On the 17th of October, 2023, a letter signed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Sherrod Brown, and 100 other US Senators was sent to the National Security Advisor (Jake Sullivan) and the Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Department of the Treasury (Brian Nelson).
This letter talked about the reports that The Hamas has been getting funded with cryptocurrency, and it demanded to know what the Biden Administration was doing about this sort of utilization of cryptocurrencies by The Hamas and other terrorist groups.
It also demanded to know what challenges the Administration might be facing in tackling this use of cryptocurrencies and what resources or statutory aids the Administration might need to successfully combat the use of cryptocurrencies for terrorism.
This letter can be read here
The Way This Letter Was Received by the Crypto-loving Crowd
Once this letter was released, many in the Crypto world viewed it as a direct attack on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology, and they immediately began to clap back and return fire at Elizabeth Warren and US government officials who seem to be anti-crypto.
These are a few screenshots of their comments:
You sure can feel the resentment of this letter and how much it was viewed as an attack.
The main reason this was viewed as an attack on Cryptocurrencies is because Senator Elizabeth Warren has a reputation for crypto skepticism. She has been a strong advocate for increased regulations and control of cryptocurrencies and already has sponsored a Bill to make some of her regulatory ideas law.
The Bill is called the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act. You can read this Bill here.
But This Letter is a Welcome Development, Here's Why.
Even though it was signed by officials with varying anti-crypto stands, the fact remains that they are not gunning at cryptocurrencies but at the use of cryptocurrencies for financing Terrorism.
The entire letter was about the fact that there are reports showing that The Hamas is getting funded with Cryptocurrency, which is true. And that there is a need for the security agencies to do something about this and the financing of other terrorist groups using cryptocurrency.
Which simply means the government should track, make arrests, seizures, etc. In order to combat this. Now, what could be wrong about this? What could be wrong about trying to block funding for terrorists?
Remember, it is blocking funding for terrorists and not blocking the entire cryptocurrency/blockchain technology. So, what could be wrong about that?
A Better Response
Contrary to popular belief, using cryptocurrency is one of the worst ways to launder money or move illicit funds. This is because, with time, data, and the right analytics, the perpetrators would be caught.
So, once the Senators drew everyone's attention to this funding of Terrorism with cryptocurrencies, the Crypto enthusiasts are supposed to respond by saying "Yes, we need to track their blockchain footprints down, here are ways through which we can do that."
And some of the best ways to track them down are through Crypto-analytics firms like Chainalysis and CipherTrace. We can already see from the first screenshot above that Chainalysis already carried out an investigation and thinks the money received by The Hamas is way less than the amount recorded in the reports the Senators are relying on.
Further, Chainalysis also report that analytics have helped to seize funds from Hamas and Hezbollah. This is an excerpt from the report:
"...no one understands the challenges of using cryptocurrency for fundraising better than Hamas. On April 27, 2023, Al-Qassam Brigades (AQB), the military wing of Hamas, announced the shutdown of their longstanding cryptocurrency donation program. AQB cited concerns for the safety of their donors given the prosecution of those who donate through cryptocurrency."
Conclusion
As we can see, there is no cause for alarm, and the crypto skeptics are not always the enemy. In fact with further cooperation with the skeptics, we can track down terrorists and their donors.
With this we can also prove to the world and all skeptics that the traceability of cryptocurrency can be used for the benefit of everyone.
[Cover Image from Bitcoin.com]
The End.
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