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The EU’s new law banning unhosted bitcoin wallets, according to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, is anti-innovation, anti-privacy, and anti-law enforcement.
The European Parliament’s Committees for Economic and Monetary Affairs and Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs recently voted in support of a proposal that would require crypto exchanges to gather and transmit information from clients who use self-hosted digital wallets.
European Union approved draught rules
The current drive to regulate crypto assets has raised privacy worries among Coinbase and wallet provider MetaMask.
On Thursday, lawmakers in the European Union approved draught rules that would provide authorities access to information about the sender and recipient of all crypto payments.
The measure basically criminalizes anonymous cryptocurrency payments. It includes not just transfers done through exchanges like Coinbase Global (ticker: COIN), but also transfers made using self-hosted or private wallets like MetaMask, the most popular crypto wallet with over 30 million users.
Legislators will continue to work on the proposed law, which is likely to be voted on by the European Parliament later this month.
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What’s wrong with the proposal?
The crypto business, on the other hand, has a very different perspective on the situation.
Armstrong informs his 1 million Twitter followers that exchanges are against the bill because it will introduce a crypto surveillance regime.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said through Twitter before the proposals were adopted that the company would be forced to gather, keep, and verify information on users of private wallets before bitcoin could be exchanged or received by Coinbase clients.
Furthermore, Armstrong stated that Coinbase would be compelled to notify any customer who received more than €1,000 in crypto through a self-hosted wallet to police, even if there was no indication of suspect conduct.
Coinbase and other organizations have stated that they are working with the Treasury Department to block or freeze wallet addresses linked to sanctioned people or entities.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast, with a major in macroeconomics and minor in business statistics. She believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks, and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning. She frequently researches, and posts content on the top altcoins, their theoretical working principles and technical price predictions.
