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What the European Parliament vote on cryptocurrency regulation really means

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Yesterday it was reported that members of the European Parliament voted in favour of creating a cryptocurrency "watchdog" to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

This is misleading. In fact two parallel initiatives have been conflated in the press announcement: one is the creation of a Virtual Currency Task Force, and the other is the inclusion of virtual currency exchanges within the ambit of the European Anti-Money Laundering Directive.

From What the European Parliament vote on cryptocurrency regulation really means

Indeed. Along with many other people I gave evidence to the European Parliament in their hearings on this subject, and I agree with Siân Jones, of the European Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology Forum, one of the other people who gave evidence and who is quoted in that article as saying "why would you say that casinos have to have all these things, or estate agents, but not virtual currency exchanges"? 

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