The entire benefit of cryptocurrency was to evade insidious government agents from seizing your assets. The blockchain technology theoretically allowed for anonymous build up of capital in case something like the ‘Freedom Convoy’ ever reached a breaking point.
But, as governments swell to unprecedented heights they’ve begun to tap into the technology which makes cryptocurrencies anonymous and have begun seizing assets.
Canadian authorities have sanctioned 34 cryptocurrency wallets connected to the “Freedom Convoy” trucker protests in Canada, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was taking even more aggressive measures to crack down on the protests.
[source: The Daily Wire]
Cryptocurrency news site Coindesk reported that the Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ordered all regulated Canadian financial firms to halt transactions from 34 crypto wallets tied to the Freedom Convoy and other truckers’ protests around Canada, in accordance with the public emergency declared by Trudeau on Monday.
The police agencies, in conjunction with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), are investigating cryptocurrency donations made in support of the truckers. Coindesk reported that donors sent more than 20 Bitcoin, valued at around $870,000 or $1.1 million Canadian, through alternative platforms after a GoFundMe account supporting the protests, with more than $9 million in donations, was suspended by the fundraising platform for allegedly violating its terms of service.
Trudeau’s order, the first time Canada’s Emergency Measures Act has been used since its passage in 1988, declared the convoy protests a public emergency and empowered Canadian officials to “regulate or prohibit the use of property to fund or support the blockade, to require any crowdfunding platform and payment processor to report certain transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, and to require any financial service provider to determine whether they have in their possession or control property that belongs to a person who participates in the blockade.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said in a press conference shortly afterward that the order gave banks and financial institutions the power to “temporarily cease providing financial services where the institution suspects that an account is being used to further the illegal blockades and occupations.”
The power extends to both personal and corporate accounts. Crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe and GiveSendGo, which have helped fund the continuing demonstrations, would fall under the enforcement of “Canada’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules,” Freeland added.
Can you imagine a world where governments now posess the power to seize not only your accounts big Big Banks, but your supposedly anonymous cryptocurrency accounts?
Is anyone safe?
Author: Elizabeth Tierney
These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.
To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].
Family-Friendly Content
Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More
These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.
To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].
Family-Friendly Content
Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More
