The bank secrecy act, bitcoin, and the 4th ammendment.

There is an excellent article by the CATO research institute on the bank secrecy act to get you up to speed on what it is here: https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/revising-bank-secrecy-act-protect-privacy-deter-criminals#costs-benefits-bsaaml-regime

Basically, the law hinges on two cases from the 1970s. Before the advent of widespread digital computing and surveillance.

Bitcoin is peer to peer as a money transmission service. In order to attack the greatest impediment to bitcoin adoption, we really need to attack the law as being unconstitutional. There is also the money transmission license laws: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5330 and the money laundering suppression act law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/topn/money_laundering_suppression_act_of_1994

These laws all are dependent on the bank secrecy act law. If the bank secrecy act were to be ruled as a violation of the fourth amendment, then the us governments power would be harshly reduced. A good thing for btc.

The fourth amendment for reference:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The notion that the government should have the ability to track every single time I buy groceries, give money to a homeless person, give money to a friend, or buy a used couch is unreasonable. In addition, the banking system not only searches, but indexes, categorizes, and records everything i do. In terms of papers, this can be expanded rto include information, which includes letters, emails, financial documents and so forth. The ability of the government to search and access this information without a warrant is a clear violation of the fourth ammendment.

If the bank secrecy act collapses, then the rest of the regulatory house of cards around the payments system goes with it. The bank secrecy act is the foundation upon which the tyranny has been built, and it needs to go.