>"Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern. I think many are used - at least in a transaction sense - mainly for illicit financing.
>"And I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that money laundering doesn't occur through those channels."
Yuck, as much as I hate this argument, which is basically just the "think of the children" argument restated, I'm rather convinced that Yellen's point is true.
There are no legitimate uses for bitcoin that I can think of, other than:
- An instrument for speculative investing
- Sending money to dissidents in other countries
Neither of these seem like high-priority use cases that will suffer unduly from more regulation. By contrast the primary use case for bitcoin seems to be riding the speculation bubble, followed by buying stolen accounts/credit cards/identities and illegal drugs.
>"And I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that money laundering doesn't occur through those channels."
Yuck, as much as I hate this argument, which is basically just the "think of the children" argument restated, I'm rather convinced that Yellen's point is true.
There are no legitimate uses for bitcoin that I can think of, other than:
- An instrument for speculative investing
- Sending money to dissidents in other countries
Neither of these seem like high-priority use cases that will suffer unduly from more regulation. By contrast the primary use case for bitcoin seems to be riding the speculation bubble, followed by buying stolen accounts/credit cards/identities and illegal drugs.