
The Kremlin Is Suddenly Obsessed with Cryptocurrencies Due to the Magnitsky Act - jseliger
http://www.thedailybeast.com/why-is-the-kremlin-suddenly-obsessed-with-cryptocurrencies?via=newsletter&source=Weekend
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andrewla
This is my first time reading extensively about the Magnitsky Act -- isn't
this very clearly a Bill of Attainder aimed at specific individuals? It also
seems to be in direct violation of the fourth amendment, though I think it
might be ambiguous whether it applies to foreign nationals.

At the very least it seems like each seizure should be individually heard and
approved by a judge.

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adrianratnapala
(IANAL) I guess the fact that they were out of the country complicates things
a lot. The Wikipedia entry about the act does not mention seizures, but talks
about preventing them from entering the country and using the banking system
which the government already has lots of discretionary authority over.

My guess is that it is theatre. The US could already kept those guys out, and
freeze the bank accounts without new legislation, but legislators wanted to be
seen as doing something. And if the naming of individuals is out-of-order,
then they can rely on those individuals not bothering to challenge it in the
US courts.

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arzt
Could a committed nation state try to 51% attack a popular currency for
nefarious purposes? It would seem to me (given these oligarchs' assets are
frozen outside of Russia and that they are seemingly unbankable in the west),
that having control of ethereum/bitcoin mining power would be a relatively
easy way to move money around, obfuscate the movement of that money, and steal
some in the process.

~~~
goodplay
They could. However, they would risk making the currency worthless if
detected.

I expect the only situation in which 51% attacks would be useful is when a
party wants to deliberately destroy a currency.

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zzzcpan
I don't think money laundering and corruption narrative makes sense here.
Since the west basically controls the financial system of the world, it's only
natural for Russia to adopt an alternative that no one controls and take away
some power from the west. The only weird part is that they actually figured
this out.

~~~
tadfisher
It at least highlights the potential ineffectiveness of monetary sanctions on
changing the political climate, which is the point of the Magnitsky Act.

I pretty much disagree with this point, however, until banks and hedge funds
offer services denominated in cryptocurrencies. The Act is still a hurdle for
those named to do any "legitimate" business in the West, hence Putin's
relentless campaign to repeal it.

~~~
tryingagainbro
The Russians, the Chinese and the African tin pot dictators want their money
out because they know it can be seized by the next government. If you end on
the wrong side of Putin, you're shipped to Siberia and everything seized to
pay the billions in tax debt, you all of the sudden owe.

Plus, now that they have money they want to be able to get some respect. What
good is money unless you can spend outside Russia in places like Greece,
Monaco...

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jernfrost
I always believed that the way crypto currencies will succeed is primarily for
these reasons. In some ways it mirrors how porn pushed important technology.
While it isn't nice that crypto currencies enable criminals in the long run I
think this will benefit us as it will increase usage, add more services, keep
liquidity etc.

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0xbear
What I don't quite get is why the US government is so nonchalant about
cryptocurrencies. The US owes much of its privileged financial position to the
ability to siphon wealth from other economies by printing dollars. That's why
it shits its proverbial pants every time China ever so slightly rebalances
their reserves in favor of the Euro.

If, let's say, Bitcoin became an accepted unit of international money
exchange, no one gets to ever print another dime. It's as close to a gold
standard as possible without there being actual gold. You can't therefore
dilute the balance owed, by quantitative easing or anything like that. And you
can't pay back your debts with money you've just printed, because your ability
to print is exponentially expensive

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Cryptocurrencies so far have been a joke that pose no serious threat to the
dollar and provide plenty of fun opportunities for seizing criminals' assets,
so why would they intervene?

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0xbear
Key phrase is "so far". The math behind it all is definitely not a joke.

~~~
devdoomari
...what if the US gov. already broke all those cryptos, and are waiting for
the best moment to cash-out? dun dun dun...

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MichaelGG
How effective is a named sanction? Certainly the Russian government could
simply rename these people if they needed to. It's not like they're going to
travel to the US where the US could apply biometrics, since they'd probably be
arrested with or without this act.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
I would imagine the post-2014 general sanctions due to the Ukraine stuff are
much more effective.

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Animats
ZrCoin. Right.[1] Each coin is supposed to be exchangeable for a kilo of
zirconium oxide. That's worth about $25. Since the coin is currently selling
for $1.37, down from $75, the market doesn't believe this.

Bitcoin is getting big enough to be useful for large-scale money laundering.
At last, a use case at scale!

[1]
[https://coinmarketcap.com/assets/zrcoin/](https://coinmarketcap.com/assets/zrcoin/)

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gaetanrickter
This is great for the ICO market.

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kushti
Incredibly yellow writing from a journo not competent in both cryptocurrencies
and Russian politics (LDPR is a far right party? LOL)

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tryingagainbro
Just because he got the party affiliation wrong, doesn't mean that Russia
isn't corrupt to the core.

EU screwed them really well during the Cyprus bank crisis, quite a few lost
their hard stolen money. [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-21992745](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21992745)

~~~
kushti
It means low quality of the article, at least.

