Embedded within our justice system and the values of our society we have the concept of the protection of the innocent. See William Blackstone's famous quotation: "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."
If you want to imprison all the murderers, you can accomplish that goal by imprisoning everyone but we don't do this and most people would recognize that the idea is mad.
So the test here for any regulating authority should be, is your regulation harming the innocent in some way? If so, the imperative is on you to find a better way to go after the guilty, if you don't you have become an enemy of the public good and your moral authority is lost. We can get into specific regulations but I think with modern KYC and AML we are absolutely at the point where they contribute to the suppression of economic growth and individual liberties and need to be dialed back.
Very well said. It should also be said that criminals that want to launder money only exist because of government regulation. Sometimes that's totally justified, say with human trafficking, and sometimes not so much, like maybe a marijuana dispensary.
The point being, sometimes undercutting criminal activity can be done be legalizing the activity rather than introducing more types of illegal activities to try and detect the original ones. The cure is sometimes worse than the disease.
If you want to imprison all the murderers, you can accomplish that goal by imprisoning everyone but we don't do this and most people would recognize that the idea is mad.
So the test here for any regulating authority should be, is your regulation harming the innocent in some way? If so, the imperative is on you to find a better way to go after the guilty, if you don't you have become an enemy of the public good and your moral authority is lost. We can get into specific regulations but I think with modern KYC and AML we are absolutely at the point where they contribute to the suppression of economic growth and individual liberties and need to be dialed back.