U.S. SEC Commissioner: "Excessive regulation could turn blockchain into a financial surveillance tool"

Paul Atkins, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), emphasized the need to balance national security and individual privacy in the process of regulating blockchain and warned that excessive government intervention could cause serious side effects.

On the 16th (local time), according to The Block, Atkins said at the sixth virtual asset (cryptocurrency) roundtable hosted by the SEC's Crypto Task Force, "Because blockchain has the characteristic of effectively linking transactions and senders, depending on the direction of regulation it can degenerate into the most powerful financial surveillance architecture ever invented."

He expressed concern about an excessive regulatory approach, saying, "If you treat every wallet as an intermediary, every software as an exchange, every transaction as a reportable event, and every protocol as a monitoring node, the government will turn this ecosystem into a financial panopticon."

However, Atkins said there is a regulatory path that can preserve both innovation and privacy. He said, "I am confident that we can build a framework together that ensures technological and financial developments do not infringe on individual liberty."