Hello AMA/EthTrader/Cryptocurrency communities, my name is Ron Pol. I’ve been quoted in US Senate testimony describing anti-money laundering laws arguably the least effective anti-crime initiative, ever. I wrote the following paper (picked up by the Economist and Forbes), and others, detailing profound failures in the global AML system:
The World's Least Effective Policy Experiment – Together We Can Fix It. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741292.2020.1725366
A 1-para. satirical summary of the paper, in [my attempt at] the style of The Onion is here: https://www.effectiveaml.org/aml-laws-crushingly-effective/
As the cryptocurrency space gains more attention from regulators and calls to subject cryptocurrency users to more stringent AML rules grow louder, my research on the effectiveness of the AML system has become more relevant than ever to cryptocurrency users and advocates.
For example, there is, it seems to me, a huge “Trojan horse” risk, easily overlooked. While awareness of AML’s failure is growing in the AML community, regulators seldom admit it (at least publicly). So, the crypto community and public don’t know about the huge gap between AML rhetoric and reality, politicians have no incentive to face the real issues, and AML regulations keep metastasizing into more areas without addressing their own core failings.
Some of the hidden problems are outlined on a Gitcoin page. (It’s also a grant form so I’ve checked with r/EthTrader moderators it’s ok to post): https://gitcoin.co/grants/3380/effectiveamlorg-decentralize-knowledge
Please feel free to ask me anything you please.
Please note, this AMA does not offer legal or financial advice. Any matters discussed are purely academic, and you should not rely on any matters discussed hereunder as legal or financial advice.
More papers in the series are pinned to my Twitter profile, with an infographic: @ ronaldpol [Some give free access to the full paper, others to the full abstracts].
It's not an either/or situation.
I removed steam from my system, a 64bit machine:
root@msi:/home/gargle# dpkg --print-architecture
amd64
Steam needed i386 stuff, so I added the architecture before doing apt-get install steam. Some i386 packages were indeed installed:
root@msi:/home/gargle# dpkg --get-selections | grep i386 | awk '{print $1}'
gcc-11-base:i386
libc6:i386
libgcc-s1:i386
Getting rid of them seems impossible now:
root@msi:/home/gargle# apt-get remove --purge gcc-11-base:i386 libgcc-s1:i386 libc6:i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gcc-11-base:i386* libc6:i386* libgcc-s1:i386*
WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed.
This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
libgcc-s1:i386 gcc-11-base:i386 (due to libgcc-s1:i386) libc6:i386 (due to libgcc-s1:i386)
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 156 not upgraded.
After this operation, 12.9 MB disk space will be freed.
E: Removing essential system-critical packages is not permitted. This might break the system.
Any tips? I'm at a loss...
I just love when we’re having system errors and they make us assist customers like that. Trying to verify a customer while refreshing the system every two seconds to see if this time it’ll work while the customer lose their patience even before properly starting the call. It’s evens better when after like 10 attempts I’m able to verify the customer only to realize that I have to transfer them to a different department and they start yelling at me for being incompetent. But the absolute best is when after like 8 minutes on the phone trying to verify them when I’m finally able to verify them, the system completely crashes and I have to ask them to call later. But hey, I’m super grateful for this little over $4 per hour, 48 hours a week with unpaid lunch time job because I get to do it from home in my pajamas and I save in transport :D
<Rant>
While I love my team and enjoy the work, I hate the fact that feats like these are only appreciated by giving insignificant gifts.
If 10 people worked their asses off staying up all night way past their work hours to keep your systems airtight from the recently discovered vulnerability... they need more than a Hoodie for their effort.
A bonus in cash for the work done should be the norm.
If we saved you from losing a million dollars. You can spare some change to make it worth the effort.
</Rant>
I am looking for critiques on these two and maybe other economists who write about similar topics.
