A new draconian bill Introduced in the Senate on May 25th would seek to place restrictions on Cryptocurrency and delegitimize it's use. Sponsored by senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the bill would amend title 31 of the US Code to include prepaid access devices and digital currency as well as any digital exchanger or tumbler of digital currency.
This would do several things. One of the main focuses would be to have people declare Cryptocurrency at the border or be charged with money laundering. The scary thing about that, aside from asset forfeiture, is that the Bill contains a provision that would require Homeland Security and border patrol agents to come up with a
“border protection strategy to interdict and detect prepaid access devices, digital currencies, or other similar instruments, at border crossings and other ports of entry for the United States, including an assessment of infrastructure needed to carry out the strategy.”
How would they go about setting up this infrastructure to detect digital currencies? What would it entail? Whether it be extreme vetting at the border or some sort of blanket monitoring of the blockchain there is no doubt that this bill, poorly disguised as a measure to protect US citizens, would greatly hinder the right to travel freely and most likely line more greedy pockets with funds maliciously extorted through asset forfeiture.
The name of the bill also worries me. If the government and the central banks can't stop cryptocurrency then they will link it, and it's users, to criminal activity. I would like to believe that the population is too intelligent to fall for such a blatant smear campaign but we have all seen how easy it is to sway public opinion through fear and empty rhetoric. A politician blowing hot air about keeping us safe from the next bad guy and capitalizing on some maniac committing an act of violence (usually a result of US foreign policy) is often more than enough to gain the public's support to throw all their own rights out the window so that they can feel safe.
All the while, road pirates will be extorting money from innocent people while being paid with stolen money to do so.
Co-supporters of the bill:
Sen. Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA]
Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX]
Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI]