Less than two years ago, on March 31, 2013 to be exact, Bitcoin's premier thought leader Mircea Popescu penned the following, Time for Europe to repeal the US-backed AML crap, from which:
At the behest of the US and for the classical reason of "won't you think of the children" a vast swath of counter-productive, burdensome and outright immoral regulation has been adopted in the past decade or so, collectively known as "AML", which stands for anti money-laundering. […]
Well… it happens to be a law that can't stand. AML/KYC/USBS1 has to be repealed, wholesale, and right now.
Do it!
This is not a request. This is not a proposal. This is not some sort of petition. This is a direct order. The penalty for disobedience is economic death.
Quite dutifully, on February 2, 2015, the Italian Central Bank (Banca d'Italia) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), its anti-AML/terrorism enforcement agency, finally got their ducks in a row and repealed Anti-Money Laundering and the associated Know Your Customer regulations for companies dealing in virtual currencies. A quote from which:
I prestatori di attività funzionali all’utilizzo, allo scambio e alla conservazione di valute virtuali e alla loro conversione da/in valute aventi corso legale non sono, in quanto tali, destinatari della normativa antiriciclaggio e quindi non sono tenuti all’osservanza degli obblighi di adeguata verifica della clientela, registrazione dei dati e segnalazione delle operazioni sospette. Tale circostanza può rendere appetibile lo strumento virtuale per coloro che intendono porre in essere condotte criminali e non agevola le attività di prevenzione e contrasto.
This translates approximately to: "The providers of functional businesses, to exchange and store virtual currencies in their conversion from / in currencies with legal tender status are not, as such, subject to money laundering legislation [AML] and are therefore not required to comply with the obligations of customer verification [KYC], data recording and reporting of suspicious transactions. This circumstance may make virtual instruments attractive to those who intend to engage in criminal conduct and does not facilitate the activities of prevention and response."
Italy has broken the ice and chosen life over death, and in doing so, supported the theory that central banks are but gnats on an elephant's back.
US Bullshit, obviously. ↩
"Those who undertake activities related to the use, exchange or holding for others of virtual currencies as well as their conversion to and from currencies with a legal exchange rate are not, for that reason, subjct to the anti recycling norms, and as such are not held to observe the obligations to adequately verify their clients, to register data or notify suspicious activity.
This circumstance may make the virtual instruments attractive to they who intend to put in action criminal activities, and does not facilitate prevention or countermeasures."
When I was in Sicily, I couldn't even get a frickin' wifi login at the McDonalds without an Italian passport *and* a local registered sim. So I wouldn't hold my breath that this legislation is any sign of enlightenment.
Well, you're talking about McDonald's now, that welfare arm of the USG, not Italy per se.
I think it was actually Micky D's responding to Italian "legal requirements" believe it or not. I was also told at a guesthouse I stayed at that they were not supposed to allow me to use their wifi without a license, or some such BS. Although of course most private residents ignore this b/c it's impossible to enforce. Also I'm not up on the fine points of Italian law — possibly this was specific to Sicily.