As regulators grow bolder about the rules governing unconservative conservatives, a counter-movement is also beginning to emerge. The chief financial officer of the company behind the Trezor hardware wallet is now also speaking on the subject.
Ban is impossible
What exactly is it about?
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In short, lawmakers have begun the discussion to make deposits and withdrawals to “non-hosted wallets” more difficult. After starting a discussion in the Bitcoin community about AOPP rules for Swiss companies, SatoshiLabs’ Stepan Uherik is now also talking about the matter.
He is convinced that “it is highly unlikely that all countries around the world will ban the use of dishonest wallets, or any of the other aspects of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network.”
A non-hosted wallet or non-wallet is an application where you as a user can generate and store the private key yourself. As a result, you are only the owner of the bitcoin that you receive. The peer is a dishonest wallet, in which this cryptocurrency company or exchange takes the responsibility out of your hands.
marketing
Uherik compares regulators’ efforts to ban self-hosted wallets to previous attempts to ban crypto or torrents.
“The adoption of these technologies has continued unabated. In a way, attempts by governments to ban a particular technology are good marketing for that technology.”
The strength of Bitcoin is precisely that you can be your “own bank”. This is a risk for traditional financial institutions, as they can lose control and foresight regarding money flows. The same applies to governments, who see that individuals who use bitcoin have an additional “tool” in their hands.
Earlier this week, a major banking association in Russia proposed outlawing non-custodial wallets. The reason behind this is the complexity that comes with being able to confiscate cryptocurrencies. And indeed: this is exactly the power of Bitcoin.
Earlier, the European Parliament committee voted on additional rules regarding this type of transaction that has no unknown source.
Ban via Appstores
SatoshiLabs CFO says there are quite a few ways governments can use it, but it’s impossible to completely ban these types of wallets. It mentions restrictions from Google Playstore and Appstore as a possibility.
“Such a ban would be easy to implement, but would only cover some non-clip wallets, and would likely motivate users to look beyond popular app stores. It wouldn’t affect devices and desktops.”
In the end, it doesn’t matter, the director thinks:
“Governments may delay the adoption of bitcoin, but in the end, bitcoin will prevail. Bitcoin is an idea whose time has come, and no one can compete with it.”
It’s a nice statement from the company, which previously came in negative about the wallet verification requirements in Switzerland. Trezor has built a feature that will make it easier to comply with regulations. After much criticism, this feature was removed from the suite after a day.
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