EU Anti-Money Laundering, Digital Currencies and Privacy (Hart Studies in European Criminal Law)

Through an examination of the underlying technology driving digital currencies, this book offers a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms governing their operation, clarifying complex legal concepts and confronting the pressing issue of anonymity inherent in digital currency transactions. The book focuses on two categories of digital currencies: cryptocurrencies (e.g. bitcoin) and in-game currencies (the currencies used in the closed virtual environment of a game).Despite their differences in governance - cryptocurrencies being decentralised and in-game currencies being centralised-they share significant similarities in terms of anonymity, which presents a notable issue within the anti-money laundering (AML) framework.Against the backdrop of both the international AML standards developed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the European Union AML regime, the book examines the AML compliance stage of the private sector and, specifically, the collection and retention of d