So, in the end, creating this culture of private data collection has resulted in more innocent people being put at risk. Where does this factor into the calculation of overeager bureaucrats and politicians who play-act like their surveillance laws are helping?
Where Does PayPal Fit In With This?
PayPal recently came under fire for its change in policy relating to “misinformation” and docking customers $2,500. This time, it had to walk it back, given the social media outrage. But clearly, this is just a temporary reprieve from further financial surveillance on us all.
As Samson Mow of JAN3 tweeted, we can either use Bitcoin, or be forced to research all political ideologies of executives at major fintech companies. Your self-sovereign bitcoin wallet will not check your political views before broadcasting your bitcoin transaction. Your self-sovereign bitcoin wallet will not ask you about your source of wealth before permitting you to deposit funds and make use of it.
FATF and the AML regime have created and grown a culture where statists believe it is acceptable to peer into other people’s finances and control them, so long as their ideology differs from the people in power at the time.
This Is About Human Rights
It’s a question of human rights. To the extent that its FATF recommendations encourage local regulators, bureaucrats and politicians to continue controlling private citizens’ and business’ money, it is impinging on their private property rights. FATF and the associated AML regime is violating human rights around the world, and we’re all poorer for it.
Bitcoiners must be clear about what the problem is, and start speaking up and taking action on it. That action can take the form of coding and building self-sovereign FOSS alternatives to the financial panopticon, and it can also take the form of suing government entities over-regulating and encroaching on innocent peoples’ lives. It could even take the form of lobbying local politicians to push back on FATF and financial surveillance. Defunding FATF would also be a great idea. Why must taxpayers around the world pay for this ineffective and economically destructive regulation?
As a final take away though, consider that while there are more obvious cases of financial exclusion (which FATF brushes away as “unintended consequences ”), the case must be made on the principle of the matter. We want to live in a free market society with private property rights, and not be constantly wondering what we are allowed to do with our own money. The world does not need more FATF recommendations and reports. It needs defense of private property rights in principle.
This is a guest post by Stephan Livera. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
