[AnthonyMouse]

> Banking KYC isn't about making sure people are authorized to bank, its about making sure the government is able to track them down if they are (determined by the government to be) associated with bad things.

The problem with this is that it doesn't really work. Serious criminals use shell corporations, fake or stolen identities, hire patsies, use precious metals or physical cash, foreign banking systems, cryptocurrencies, Hawala, etc. The effectiveness of KYC rules is abysmal, to the point that we could abolish them and hardly notice any effect on crime. And yet we continue to pay all of the costs, which fall on innocent people.

[mulmen]

Given the fundamental truth that "everything is tax fraud" would it actually make it easier to identify crime by making it easier for criminals to open bank accounts?

[AnthonyMouse]

This is a great point. A numbered account at a US financial institution would presumably be much easier for the US government to execute a warrant against and get the transactions than some adversarial international Hawala network or privacy coin which would be equally in the dark about the target's social security number (if any).