EU-kommissionen har lagt fram ett förslag om att förbjuda kontantbetalningar större än 10 000 euro samt anonyma betalningar med ”virtuella kontanter”, det vill säga kryptovalutor. När EU-kommissionen 2017 ville införa ett liknande förbud visade det sig att 90 % av tillfrågade europeiska medborgare var emot det. De menade att möjligheten att betala anonymt med kontanter var en ”essential personal freedom”.
Enligt en studie från ECB använder upp till 10 % av EU-medborgarna kontanter för transaktioner över 10 000 euro, till exempel vid köp av bilar. Det kan vara svårt att se i Sverige, men vi ska komma ihåg att hela EU inte är som Sverige.
Målet sägs vara att stoppa penningtvätt och komma åt finansieringen av kriminell verksamhet. Men enligt Friedrich Schneider, expert på skuggekonomin vid Linz universitet, kommer ett förbud mot kontantbetalningar att endast ha minimala effekter på brottsligheten.
”Generally prohibiting anonymous payments would at best have minimal effects on crime, but it would deprive innocent citizens of their financial freedom. The medicines or sex toys I buy is nobody’s business. To collect donations, dissidents around the world are increasingly dependent on anonymous donations in virtual currencies. Where every financial transaction is captured and saved forever, this creates a honey pot for malicious hackers and law enforcement as well as a chilling government shadow over every purchase or donation.
Instead, we need to think about ways we can bring the best attributes of cash into our digital future. We have a right to pay and donate online without our personal transactions being recorded. If the EU believes it can regulate virtual currencies at a regional level, it hasn’t understood the global nature of the Internet.”
Patrick Breyer, tysk EU-parlamentariker för Piratpartiet
Bakgrund om kryptovalutor
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”Where Virtual Assets have been used for criminal activities in the past, prosecution has been possible on the basis of the current rules. Unlike cash, which is entirely anonymous, transactions carried out in cryptocurrencies can, in the case of Bitcoin, be traced on the “blockchain”. Law enforcement has again and again been successfully prosecuting criminals by detecting unusual patterns and identifying suspects. Some criminals have eventually de-anonymized themselves, and every criminal will need to eventually exchange their digital funds for real money. Virtual Assets are of minor relevance to the global financial system. There is insufficient evidence on the volume and frequency of the usage of cryptocurrencies for money laundering. EU rules would be easy to circumvent due to the global nature of the Internet. Virtual Assets can technically be transferred directly from one person to another without using intermediaries, which makes them impossible to effectively regulate.”
Patrick Breyer, tysk EU-parlamentariker för Piratpartiet
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