The article above discusses how the war on cash has turned into a war on gold. But cash and gold are not the only forms of money in the regulators’ cross hairs. This article describes how bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also getting the bum’s rush from regulators. Click here to see new EU regulations require greater transparency and reporting of transactions in cryptocurrencies. As usual, the regulators claim this is necessary to prevent terrorist and criminal activities. In reality, terrorism is frequently used as an all-purpose excuse to regulate any form of money, be it cash, gold or crypto, that allows savers to stay safe from the clutches of the digital banking system. Developed economies are engaged in a long-term global effort to force all savers into digital accounts at one of a small number of megabanks. This process resembles herding pigs into a pen before they are slaughtered. Savers will get slaughtered with negative interest rates, fees, taxes, confiscation and account freezes when the time comes. The use case for cryptocurrencies is that they offer anonymity to transacting parties. The problem is that digital currencies are not quite as free of government control as their users like to imagine. Most crypto account holders use exchanges such as Coinbase to acquire and store their cryptocurrencies. Those exchanges have numerous points of contact with the regulated banking system to exchange cryptocurrencies for dollars, euros or yen when customers want to buy and sell. Regulators can shut off those portals if necessary to force compliance by the exchanges. Tax authorities can do the same. Exchanges that do not comply with requests for customer information will find all of their assets frozen and it will be up to the customers to come forward and make a proof of claim. Of course, the tax authorities will be waiting for you when you do. If bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cannot practically offer the kind of anonymity their users expect, then the use case for bitcoin disappears and the value of cryptocurrency will soon disappear also.