Sanctions-dodgers hoping to use crypto to evade detection are likely to be disappointed
It may have more going for it as a tool to help Ukraine’s fundraising efforts
TO THEIR CHAMPIONS, cryptocurrencies are supposed to be a libertarian Utopia. Because tokens are created and moved by loose, decentralised networks of individual computers based in dozens of countries, cross-border transactions can be quick and in theory are free from control by intermediaries, such as banks, which can be regulated by national governments. Critics of crypto-finance have long looked askance at the same system. To statists, it represents the tyranny of techno-anarchy.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “False promise”
Finance & economics March 19th 2022
- Globalisation and autocracy are locked together. For how much longer?
- Will China’s covid lockdowns add to strains on supply chains?
- Can foreign-currency reserves be sanction-proofed?
- The inflationary consequences of Russia’s war will spread
- A nickel-trading fiasco raises three big questions
- Governments are proposing windfall taxes on energy firms
- Sanctions-dodgers hoping to use crypto to evade detection are likely to be disappointed
- The disturbing new relevance of theories of nuclear deterrence
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