This is a summary of the op-ed “Crypto Twitter’s Misdirected Furor Didn’t Fix the Travel Rule” by Leah Callon-Butler, published on CoinDesk on February 1, 2022.
Because of a community uproar in crypto Twitter, crypto hardware wallet manufacturer, Trezor reversed its course after it had adopted software that enabled people in Switzerland to conveniently withdraw crypto from a regulated exchange to their own wallet. The software was the Address Ownership Proof Protocol (AOPP), an application that made it easier for people to prove a specific wallet was theirs, but it also facilitated a creeping regulatory overreach that signaled the decay of the crypto user’s freedom and identity.
The integration announcement prompted unexpected public furor. Bitcoiner Stephan Livera, while concerned about non-custodial wallets being stripped of their permissionless quality, stated that the problem was not necessarily AOPP but the FATF or travel rule and the constant push for more anti-money-laundering regulations despite continual failure.
Ultimately, the accelerating adoption of crypto includes people who do not put much value into the fundamental values of bitcoin and crypto, such as permissionlessness and anonymity. They expect ease and less friction in their overall crypto experience, and so solutions like AOPP will be welcome.
Read the full article here:
“Crypto Twitter’s Misdirected Furor Didn’t Fix the Travel Rule” by Leah Callon-Butler
Published February 1, 2022 on CoinDesk
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