Former SEC Commissioner warns against excessive government crypto surveillance

Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Paul Atkins has warned against the potential for excessive federal government surveillance in the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry, Coindesk reports. Speaking at a roundtable on financial surveillance and privacy at SEC headquarters, Atkins said it is not difficult to imagine the government using crypto technology to gain near-total visibility into individuals' financial lives by collaborating with various intermediaries. He cautioned that if every wallet is treated like a broker, every piece of software like an exchange, every transaction as reportable, and every protocol as a convenient surveillance node, the government would transform the ecosystem into a financial panopticon.