Ars technica- Treasury nominee Yellen is looking to curtail use of cryptocurrency

[Boondocks]

"Cryptocurrencies could come under renewed regulatory scrutiny over the next four years if Janet Yellen, Joe Biden's pick to lead the Treasury Department, gets her way. During Yellen's Tuesday confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) asked Yellen about the use of cryptocurrency by terrorists and other criminals.

"Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern," Yellen responded. "I think many are used—at least in a transactions sense—mainly for illicit financing."

She said she wanted to "examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that [money laundering] doesn't occur through those channels.""

It might be a good time to sell those bitcoins.

Treasury nominee Yellen is looking to curtail use of cryptocurrency

Yellen argues many cryptocurrencies are used "mainly for illicit financing."

arstechnica.com

 

[Theswweet]

If this helps make getting a new GPU easier, good.

Well - the blasé money laundering is important to clamp down on, too!

 

[Deleted member 43070]

I have no problem with this to be honest. Crypto currency does need to be looked at to be honest.

 

[TheCuriousdabber]

It's too late to put the Bitcoin cat back in the bag, there may be increased oversight but if anything I see this as a chance to buy any dips,there's just too many big players in it now for it to go away.

 

[CreepingFear]

Gamers rejoice.

 

[antonz]

While Crypto is becoming more legitimate with Banks etc. finally embracing it. There is little doubt that much of it is being used for illicit means. So taking the time to look at it and how it can be legitimized is fine with me

 

[less]

I'm fully behind this.

 

[Squarehard]

Get ready for the tank.

 

[Fushichou187]

If this helps make getting a new GPU easier, good.

Well - the blasé money laundering is important to clamp down on, too!

Click to shrink...

A good friend that worked at Nvidia till last year told me the lion's share of GPUs were-- and likely still are-- being swallowed up by tech companies involved in deep learning.

 

[TheDestructiveSquirrel]

That NFL player who got paid in bitcoin is gonna freak out

 

[ChrisR]

All for this if it means more GPUs get into the hands of people who want to use them for their intended purpose.

 

[Cub3h]

Great stuff, they're a complete and utter waste of electricity. Bitcoin uses as much energy solving pointless mathematical problems as the entire country of Switzerland - all when we're trying to be more efficient and trying to reduce our carbon footprint. All that wastage to solve a problem that doesn't exist, unless you're trying to finance terrorism or use your pedo-pesos for other illicit means.

 

[molnizzle]

MorganFreemanGoodLuck.gif

 

[Rodrigues solitaire]

How about she makes sure her precious banks don't launder billions worth for kleptocrats Instead of going after an estimated 2% of ALL cryptocurrency transaction volume.

 

[THEVOID]

I'm in! Legitimizes BTC.

 

[mute]

Just need 29 other Yellens to agree

 

[Cyanity]

good. BTC needs to go

 

[RailWays]

They can try, I guess. I do agree that they are a tremendous waste of resources to produce

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

finally a bitcoin crash might come when that one annoying friend kept telling me to invest in it

 

[CrunchyB]

Well, good luck with that old people.

Also, GPU mining hasn't been profitable for a while. Professional parties use specialized hardware and have access to extremely cheap power.

 

[Deleted member 8468]

Well, good luck with that old people.

Also, GPU mining hasn't been profitable for a while. Professional parties use specialized hardware and have access to extremely cheap power.

Click to shrink...

This GeForce RTX 3080 Ethereum mining rig now makes $20K per month - VideoCardz.com

Bitcoin price surges and so does GPU mining Last week we shared a photo of a GPU mining rig that was using 78 GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards. As it turns out, this is not the first time the owner of this rig, Simon Byrne, has come up with such a system. The RTX 3080-based […]

videocardz.com

This isn't about GPUs, it's about big bank getting their cut.

 

[Wowbiggulps]

Surejan

 

[JustinBailey]

It's too late to put the Bitcoin cat back in the bag, there may be increased oversight but if anything I see this as a chance to buy any dips,there's just too many big players in it now for it to go away.

Click to shrink...

A bunch of people buying something does not legitimize it. It just makes it ripe for abuse, IMO. There are ways that bitcoin is useful. There are also ways it completely wrecks lives.

