There is no such thing as bad publicity. Not long after US President Donald Trump tweeted about Bitcoin, another mention of the most famous cryptocurrency comes courtesy of Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State.
In his opinion, the first-ever cryptocurrency should be regulated like every other electronic financial service existing today. His main concern is the anonymous transactions that occur daily.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies usually arise in politics due to their alleged roles in funding terrorist activities and other shady transactions. Pompeo said in a recent interview with CNBC that a world where it’s harder to trace transactions may reduce security globally.
“The risk with anonymous transactions is one that we all know well. We know this from 9/11 and terror activity that took place in the 15 years preceding that where we didn’t have good tracking, we didn’t have the capacity to understand money flows and who was moving money.”
He also claimed that open transactions had kept the world safer as they are easier to be traced.
The secretary also admitted that money-laundering and ‘shady transactions’ had been occurring long before Bitcoin. He referenced 9/11 as proof of a time when there was no clear understanding of money flows and proper tracking. However, his main concern is the lack of regulation, no matter the form of payment. His proposed solution highlights financial markets’ openness and regulation.
“It has helped keep the entire world secure and to fight terrorism and other nefarious activity (and criminal activity as well) by having access to this information. We need to preserve a global financial system that protects that”