The us secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, on January 12, 2018 Washington, d.c. (Photo by MARK WILSON. GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA)
The bitcoin should not become similar to a “numbered account in Switzerland”, said Friday the secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, which promises a monitoring of the portfolio of the holders of the cryptomonnaie in the United States.
“We want to ensure that people malicious do not use this money to do things that are reprehensible,” said Mr. Mnuchin at a conference in Washington.
He said that the wallets holding bitcoins would be the subject of surveillance in the United States and that the regulatory authorities had formed a “working group” on the development of bitcoin.
He said he wanted to work with the G20 to ensure that virtual currency does not become as “a swiss bank account numbered” and secret.
Mr. Mnuchin has recognized that some central banks were considering the possibility of creating digital currencies, instead of issuing the cash, but he indicated that this was not the case for the u.s. central bank. “The Fed and we believe that there is no need of this for the moment”.
When asked about the possibility that Russia will create its own virtual currency to avoid financial penalties, Mr. Mnuchin said that this “is not the concern absolutely not”. “I don’t think this is a concern”, he launched.
On the other hand, the risk of fraud or attack cybernetics are “an area of concern” to the Treasury, he pointed out.
Mr. Mnuchin is also remained very evasive about the modification of the ticket is 20 dollars, initiated by the previous democratic administration that was intended to be affixed for the first time on a greenback with the portrait of a heroine in black –Harriet Tubman, a former slave, rights activist of the man–. He has not confirmed this change of effigy.
“We have not made the decision to change (the face) of the ticket or not,” he said. The next ticket of $ 20, which will include new anti-counterfeiting on which the Treasury and the Fed are currently working, will be issued in 2020.