 

[ChippyTurtle]

Great stuff, they're a complete and utter waste of electricity. Bitcoin uses as much energy solving pointless mathematical problems as the entire country of Switzerland - all when we're trying to be more efficient and trying to reduce our carbon footprint. All that wastage to solve a problem that doesn't exist, unless you're trying to finance terrorism or use your pedo-pesos for other illicit means.

Click to shrink...

yup, bubble of bullshit wasting electricity for no reason except making money.

 

[TheMadTitan]

How about she makes sure her precious banks don't launder billions worth for kleptocrats Instead of going after an estimated 2% of ALL cryptocurrency transaction volume.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that one bank that got caught laundering for cartels and terrorist cells was doing it in USD, not dogecoin.

 

[Deathman]

Honestly this has always been necessary. Bitcoin is barely used for legitimate reasons.

 

[Heart of Poumn]

The amount of resources destroyed for crypto to work is criminal.

 

[Wraith]

 

[jon bones]

good, regulate the shit out of it

 

[Rats]

Cryptocurrency has always felt to me like capitalism reaching the point of self-parody.

 

[Carnby]

Wouldn't legitimatizing cryptocurrency defeat the purpose of it?

 

[LProtagonist]

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of money laundering and funding of illegal activities takes place with cold hard cash.

 

[Trouble]

Click to shrink...

That is the real problem with blockchain tech, IMO. It's a novel misuse of cryptography which is insanely wasteful. An incredibly tiny portion of the massive amount of computing (aka energy) is actually germane to the end results. To complete a single transaction you need thousands of miners combing through thousands of haystacks for the one needle that fits.

Wouldn't legitimatizing cryptocurrency defeat the purpose of it?

Click to shrink...

Even if it were possible (it's not), it would do nothing for the unjustifiable environmental impact.

 

[Deleted member 4614]

That is the real problem with blockchain tech, IMO. It's a novel misuse of cryptography which is insanely wasteful. An incredibly tiny portion of the massive amount of computing (aka energy) is actually germane to the end results. To get there you need thousands of miners combing through thousands of haystacks for the one needle that fits.


Even if it were possible (it's not), it would do nothing for the unjustifiable environmental impact.

Click to shrink...

The reality is bitcoin was invented in what, 2010? And hasn't served a useful purpose yet.

For new technology context, by 2005 the internet was exploding.

 

[LProtagonist]

I'd much rather have her go after, I don't know, all the rich people who somehow manage to pay nothing in taxes and have a bunch of off-shore banking accounts. It just seems silly to pick something so niche in comparison to what's going on.

Disclaimer: I have a very small amount of bitcoin myself

 

[SapientWolf]

Cryptocurrency doesn't have to be energy inefficient or insecure. If anything, the government should be researching blockchain technology for its own purposes. A secure digital dollar could actually reduce financial fraud in the future.

I think Bitcoin is going to collapse under its own weight at some point. It's wasteful, deflationary and highly speculative. And it isn't even that great from a privacy standpoint.

 

[TyrantII]

Bitcoin gave up the currency horse a long time ago outside some fringe stuff

It's an asset that stores value now, not a currency.

 

[olubode]

Just imagine the salt, if this were to happen:

 

[Soda]

I'd much rather have her go after, I don't know, all the rich people who somehow manage to pay nothing in taxes and have a bunch of off-shore banking accounts. It just seems silly to pick something so niche in comparison to what's going on.

Disclaimer: I have a very small amount of bitcoin myself

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I feel like this is a scapegoat. "Look, we took down the evil criminal cryptocurrencies!" while a blind eye is turned to exponentially larger financial fraud transactions that occur through standard banking systems. I'm just pessimistic, though.

 

[Dodongo]

Regulation is inevitable, and it will give businesses more trust in using crypto for legitimate purposes.

The tech does have potential that can't be ignored, but right now rampant scamming and speculation makes it too volatile.

 

[gozu]

That is the real problem with blockchain tech, IMO. It's a novel misuse of cryptography which is insanely wasteful. An incredibly tiny portion of the massive amount of computing (aka energy) is actually germane to the end results. To complete a single transaction you need thousands of miners combing through thousands of haystacks for the one needle that fits.


