The European Commission has announced that it is planning to ban the anonymity features of crypto wallets by 2024.
According to the EU politicians who are pushing for this rule, the policy would prevent illegal funds from funding cybercriminals and other illegal activities.
The rumors of EU suppression on cryptocurrencies have been going on for a while, and with this recent announcement, more regulations for cryptocurrencies are sure to follow.
Goodbye anonymity
The policy aims to collect the data of the senders and receivers whenever cryptocurrency transactions are being made. The information that will be collected will include addresses and other data that cannot be seen through cryptocurrencies’ anonymity feature.
At first, this precautionary measure sounds like a good idea to prevent illegal activities from happening in the crypto sphere. But actually, it isn’t.
The United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation itself admitted that even with the collection of information from crypto sender and receiver, tracking transactions is still difficult to execute.
Many analysts are not quite sure how the EU authorities would exactly use the information that they will collect to achieve the results that they’re aiming for.
Challenging times for crypto
The European Commission made its message clear that it is pursuing a policy that would ban any crypto wallets with anonymity features.
It also added that full traceability of crypto transactions would be implemented to avoid illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing.
The EU claims that this new policy would create a “benefit” for the government, the crypto industry, and the consumers because of the protection it could provide for the whole system.
As expected, the crypto community has expressed its disappointment with the upcoming policy because of its serious implications in the industry.
Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube