Australia: MasterCard calls for digital currency anti-anonymity regulation

The card issuer has argued its proposition with the fact that the principle of anonymity in digital currencies is susceptible to actions which can facilitate the purchase of illegal goods or services, to launder money or finance terrorism and to pursue other activity that introduces consumer and social harm without detection by regulatory or police authority, computerworld.com.au reports.

MasterCard cites the example of the collapse of Mt Gox, at one stage the most popular Bitcoin exchange, as an example of what it sees as a problem with the pseudonymity of Bitcoin-style currencies.

MasterCard believes that all the participants in the payments ecosystem, including Bitcoin users, should fit the company’s standards and, thus, rule out the anonymity principle characteristic to digital currencies. MasterCard also highlighted that Bitcoin users, for example, have no guarantee for their deposits as there is no central authority dealing with those funds. Regulations should be technology neutral to ensure that they can and do apply to all new providers of payment services to consumers.

MasterCard also stated that Australia should require that digital currency transactions be regulated and that transparent administrators be subject to supervision by Australia authorities and not to the current block chain process.

Moreover, there should be imposed conditions on the administrators, such as implementing an anti-money-laundering programs and introducing consumer protections, such as charge reversal processes.