# The end of self-custodial wallets by Mikko Ohtamaa | Devcon SEA

- Speakers: [Mikko Ohtamaa](https://streameth.org/speakers/mikko-ohtamaa)
- Channel: [Devcon](https://streameth.org/devcon)
- Date: 2025-10-09
- Duration: 09:55
- Topics: Science & Technology
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-Cwn42afQZ3k
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwn42afQZ3k

## Description

This talk provides a quick overview of how countries worldwide restrict or plan to ban the self-custodial ownership model, which is the foundation of cryptocurrencies.

- What kind of laws, regulations and guidance countries have passed to restrict self-custodial
- What kind of areas are being targeted: ownership of cryptocurrencies, wallets, developers, interfaces
- Who are the driving forces behind opposing self-custodial
- How to counteract this development

Speaker(s): Mikko Ohtamaa
Skill level: Beginner
Track: Cypherpunk & Privacy
Keywords: Free Speech, Censorship Resistance, Regulation, fatf

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## Transcript

[Music] [Music] GM GM how are you guys oops oops let's go ahead GMM very good okay today I'm here to talk about the end of self custodian wallets and how governments and our friends are trying to ban them and this is a lightning talk so if you want to see the full presentations please follow me on X formally Twitter because I'm going to post more slides there and why does this matter is that if and when the government are going to restrict the use of self- custodia wallets it's so-called bad ending and at that point it doesn't matter what you do there in the audience because you can all go home and work in a or a McDonald's so it should be obvious for you why this is important first about the benefits of the self castoria wallets is that of course it's first one is that uh we own our assets it's it's in our control and there's no risk like you would have with the bank or centralized exchange that something they they screw it up and you lose if you lose it's only your own fault the other important point is v no window login so so you can change wallets you are not locked in a single uh wallet provider but you can have a competition between those and it's very good for a uh cost efficiency because the cost will be very very low for us and you all know that we are not paying for our wallets and the problem with the wallets is not the wallet themselves but it's a crypto and they enable the cryptocurrencies to flow freely and it's no longer in this point uh feasible to ban the crypto themselves instead uh what governments and Regulators work is that they will restrict its use and there are mainly three ways to do it uh don't allow to transfer in and out from wallets regulate developers or regulate interactions with the wallets like a frontend Unis Swap and this is how the regulation in the world is done why we care about the US politics is that all the trickle down economics except in this town it's not money that trickles down but it's the  so um all the national Regulators follow what the fitf is doing and they are doing what the USA them to do and there's also compliance industry who is uh making money out of this so they for them it's very beneficial that we will restrict the use of the wallets so they they will vot for more regulation every time time and the first case we have in Estonia so 2021 it was already almost there that they banned this there was a compliance company that was lobbying the government that uh we should actually not allow the defi platforms and P top to be allowed unless they register as a v VSP provider which means that they would need to kyc everybody didn't go true later we had MAA is overruled and it's I think it's it's U Still Still Still Still allowed in Estonia the second one is a European Union so the latest uh anti-money laundering directive they say that the transfers in and out selfcast wallet is still allowed but the amounts are restricted so you are only allowed to transfer I think it's €1,000 and U uh it's going to be effective in next year or 2026 so after that in European Union citizen you really can't use your self custodia wallet if you have more than €1,000 EUR in assets then we have a says so this was the first country that not in a guidance but in a law itself uh somebody somebody I don't know who wrote in the law that the non-custodial services including wallets uh should be regulated and it means that the developers should sign up there uh with the local regulator if you are developing a wallet it didn't make to the final law text but it was explicit also said that this request came from uh uh fatf uh and U they wanted to uh close this so-called loophole for the users and then there's a Denmark where they told that uh Unis Swap and others can be identified so that's why uh developer like these should be also registered in Denmark as a VB because they can offer services for Dan citizens and what can you do so first of all raise awareness of this issues tweet uh try to donate to the organizations who are pro crypto I think in United States we succeed quite well and most important is that you speak with local media in your own country and try to get the credible people there to uh Lobby for the privacy and the right to uh own your own assets thank you and the next questions thank you very much so again somebody has any question please raise your hand I will toss the mic to you yep we have one yeah better bit far uh so of course you can ban uh alcohol um uh as they tried to in the US obviously and U but it's Enforcement issue um do you think that's any going to gives us any any sort of um those sort of that example does that give us any reason to have hopium um I think your talk is great by the way thanks it's so important not trying to Dum this down it's really important but is there hoping out there that you know this isn't going to be forceable we think we have to work a bit harder than that I mean it depends because when they banned alcohol it was like 100 years ago and the surveillance State didn't exist uh today governments can follow your actions and especially the actions of the software companies and developers very closely so they will they can come to knock your door if you have a k kup account so that's why I'm uh quite pessimistic that this can uh fly under radar so to speak so there are bad people out there who do bad things and while you can argue with how the regulations are laid out you there's not much argument that terrorist financing and money laundering shouldn't be allowed so how do we I think we all in this here we believe in self- sovereignty but we also many of us probably think that zero knowledge is a potential solution how do we get the governments to try it because they're not it's not even in the Overton window of discussing these new technologies how do we get them to actess actually approve a test case or some way of trying it I mean I think we already fixed it in one country by having uh our friends in the US elect Trump so uh that's a step forward but also um I think the correct way to go about it is to talk with media so that we have a proof we have a SC re real scientif research that the for the anti-money laundering work uh the current regulations are restricting centralized exchanges is enough and uh it's already stopping uh most of terrorist funding we know that uh terrorist yes they use usdt and the Bitcoin and so on and especially North Korea is is kind of a pain in the butt but it's not it's not very significant still crypto has grown but still it's it's super small compared to you know all the other gas and oil and whatever there is going around yeah we have one there last question uh what do you think about companies like chain analysis and other death do you think they make a positive impact uh some some yes some no like uh uh some of them are pro crypto but some of them are part of this uh compliance industry complex and they only like uh see how they could seek rents and usually you can you can know if the company's Pro crypto or is here only for money if you read their reports and if they are doing so-called uh fear selling like they they are doing the report saying that so many terrorists are coming and the blockchain is only used for money laundering and drugs and so on and they saw the curves like how it's bad uses is growing which by the way is not anymore growing I it means that they are selling the fair to the governments who then buy their services but some good companies like I think a chain analysis is one of the good ones they they create reports that are balanced and they show that yeah some things are bad but some things are actually very good okay thank you very much [Applause]