US SEC Chairman: Cryptocurrencies may become a "powerful tool for financial surveillance," but methods exist that do not sacrifice privacy.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins stated that he believes there is a path forward that balances national security concerns with the protection of individual privacy, but warned that excessive government intervention could tip the scales too far. Speaking at the SEC's Cryptocurrency Task Force's sixth cryptocurrency roundtable on Monday, Atkins cautioned that while blockchain is particularly efficient at linking transactions to senders, if misdirected, cryptocurrencies could "become the most powerful financial surveillance architecture ever."