Kan du kontrollere kryptovaluta? (Saeed Patel)

Siden oprettelsen af mesopotamiske shekel, the first known currency minted 5,000 years ago, some medium for exchanging goods and services has existed.
People like money so much that our world revolves around its creation and exchange.

I 2008 kom en ny valuta ind i finansleksikonet. Denne innovation inden for monetær udveksling var baseret på et papir skrevet af den berygtede og gådefulde Satoshi Nakamoto med titlen Bitcoin:
Et Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.

Siden da, over 2,000 kryptokurser have entered the financial marketplace. The
value of these decentralized currencies topped $3 trillion in 2021, although it has fallen recently to $1.3 trillion and remains volatile. As well as being an unstable currency, some people have described the cryptocurrency security landscape as ‘og
Wild West. '

Der er regulatoriske skinner på plads for at sikre og håndtere truslerne mod centraliseret finans; men spørgsmålet er, kan cryptocurrency reguleres ved hjælp af de samme (eller lignende) regler?

Hvorfor har de decentraliserede valutaer?

Cryptocurrency was designed to remove key challenges of trust during electronic payments. The system proposed in the Nakamoto paper is designed around ‘cryptographic proof’ that eliminates the need for centralized financial institutions. This decentralized
system allows the individual to act, in effect, as their own ‘bank’. As Nakamoto concludes, “Vi har foreslået et system for elektroniske transaktioner uden at stole på tillid".

Lyder godt. Men siden da har cyberkriminelle kapret bitcoin og andre kryptovalutaer. En Europol-undersøgelse af ondsindet brug af kryptovalutaer peger på den voksende brug af krypto til bedrageri og cyberkriminalitet.

Rapporten siger, "Recent years have seen cryptocurrency increasingly used as part of criminal activities, to launder criminal proceeds and avoid sanctions. Criminals have also become more sophisticated in their use of cryptocurrencies. In addition to
using cryptocurrencies to obfuscate money flows as part of increasingly complex money laundering schemes, cryptocurrencies are increasingly used by criminals as a means of payment or as an investment fraud currency".

Kryptovaluta er et perfekt medium til en række forskellige svindel. For eksempel den seneste OneCoin Ponzi -ordning saw investors
defrauded, collectively losing over $4 billion.

A lack of regulation controlling cryptocurrency allows scams such as OneCoin to proliferate. However, the tide is turning, and regulators are beginning to address cryptocurrencies and the decentralized crypto exchanges (DeFi) platforms used to manage crypto
transaktioner.

At kontrollere det ukontrollerede

De nuværende regulatoriske kontroller af kryptovaluta er i bedste fald begyndende og i værste fald ikke-eksisterende. Men en nylig bekendtgørelse underskrevet af præsident Biden tidligere i år om "Sikring
Ansvarlig udvikling af digitale aktiver,” may set the regulatory wheels in motion in the USA. The driver for this appears to be the explosive market cap for cryptocurrencies of $3 trillion in 2021, with over 40 million North American investors leading
vejen. 

The Executive Order on cryptocurrencies attempts to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FinCEN5, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to regulate cryptocurrencies and exchanges. Each has issued guidance;
for example, the SEC announced in April 2022 that it is working on initiatives covering platforms, stablecoins, and crypto tokens. In addition, the SEC expects to register and regulere
krypto udvekslinger og fokus på aktiv opbevaring for at minimere investorrisiko.

Reguleringer, der kontrollerer kryptovalutaer, begynder også at blive dannet i andre dele af verden.

Brasilien har over 10 millioner krypto-investorer og bygger en 'regulatorisk sandkasse'. Regulatorer beskatter kryptoplatformene,
declaring that bitcoin is an asset to control transactions and achieve visibility and governance insights. The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has the power to approve crypto exchange platforms.

Derudover har Brasilien til hensigt at udvide eksisterende AML (Anti-Money Laundering) love til virtuelle valutaer. Et nyt lovforslag til regulering af kryptovalutaer vil blive fremlagt for brasilianske lovgivere og regulatorer.

Storbritanniens Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), HM Treasury og Bank of England dannede en Taskforce for kryptoaktiver in 2018. The UK is already developing a regulatory framework
around cryptocurrencies, with the FCA covering KYC, AML, and CFT (Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Financing of Terrorism) designed explicitly for crypto assets. Also, crypto exchanges must register with the FCA unless they have an e-money
licens. 

I UEA er transaktionsværdier i kryptovalutaer omkring 26 milliarder dollars hvert år, hvor Mellemøsten nu er et af de hurtigst voksende
krypto-markeder i verden. Det Dubai Financial Services Authority (Finanstilsynet) har tilføjet en kryptoregulativ ramme til sin køreplan. EN DFSA
høringsnotat søger rådgivning fra den finansielle sektor og det bredere investeringssamfund om den type lovgivningsmæssige rammer, der er nødvendige for krypto-tokens, der er relevante for markedet.

Udfordringerne ved at regulere kryptovalutaer

World Economic Forum (WEF) Digital Currency Governance Consortium has over 80 organizations working on developing global standards and regulations in the crypto
space. Regulation targets are a vital area of the work carried out by the consortium.

Desuden er 91 lande til dato ved at udforske eller har udstedt en Centralbanks digitale valuta (CBDC). These are a cryptocurrency backed by a central, state-sponsored bank. Plans to legitimize crypto
by creating CBDCs are likely to see these currencies come under the same controls and regulations as centralized currencies.

Anvendelse af regler, såsom AML/CFT-tjek, på tværs af de mange kryptobørser vil dog kræve regulering på grænsefladeniveauet, f.eks. kryptobørsen, og for at fange transaktioner og kontrol på tværs af jurisdiktioner. 

Alligevel er karakteren af ​​kryptovaluta at have fuldstændig autonomi fra det bredere finansielle landskab. Dette gør reguleringen kompleks og potentielt omgåelig. Et papir fra den amerikanske justitsministers Cyber ​​Digital Task Force siger dette om sagen:

"Even properly registered exchanges can serve as a haven for criminal activity by operating under lax rules or by flouting AML protocols. In the normal course, registered exchanges that comply with AML standards and “know your customer” (“KYC”) requirements
are likely to possess relevant transactional information. However, exchanges that avoid compliance with such requirements provide criminals and terrorists with opportunities to hide their illicit financial activity from regulators and investigators.”

Papiret fastslår, at internationalt samarbejde om regulering og registrering af kryptobørser er nødvendigt, hvis verden skal have nogen som helst kontrol over brugen af ​​disse børser til uhyggelige gerninger.

En samlet indsats

Cryptocurrency is unlikely to disappear from the currency map. However, the regulation of cryptocurrencies and exchanges is not likely to be straightforward simply because of the decentralized nature of its design. Work is taking place worldwide to achieve
control, with regulators developing frameworks.

The technology to perform AML/CFT on crypto exchanges is available. However, for regulations to bite, a global coming together of authorities and appetite for regulation is needed. Only by a collective effort can the world ensure that crypto does not become
a domain only for the cybercriminal.