Nick Saponaro, Divi Comments on Making Crypto more Transparent and Traceable

Cryptocurrencies
22.07.2021 02:00 pm

Nick Saponaro: co-founder and CIO of decentralized payment ecosystem Divi.

What is your reaction to the EU planning on making Bitcoin more traceable and banning anonymous bitcoin transfers?

This comes as no surprise. It was already recommended by the FATF in their latest guidance. It's important to keep in mind this proposal is specific to VASPs (virtual asset service providers), and more specifically, exchanges.

The move is the latest phase of their aggressive legislative approach toward regulating the primary venues where crypto is acquired and traded. It doesn't affect non-custodial wallets like Divi Wallet, at least not yet.

In fact, it would be essentially impossible to fully eliminate the anonymous nature of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Only centralized services allow for this level of insight into the actual users behind transactions.

Do you think there are any similarities between the EU and China, with both cracking down on cryptos and launching CBDC?

They are taking differing approaches but it will ultimately resolve with the same outcome. China's mining operations were more prevalent than exchanges, due to existing regulations and internet censorship, making establishing an exchange in Chinese jurisdictions near-impossible.

The EU has many more retail exchanges and as such, more mainstream "risk." They are implementing this proposal under the guise of anti-money laundering but in reality, it's a play to wrest control and have a deeper level of surveillance on their economy's participants.