Inside South Africa’s plan to regulate cryptocurrencies
One of the most important outcomes of the proposals to build a regulatory framework to oversee investments in and transactions using cryptocurrencies is that it will remove anonymous and secretive transactions.
Secondly, it will also remove the anonymity of entities that provide any service, platform and investment opportunities or issue and offer cryptocurrencies.
It seems that South African authorities took a simple view of the difficulties in regulating this new, ever-changing and evolving asset:
If the proponents of cryptocurrencies maintain that it is the money of the future, let’s treat it like money, and treat anybody who deals with its exchange and investment as financial service providers.
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While cryptocurrencies are popular because they are not issued by a government or regulated by any governmental authority, regulation was bound to follow to ensure that any crypto network doesn’t become a haven for criminals.
The IFWG paper mentions money laundering or criminal activity, unmonitored cross-border flow, tax evasion, and the financing of terrorism as the main problems facing regulators.
The Interdepartmental Fintech Working Group has just released a draft of its policy position paper on crypto assets. Proposals aim to severely limit anonymous transactions in online.
techcentral.co.za