US SEC Chairman: Cryptocurrencies may become a "powerful tool for financial surveillance," but methods exist that do not sacrifice privacy.

PANews reported on December 16th, citing The Block, that SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated he believes there is a path forward that balances national security concerns with individual privacy protection, but warned that excessive government intervention could tip the scales too far. Speaking at the SEC's Cryptocurrency Task Force's sixth cryptocurrency roundtable on Monday, Atkins cautioned that while blockchain is particularly efficient at linking transactions to senders, if misdirected, cryptocurrencies could "become the most powerful financial surveillance architecture ever." Atkins stated, "Indeed, if the government's instinct is to treat every wallet as a broker, every piece of software as an exchange, every transaction as a reportable event, and every protocol as a convenient monitoring node, then the government will turn this ecosystem into a financial panopticon." However, Atkins indicated that there are ways to balance innovation and privacy. He said, "I firmly believe that we can work together to build a framework that ensures technological progress and financial development do not come at the expense of individual freedom."