Even if it were possible (it's not), it would do nothing for the unjustifiable environmental impact.

Click to shrink...

Here is the thing. If all people were trustworthy, we could use the honor system and not have to use encryption, passwords, phone locks, 2-factor authentication, captchas, SPF, firewalls, torrent-style file-sharing, tracking cookies, etc.

The internet as it is is wasteful. Banks have wasteful safes and wasteful security guards and wasteful alarm systems that call wasteful cops and the list goes on.

Bitcoin is just par for the course, nothing surprising or shocking. We were destroying the planet juuuuuuust fine without bitcoin. So let's not get distracted with that, and focus on eliminating fossil fuels instead and , as a side effect, make the energy used by bitcoin miners clean energy.

Treat the cause, not the symptom.

 

[JahIthBer]

Translation: The US dollar might be in trouble in the future, time to crack down.

 

[Trouble]

Here is the thing. If all people were trustworthy, we could use the honor system and not have to use encryption, passwords, phone locks, 2-factor authentication, captchas, SPF, firewalls, torrent-style file-sharing, tracking cookies, etc.

The internet as it is is wasteful. Banks have wasteful safes and wasteful security guards and wasteful alarm systems that call wasteful cops and the list goes on.

Bitcoin is just par for the course, nothing surprising or shocking. We were destroying the planet juuuuuuust fine without bitcoin. So let's not get distracted with that, and focus on eliminating fossil fuels instead and , as a side effect, make the energy used by bitcoin miners clean energy.

Treat the cause, not the symptom.

Click to shrink...

A single transaction taking over 600 KWh is pretty shocking to me. That's like $60 worth of electricity where I live and electricity is reasonably cheap here. Now do that 400,000 times every day.

Sure there are lots of other places we can do better, but that's no excuse.

 

[gozu]

A single transaction taking over 600 KWh is pretty shocking to me. That's like $60 worth of electricity where I live and electricity is reasonably cheap here. Now do that 400,000 times every day.

Sure there are lots of other places we can do better, but that's no excuse.

Click to shrink...

600 KWh is indeed insane in today's world, but if it's all clean, then it won't matter if it's 600 or 6 million. As long as it doesn't harm the planet.

 

[ChippyTurtle]

600 KWh is indeed insane in today's world, but if it's all clean, then it won't matter if it's 600 or 6 million. As long as it doesn't harm the planet.

Click to shrink...

Most of the damn coins dont do shit. Fucking waste of shit. It's just a bubble growing and growing for literally no reason whatsoever except the chance to make money by pulling out before the bubble bursts.

And when the bubble bursts, who's gonna lose out? Not the rich for sure. The poor suckers who listened and thought crypto is worth something. Literally no fucking use for most of these coins.

 

[Deleted member 1476]

Meanwhile, big banks keep laughing.

Pathetic, and I'm not even a fan of crypto.

 

[antonz]

The value in bitcoins is the fact something like only 4% of them are actually ever in actual transactions. The perceived value is so overinflated by the fact you have people sitting on millions of these coins keeping them out of circulation.

 

[captmcblack]

So what will this mean for the price of crypto?

Is this still long-term HODL or should people be getting out with the bread while the getting's good? Lots of big banks and large/institutional investors are holding a lot of this stuff, so I know it's not going to disappear. But I'm curious if it's going to keep going up in value...

 

[krazen]

Im not surprised, the US Dollar is as importance a tool as its armed forces as far as maintaining its interests worldwide. Eventually it was gonna start hating.

Its world currency status is going nowhere even with a China beating down the door, they weren't gonna let some GPU's do it in

 

[samoyed]

What is the social benefit of Bitcoin? I don't mean all of crypto, I mean Bitcoin specifically. When China opens a coal-based factory in Shenzen, as much as I dislike it, I can reasonably expect it to be creating commodities for export and/or consumption, thereby raising people out of poverty or increasing their QOL.

Spending the energy equivalent of a small urban country on solving math problems to better avoid international financial regulation does not strike me as a good allocation of resources (energy, emissions, etc).