It was only a matter of time, I suppose, until the draconian FSA decided it didn’t like cryptocurrencies that can’t be tracked.
While Japan is a worldwide beacon of digital currency exchange, and as much as some cheerlead the mainstreaming and government adoption of cryptocurrencies, make no mistake...without centralized control over these technologies, any and all “support” from the state stops dead in its tracks.
In my last post on the FSA I discussed how recent regulations and licensing requirements are driving useful and innovative services from the marketplace. The most recent casualty of the bureaucratic sea of red tape is the Kraken Exchange. Well, the folks at the FSA are back at it again, now taking aim at privacy coins in the name of “security.”
FSA Building in Tokyo. Source.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency (a laughable moniker really, much like the “Federal Reserve”) has recently been applying very real pressure to major exchanges/burgeoning exchanges in the country to halt, withdraw, or not implement in the first place, support for three of the most popular “privacy coins.” Cryptos that, unlike Bitcoin, cannot be tracked via a public ledger.
On March 16, Jiji Press reported that Coincheck was dropping transactions in Monero and two other hard-to-track cryptocurrencies; the report suggested that this was part of the company’s attempt to show better compliance standards. After the January 26 hack of Coincheck, the FSA has ramped up their inspections of all operating registered cryptocurrency exchanges. The FSA has also informed other exchanges applying to be registered, that dealing with these three highly anonymous cryptocurrencies would be detrimental to gaining approval.
Statists gonna state.
Of course this isn’t really surprising, but it still should be a sobering slap in the face to any hope anyone may have held regarding major nation states’ and their perceived “openness” to financial privacy, autonomy, and true decentralization in the from of cryptocurrencies and their free exchange. The whole idea of crypto is antithetical to control.
While it is currently unclear whether the FSA will issue an all out ban of Dash, Z-Cash, and the perceived number one threat to the control scheme, Monero, one thing is clear—exchanges attempting to support and list these coins will not be looked upon favorably by the powers that be.
It may be that these coins are even made “illegal” in the land of the rising sun. As coins like Monero are virtually untraceable, this seems a bit silly. Almost like attempting to catch a wild monsoon in a paper cup. Good luck to the state agents attempting this miracle feat, I guess.
For those of you who understand the revolutionary meaning of crypto. I suppose all I can say is, stay smart, stay wise, and stay dignified.
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)