Should Holland Ban Anonymous Bitcoin Transactions

In a recent report published by the Dutch news outlet, Nederlandsche Omroep Stichting (NOS) last week, the Dutch finance minister Pete Hoekstra has received official advice that a licensing system should be brought in for cryptocurrency services.

At the start of last year, the minister of finance had sought advice on cryptocurrencies and blockchain from the central bank and the Netherlands Authority for Financial Markets. Hoekstra said that he had begun to act on the information after learning it.

Money Laundering, Finance & More

In the article, it does say that because of the decrease in the speculative crypto enthusiasm around the world, investor protection has become less urgent and the emphasis has now been placed on the preventing money laundry and terrorist financing using cryptocurrencies.

In addition to this, the Netherland’s Financial Intelligence Unit has noted that the number of out of the ordinary transactions had increased from around 300 on average to more than 5,000 on average, all within a year.

The proposal for the new licensing system will require cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers to look over customer transactions and in case they see anything that seems unusual, they should report to the authorities.

On top of this, the firm is expected to store customer information and when there is an investigation, they should start to hand it over.

As reported by Use The Bitcoin, the Dutch central bank has already highlighted that companies will be tested before they are awarded licenses. One essential requirement will be to check if they can collect the required user data.

People weren’t happy with this. One Dutch crypto enthusiast, Richard Kohl is a board member of the Bitcoin Netherland Foundation who said:

“Banks and financial institutions already need to keep track of customer and transaction information […] you may wonder how well our personal information is protected and used, such as how the Chinese government wants to be able to follow all transactions of all citizens.”

Reports came out last month about cryptocurrency service providers will soon be required to obtain a license from the central bank of the Dutch nation. Furthermore, in August, news surfaced that an executive has the central bank said that while cryptocurrencies aren’t ‘real money’.

What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!