Η European Επιτροπή σχεδιάζει ένα νέο νομοσχέδιο που πρόκειται να μετατρέψει τα ανώνυμα bitcoins, σε ψηφιακό νόμισμα με ονοματεπώνυμο. Ουσιαστικά προτείνει τη δημιουργία μιας βάσης δεδομένων που θα περιέχει πληροφορίες για τους users of virtual currencies. Its data will be recorded on this basis realof the user's identity, together with all the wallet addresses that correspond to it.
This is the first proposal part of a bill prepared by the EU after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November of 2015. The proposal was officially announced in February of 2016 and is about to be approved in July of 2016.
The bill is a reform of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD), including the term "virtual currency", and was approved by the EU president's committee.
In addition to recognizing cryptographic coins as another form of money, the bill also includes some regulations that provide financial intelligence units and the tools they need to monitor digital currencies.
So to combat money laundering through digital currencies, EU officials plan to create a database that will link Bitcoins and other cryptocurrency addresses to the real addresses of owners, effectively ending the anonymity of the specific payments.
With the proposals in the draft law, all Member States will have the power to create databases and then manage them. But users will also be able to sign up for themselves as a sign of good faith.
The AMLD bill states:
"This report may be accompanied, where appropriate, by appropriate proposals, including, where appropriate in relation to virtual currency, authorizations to set-up and maintain a central database of user identities and wallet addresses, as well as self- statements issued by the owners of the virtual coins for their use. "
The EU is interested in regulating Bitcoins and other similar currencies to make it more difficult for terrorists and criminal groups to use the currency to hide their activities.
Of course we should also mention the possibility of taxing the digital currency, which the bill does not mention, but it is not difficult to imagine ...
The final vote of the European Parliament is expected to take place later in the year.
