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Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

Ransomware groups have been using Monero and Bitcoin as well, it isn't like Tornado was a unique player. I seriously doubt that with Tornado banned suddenly money laundering and hacking will stop. If anything it will make regulators' life harder as it will all now disperse into other tools rather being centralized into a single place, and hardcore cypherpunks will be more motivated to build even better tools.

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Earlier in May Bitcoin mixer blender.io was sanctioned for the same reason. While hacking and money laundering does not stop, small steps can be made to limit the exit liquidity for ransomware/scam/hack/phishing even without drastic KYC/AML/FATF travel rule measurement.

Because the alternative is that the regulators attempt compliance theater and you need to scan your passport every time you do a transaction and then your identity information is being stolen left and right.

The argument you're likely to get is something along the lines of "just because the rules don't stop everybody, that's not an argument not to have the rules."

But you're right. In this case it won't do much. But it justifies the salary of many bureaucrats. They can play whack-a-mole and no one will think too hard about it, because hey it's hardened criminals they're going after right? The 'moles' will simply scatter elsewhere and those arguing to whack the moles will always have the moral upperhand, so the salaries of the mole whackers will always be secure.

It is more like a random audit than whack-a-mole. It will scare off a huge amount of small time players with lives they don't want ruined that had thought they could use it to tax dodge. Maybe they still can, but now they have a chance of random audit hanging over their head.

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