Australian Government Tracks All Bitcoin to AUD Conversions
The Australian government is keeping a close eye on bitcoin, but not on the regulatory front. Rather, it is tracking every conversion from bitcoin into Australian dollars, and vice-versa. The government agency doing the snooping is the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac). The centre is tasked with countering money laundering and terrorist finance, so it is only logical that it would track anonymous transactions. Tracking bitcoin-related transactions. Austrac CEO John Schmidt told lawmakers that Australia collects data on all international fund transfers, including....
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It is being reported that the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (also known as Austrac) is able to and is actively tracking conversions from the Australian dollars to bitcoin and vice-versa. The government agency is responsible for preventing money laundering and terrorism financing, so it doesn't quite come as a surprise that they would be following these types of transactions. "Australia is very fortunate among its international counterparts, in that we are one of the few countries which currently collects all international funds transfers, into or out of Australia,"....
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