ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhes Slams KYC and AML; Says Restaurants Don’t KYC

Erik Voorhes, founder, and CEO of popular crypto exchange service, ShapeShift has become the latest industry leader to speak against efforts by regulators to impose KYC requirements on crypto businesses.

Voorhes shared these thoughts in a recent Off The Chain podcast with Bitcoin enthusiast, Anthony Pompliano, where they discussed, among other things how the industry has evolved in terms of regulation within the past few years.

According to Voorhes, he is ‘not a fan’ of the rule requiring that crypto businesses collect personal information from users in a bid to comply with know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering laws prescribed by governments in various jurisdictions.

He explained why such an approach by regulators isn’t ethical and described the period during which ShapeShift had to introduce KYC as one of the most challenging times for himself and the business.

Speaking specifically on why KYC shouldn’t be a compulsory requirement for crypto businesses whose primary role involves moving money, Voorhes compared their work with that done by restaurants.

“When you go to a restaurant they don’t KYC you. You are permitted to pay anonymously and eat and yet what if the restaurant is serving a terrorist food. You’d be facilitating terrorism by nourishing a terrorist,” the ShapeShift CEO explained.

He then noted that the same principle should apply to money since ‘the vast majority of customers are good people and haven’t done anything wrong.’

“There’s not even as suspicion or accusation of wrongdoing, and so to endanger them by taking their personal information is purely unethical in my opinion,” he lamented.

Notably, Erik Voorhes also implored that America returns to the “principle of individual liberty that it was founded upon,” while regulations such as the accredited investor rule which prevent peoples who aren’t wealthy from investing in early age startups, should be abolished.