EU ministers will urge European Commission to bolster controls of virtual currencies like bitcoin and anonymous online payments, after last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
The members of the European Union (EU) intend to impose stricter measures on the regulation of digital currencies in an attempt to stop terrorism financing. According to a draft document, obtained by Reuters, EU countries project a crackdown on anonymous payments and cryptocurrencies in view of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
The crisis meeting of the EU interior and justice ministers will be held in Brussels on Friday, November 20th, 2015. They are anticipated to incentivize the European Commission to develop standards to “strengthen controls of non-banking payment methods such as electronic/anonymous payments and virtual currencies and transfers of gold, precious metals, by pre-paid cards,” draft of the meeting reads.
On Tuesday, we wrote that director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Jennifer Shasky Calvery, said that bitcoin does not pose higher risks of terrorism financing than traditional payment methods.
During the American Bankers Association/American Bar Association Money Laundering conference on Monday, Calvery said they should focus on conventional ways of sending money too, the American Banker wrote.
Earlier this week, we reported about an anti-terrorism network of hackers, Ghost Security Group, has informed that ISIL, which claimed responsibility for last week’s attacks in Paris, used bitcoin to finance their operations. NewsBTC interviewed a member of the group, who confirmed their team managed to track several bitcoin addresses related to the terrorist organization.
“The Islamic State does use cryptocurrencies as a form of income to fund their ongoing operations and we have managed to uncover several Bitcoin addresses used by them. One of the accounts we analyzed was found to contain 3 million U.S. dollars worth of Bitcoins,” a guy from Ghost Security Group said.
The group is fighting against extremism using internet and social media platforms. It is now involved in a digital war against ISIL and already started collecting data to find the terrorists responsible for attacks in France. Ghost Security Group has already attacked thousands of social media accounts and public websites related to ISIL within the year.
A few days ago, another group of hackers, Anonymous, have declared war against ISIS in a video released on Youtube on November 16, 2015. “Expect massive cyber attacks. War is declared. Get prepared,” the masked man says in French.
During the private meeting of the world leaders at the recent G20 summit in Turkey, the leaders discussed the necessity to boost control of FinTech companies that facilitate online payments, Finance Magnates reported.
The digital currency can be easily transferred across countries, allowing its users to remain anonymous as it is not controlled by any authority.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.
