
The vast majority of Americans are law-abiding and follow tax laws. Further reducing the financial privacy of 350 million people to “chase” the 0.5%-1% is a perilous path.
For many Americans abroad, the cruel reporting standards forced by the US government on banks abroad (#FATCA) already force many millions of US expats to use these LLCs in lieu of bank accounts where they live (namely because LLCs don’t require physical presence in the US). Getting a bank account as an American abroad is absurdly complicated (again because of US reporting standards imposed on foreign banks).
What we’re seeing here is a slow-roll attack on financial privacy for ordinary people. Again, the billionaires can easily route around this.
The ratcheting-up of KYCing every financial transaction or relationship (including bitcoin) is definitely part of a larger trend. And by any measure, it’s about reducing privacy for individuals, not broader concern for global crime.
👏 "And that's why you don't talk to the police. Because they're going to try to put words in your mouth"
haven't followed this Scottie Scheffler. case at all, but I wholeheartedly endorse this
My latest article on the fundamental issues with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
At best, CFPB is an agency without watchers. At its worst, it’s an unaccountable bureaucracy halting innovation and entrepreneurship
how do I scoop up one of those badass Mutiny t-shirts?
Une semaine à Montréal et je m’attendais à plus
Tellement de puissance culturelle et technologique, mais contrainte par des politiques dysfonctionnelles
Malgré ça, il y a le bilinguisme, dynamisme et une joie de vivre.
Comment faire évoluer Montréal à une vraie « métropole » ?
Québec : the land of government liquor stores and government cannabis stores
I just couldn’t get people on my instance because they didn’t understand fediverse in the slightest
Montréal is/est 🔥
My first post up on the newly launched EUTechLoop on the EU’s “Chat Control”
🔜Unmasking the plan to restrict encryption and private messaging in Europe
‚Still upset that #Reddit decided to sell all its content to #Google for training its #AI?
Well, bad news: Now #OpenAI has jumped into the mix as well.‘
https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/17/reddit_signs_ai_deal/
Basically had to once they filed their IPO
I have eSats on the Atlantis Fedi. How do I send them using Mutiny? nostr:npub12rv5lskctqxxs2c8rf2zlzc7xx3qpvzs3w4etgemauy9thegr43sf485vg
When you’re a federation member on Mutiny, you’re technically a different “member” on Fedi. Best to use a usual lightning wallets to get those sats out of there (since they’re closing down) or transfer them to a new mint. Something like Bitcoin Principles.
You can also just try a simple lightning invoice in mutiny and pay from Fedi
It's something I've thought a lot about and heard the same from many legislators and legislative staff who are themselves Bitcoiners, but who understand law.
https://consumerchoicecenter.org/crypto-vs-bitcoin-and-why-it-matters-for-policy/
Also, bills that are "resolutions" are just a waste of time, toothless, and achieve nothing but virtue signaling.
to "conflate Bitcoin with crypto" is indeed a grave sin, I get it.
but if you write law on anything tech-related, if it's not tech-neutral, you risk the worst.
This may be a losing battle in bitcoin world for my part, but the broader the regulatory categories, the better the protection for all involved.
Bitcoin should win on its merits, not because Gensler or someone else deems it a commodity or something is written in law.
In all my articles and briefs to legislators, I consciously write "bitcoin and its crypto-offspring" to make the difference clear.
It's something I've thought a lot about and heard the same from many legislators and legislative staff who are themselves Bitcoiners, but who understand law.
https://consumerchoicecenter.org/crypto-vs-bitcoin-and-why-it-matters-for-policy/
I'm not a bitcoin influencer, but I work in policy and follow most major and minor bills that relate to Bitcoin. I provide comment, commentary, and sometimes lobby for them.
I understand that the entire "Bitcoin not crypto" plays well on social media, but when we're discussing the texts of bills or political rhetoric, it's not the biggest offense in the world.
You're dealing with the law, which should be tech-neutral. Otherwise, there's no situation where Bitcoin is viewed more favorably than any other chain or coin.
Not that the People of Nostr care, but the FIT Act, the Congressional bill that aims to provide a framework for bitcoin and its crypto-offspring and has a good chance of passing, has a great line about self-custody and keeping FinCEN in check:
