Government petition (BTC)

[Urbandreamer]

OK, first let me state that I don't believe that this will get anywhere, or indeed arguably should get anywhere.

BTC Biker has posted a petition.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-uk-banks- ... Acv_863504

Basically he is unhappy that many of the banks, under the influence of the FCA and the government, are preventing him accessing his "money"/assets*.

So why am I posting the link? Well it does strike me that you don't actually have to have any interest in crypto or BTC to actually agree with Mr BTC Biker.

The obvious counterpoint (ignoring influence by the FCA and the government) is that it should be up to commercial institutions like banks as to who they are willing to deal with.

It's up to you if you want to stand up and be counted.

*regardless of your opinion of crypto, you might have an opinion on banks closing down your account because you liquidate your wine cellar or car collection. Now put yourself in the position of a geek, interested in crypto currency.

[1nvest]

Missed which (US) city, but a TV show the other day indicated how they take high resolution image shots of the entire city multiple times/second and use that to back/forward track crimes. When the state also knows where all your money is, came-from/spent, and profiles all of your online activities and phone calls ..etc. monitoring/profiling to the extreme, then that can be good, but also could be (very bad), depending upon how well or not you might align with the state in power.

A open prison in many respects.

Somewhat related is that other forms of spending/transactions are now often blocked (or account closed), perfectly legal items but that the state/banks decide you shouldn't be able to buy/sell.

Banks have been pressured into flagging any suspicious transaction activities, which in turn means banks feeding all transactions into the state in order to avoid failure to otherwise have flagged a 'suspicious' transaction. The state so far has a database of around 1000 entries per citizen, but that is rapidly expanding.

Most don't care about being so closely monitored/tracked, but is a open prison legacy something that you want to leave to the next generation? Not so sure that I want my children to live in a world where they're fined for minor infringements and/or having their purchases restricted ... you've already bought over you weekly allowance of red-meat the attempted transaction has been declined and your account fined £50 ... type world. Or sorry you didn't vote for us so your cinema tickets purchase attempt has been declined.

Since 2009 every Intel processor, and since 2013 every AMD processor, have 'internal processors' that run totally separately, hidden way and even runs when the main system is powered down, and where the specification is a blob, unspecified. Google monitor/profile to the extreme.

A better petition might have been about the right of privacy and personal independence. But a state debating such is hardly likely to opt to give up control/power.

[1nvest]

Of course the easier option would be to refuse Pounds, only accept/use some other currency/banks that have no association to Pounds/UK. Traders will be tempted to accept transactions in such alternatives when business otherwise moves-on.

Such trends could rise rapidly once a certain level of state control triggers such. Of course the state will attempt to ban those alternatives, but that's a very much do or die bet. Where perhaps one day no one wants Pounds, will only accept/pay in google-coins or whatever, even though the UK says its illegal to do so - but has no visibility of such transactions. Pound dives, BoE loses any capacity to steer the Pound ..etc. Those with google-coins maintain their wealth, whereas anyone holding Pounds become broke.

[Bubblesofearth]

OK, first let me state that I don't believe that this will get anywhere, or indeed arguably should get anywhere.

BTC Biker has posted a petition.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-uk-banks- ... Acv_863504

Basically he is unhappy that many of the banks, under the influence of the FCA and the government, are preventing him accessing his "money"/assets*.

So why am I posting the link? Well it does strike me that you don't actually have to have any interest in crypto or BTC to actually agree with Mr BTC Biker.

The obvious counterpoint (ignoring influence by the FCA and the government) is that it should be up to commercial institutions like banks as to who they are willing to deal with.

It's up to you if you want to stand up and be counted.

*regardless of your opinion of crypto, you might have an opinion on banks closing down your account because you liquidate your wine cellar or car collection. Now put yourself in the position of a geek, interested in crypto currency.

IMO it's important to look at why banks are taking this stance. It's all about protecting customers money from increasing levels of fraud;

https://www.investomania.co.uk/what-uk- ... to-buying/

It's frustrating sometimes when my bank ask for verification or block transactions but I'm actually happy to accept it if it reduces the risk of me being scammed.

BoE

[88V8]

IMO it's important to look at why banks are taking this stance. It's all about protecting customers money from increasing levels of fraud;...

Not really. It's about the banks being lumbered with having to refund careless people who let themselves be defrauded.
So it's the banks protecting their shareholders from the consequences of irrational legislation.

V8

[Urbandreamer]

OK, first let me state that I don't believe that this will get anywhere, or indeed arguably should get anywhere.

BTC Biker has posted a petition.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-uk-banks- ... Acv_863504

Basically he is unhappy that many of the banks, under the influence of the FCA and the government, are preventing him accessing his "money"/assets*.

So why am I posting the link? Well it does strike me that you don't actually have to have any interest in crypto or BTC to actually agree with Mr BTC Biker.

The obvious counterpoint (ignoring influence by the FCA and the government) is that it should be up to commercial institutions like banks as to who they are willing to deal with.

It's up to you if you want to stand up and be counted.

*regardless of your opinion of crypto, you might have an opinion on banks closing down your account because you liquidate your wine cellar or car collection. Now put yourself in the position of a geek, interested in crypto currency.

IMO it's important to look at why banks are taking this stance. It's all about protecting customers money from increasing levels of fraud;

https://www.investomania.co.uk/what-uk- ... to-buying/

It's frustrating sometimes when my bank ask for verification or block transactions but I'm actually happy to accept it if it reduces the risk of me being scammed.

BoE

Thanks for the link BJ, you do realize that if we ignore the headline and read the article, it does rather make the point that Mr BTC Biker was making.
If you count, the majority of banks ban crypto for personal accounts. Fraud? I'm sure that is why the VAST majority prohibit it for business accounts. No doubt it's pubs and plumbers that the scammers are targeting.

BTW, last time I checked VAT and corporation tax can only be paid in GBP, so any business accepting crypto would need to convert that to GBP to pay their taxes. Something that most banks won't let them do.
Of course we live in the UK so the fact that there was a policy in the US called "operation choke point" is not something that our government would do is it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
It is argued that the same thing is happening again.
https://www.google.com/search?q=operati ... s-wiz-serp

If we were to debate the issue, then arguably 1nvest's point that we should not expect our democratic government to pay attention to the citizens is quite relevant.

However debate was not my intent. I intended to make people aware this is happening (so thanks for the link) and point out that they can involve themselves in the democratic process.

[Charlottesquare]

IMO it's important to look at why banks are taking this stance. It's all about protecting customers money from increasing levels of fraud;

https://www.investomania.co.uk/what-uk- ... to-buying/

It's frustrating sometimes when my bank ask for verification or block transactions but I'm actually happy to accept it if it reduces the risk of me being scammed.

BoE

Thanks for the link BJ, you do realize that if we ignore the headline and read the article, it does rather make the point that Mr BTC Biker was making.
If you count, the majority of banks ban crypto for personal accounts. Fraud? I'm sure that is why the VAST majority prohibit it for business accounts. No doubt it's pubs and plumbers that the scammers are targeting.

BTW, last time I checked VAT and corporation tax can only be paid in GBP, so any business accepting crypto would need to convert that to GBP to pay their taxes. Something that most banks won't let them do.
Of course we live in the UK so the fact that there was a policy in the US called "operation choke point" is not something that our government would do is it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
It is argued that the same thing is happening again.
https://www.google.com/search?q=operati ... s-wiz-serp

If we were to debate the issue, then arguably 1nvest's point that we should not expect our democratic government to pay attention to the citizens is quite relevant.

However debate was not my intent. I intended to make people aware this is happening (so thanks for the link) and point out that they can involve themselves in the democratic process.

It is how the world now is, prove the source of that lodgement if it is over £XXXX, you have fallen foul of our ML processes etc.

As someone who was for years regulated for ML, with a legal duty to submit a SAR if tax etc fraud arose ,with no lower limit (you have not reported your benefits in kind correctly and will not accept my endeavors to correct your miscreant behaviour, obviously proceeds of crime, I need to submit a SAR and disengage but may not tip you off) I can state that the whole edifice is a nonsense- not even convinced SARs are acted upon, someone in HMG needs to sort some lower scale common sense, there are so many SARs being submitted that those who should be examining this information likely cannot sort the wheat from the chaff and the real ML gets missed. (ML was one of the prime drivers to my packing in my part time practice in 2019, that and MTD which then got kicked down the road over and over)

I got partly caught selling a foreign home, the funds came via our Swedbank account to our UK account, from there they were applied to clear our UK mortgage (only £40k left), the mortgage company froze things for a few days notwithstanding I had sent them a copy of the house sale contract etc in advance , I suspect because at that juncture I was not using a solicitor to discharge the security . (I did a few weeks later)

Basically HMG keeps trying to reinvent the system which usually means ordinary individuals are more and more inconvenienced.