In a recently published report, the Finance Committee of France’s National Assembly has proposed for a complete ban on the privacy-focused Cryptocurrencies .
Though the report elaborated the use of crypto assets and the Blockchain technology, its introductory part grabbed the attention as the committee's president Éric Woerth showed his tough stance against the digital currencies providing anonymity to the users.
“We must be aware of the problems that [cryptocurrencies] can pose in terms of fraud, tax evasion, money laundering or fraud, or energy consumption,” Woerth noted.
“It would also have been appropriate to propose a ban on the dissemination and trade in [cryptocurrencies built] to ensure complete anonymity by preventing any identification procedure by design...This is the case for a certain number of [cryptocurrencies] (Monero, PIVX, DeepOnion, Zcash...) whose purpose is to bypass any possibility of identifying the holders. To date, regulation has not gone that far.”
However, the report did not put a clear picture of the extent to which the committee is proposing the ban, as there is a wide range of privacy coins in the market.
The report also recommended the setting up of an international regulatory framework for the digital asset class.
The Growing User Base of Privacy Coins
Many privacy coins popped up in the market even before the crypto boom in 2017. Their aim is to provide complete anonymity to the users who were among the core principles of the blockchain technology. In case of Bitcoin or Ethereum, any particular coin can be tracked to the block at which it was mined. However, this cannot be achieved with privacy coins.
This, however, motivated the criminals to use such privacy-oriented digital currencies for extortion - Monero had become one of the popular choices of extortion in the Ransomware attacks.
In addition to the end-to-end privacy coins like Monero and ZCash, other customizable privacy coins also hit the market. These coins are based on the Mimblewimble-protocol and allow the users to set their own privacy levels.
“The distinction between the different uses of [cryptocurrencies] must continue, to establish a finer and more precise regulation protector of the general interest, as well as the private interest of the entrepreneurs of this domain,” the president added.
