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But what if law enforcement goes to the biggest miners in the world (representing at least 51% of the hashpower) and tells them that if they continue to confirm easily identifiable mixing transactions, they will be accused of money laundering.

From On Fungibility, Bitcoin, Monero and why ZCash is a bad idea. – We Use Cash

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U.S. officials have arrested the alleged operator of a bitcoin (BTC, -1.19%) mixing service on allegations of laundering nearly $336 million in bitcoin over 10 years.

From US Officials Arrest Alleged Operator of $336M Bitcoin Mixing Service – CoinDesk:

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Bitcoin stolen from exchanges through hacks also went through Bitcoin Fog

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The U.S., by contrast, has few data protections built into its domestic laws—and the result has been that adversaries can monitor a huge swath of the U.S. population through the commercial data bought and sold by U.S. companies—a major risk for intelligence officers, law enforcement and military personnel operating in dangerous environments.

From The Ease of Tracking Mobile Phones of U.S. Soldiers in Hot Spots – WSJ:

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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has just issued a report that makes a similar point, highlighting the four key pillars of digital infrastructures. The first of these is digital identity that can ensure authentication and validation of an individual’s identity, while simultaneous delivering both privacy and security. As you might imagine, I agree wholeheartedly. I thought about this again recently when 

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The U.S. government has built robust programs to track terrorists and criminals through warrantless access to commercial data. Many vendors now provide global location information from mobile phones to intelligence, military and law-enforcement organizations.

But those same capabilities are available to U.S. adversaries, and the U.S.—having prioritized a free and open internet paid for largely through digital advertising with minimal regulation of privacy—has struggled to effectively monitor what software service members are installing on devices and whether that software is secure.

From The Ease of Tracking Mobile Phones of U.S. Soldiers in Hot Spots – WSJ:

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At least four Turkish cryptocurrency platforms have gone offline since last week, with some claiming liquidity problems, after police began investigating fraud allegations connected to the exchanges and the central bank introduced measures to regulate the market for the first time.

From Turkey’s cryptocurrency crackdown gathers pace as lira falls | Financial Times:

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More than 2.5 million consumers in the UK are now happy to connect their accounts to trusted third parties in exchange for some value-added benefit. That’s up from 1.5 million in 2020, no doubt driven by the competitive innovation brought about by PS2D. However, open banking adoption across the rest of Europe seems to have been much slower, and even growth here in the UK is beginning to plateau.

A Europe-wide survey by thinktank ING polled 13 countries – including the UK – and found that only around 30% of consumers were happy for companies to share their data even after they had given consent. What’s more, only 35% of those polled had even heard of open banking capabilities. 

From Brand Confidence: How Has Open Banking Evolved And Do Customers Trust It?.

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The open banking industry is growing by 24% year-on-year, and is expected to be worth more than £31 billion by 2026.

From Brand Confidence: How Has Open Banking Evolved And Do Customers Trust It?.

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The revised Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information requires crypto exchanges to be equipped with information security management systems and to form partnerships with local banks by Sept. 24. On that date, the grace period ends and all crypto accounts must be linked with bank accounts in the holders’ real names.

From Facing new law, crypto exchange start voluntary shutdown:

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In this case Chinese regulators did the unprecedented by granting banking licenses to two nongovernmental tech giants, Alibaba and Tencent, at the expense of state-owned lenders.

From China’s New Innovation Advantage:

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As part of his plan to create an alliance of democracies to counter China’s growing power, US president Joe Biden has proposed to the UK’s Boris Johnson setting up an infrastructure effort to rival the Belt and Road plan. That may form part of June’s G7 summit, to be hosted by Johnson in the UK, and to which leaders from India, Australia and South Korea have been invited.

From Creating alternatives to China’s Belt and Road | Financial Times:

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