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Comment by lern_too_spel | Hacker News Reader

> You're assuming it breaks laws, but it doesn't have to, it just makes it easier to do something that's painful to do either by design or due to shitty economic circumstances

Even if your sending end is regulated, at the other end, there has to be a regulated bank. If not, the person who is receiving the "money" could be breaking their country's laws. Cryptocurrencies don't magically change that. Otherwise, PayPal or Venmo could allow accounts to be created for those people in US dollars and do the job even more inexpensively.

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> Even if your sending end is regulated, at the other end, there has to be a regulated bank.

Are you referring to some specific regulation here?

The same regulations that mean you can't cheaply Venmo the person on the other end instead. If Venmo has to follow the law, cryptocurrencies have to follow the law as well. Being your own bank makes you liable to the same regulatory penalties that Venmo has to worry about.

Venmo moves dollars and crypto does not

Country A: person uses government regulated exchange/on-ramp to acquire crypto or mines it.

Country B: person receives crypto and trades it for local currency using a government regulated exchange

Which specific laws or regulations are being broken from which specific countries?

The fantasy is that country A (or B) isn't going to regulate the currency.

It doesn't work to tell the government that it isn't currency, they will just patiently explain to you that they decide that.

If the US wants to classify it as currency I would be happy to not have to pay the capital gains taxes

You also cannot transfer nonmonetary assets cross border without following regulations. Why do you think you have to declare at customs? https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/124...

Did you really think that getting around money laundering laws is as easy as converting to nonmonetary assets before transfer?

You have to pay capital gains when buying and selling between real currencies, you know, right?

What jurisdiction are you talking about?

People have been using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala to avoid problems with modern banks and regulations. How regulated is Hawala?

ICE is happy to tell you all about enforcements on unlicensed MSBs. https://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/library/reports/cornerstone/...

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