It may sound a little odd, but you do not think existing AML regime is already working in overdrive mode punishing regular people ( all while actual big fish manage to get away undetected or, worse, protected )?
It is a much larger percentage of North Korea’s total economy, however, and I think that’s going to turn out to be the primary motivation here: not that OFAC woke up one morning and said that Tornado Cash is public enemy #1 but that the people watching North Korea saw that ransomware proceeds were being laundered using this specific system and wanted to stop it.
And AML wastes tens of billions of good dollars in GDP and revenue per year through added monitoring costs, insurance, enforcement expenses, etc. If AML were 90% effective, it’d be supported; but it’s more like 0.1% effective.
