Ghada Waly, the executive director of the drugs and crime office in the United Nations, says that the internet could be a safer place if crypto was controlled and regulated. She mentioned, during a session with the World Economic Forum, that they should concentrate on the illegal side of using digital assets and how to stop it.
Now, with the influx of new cryptocurrencies in the market, Waly said that many assets have been used for illegal purposes such as laundering money and buying and selling drugs. She further stated that before taking the matter to an international level, countries should first regulate crypto on a national level, and later added:
“There’s an element of capacity building and national regulation but there’s also investigation collecting evidence. There’s this whole story of cryptocurrencies and how it’s used on the internet in an illegal form. These are small interventions where a lot of investment needs to happen in infrastructure in capacity building in the cyber security space.”
Waly has recently been trying to get as many UN member states as possible to hear her plea about the illegal side of cryptocurrencies and their use on the darknet. She stated that most jurisdictions did not have the means to take care of cybercrime threats and that putting more time and attention towards that would help create policies about what is and is not allowed.