• Dirty money is as big as the EU's budget, and former EU Justice Commissioner Věra_Jourová wants a bigger cut (via Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-2.0).
    Regulation

    Citing customer privacy concerns three EU cryptocurrency firms close

    Bottle Pay, Chopcoin, and Simplecoin shut down in December rather than enforce new European Union anti-money laundering rules

    Citing customer privacy concerns brought on by strict new European Union anti-money laundering laws, three cryptocurrency companies announced plans to shut down in December. The first was bitcoin gaming platform Chopcoin, which announced in November that it would close on Dec. 16. The company cited “regulatory concerns [that would] force KYC on our users.” KYC stands for “know your customer” banking regulations used to fight money laundering and combat the financing of terrorism (CFT). The other two firms planning to close up shop this month, Simplecoin and Bottle Pay, also cited moral principles. They refused to go along with the European Union’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive regulations, which come into force on…