On preventing bitcoin transaction from money laundering in Indonesia: Analysis and recommendation on regulations

Bitcoin is an emerging financial technology that is gaining a lot of popularity all over the world and starting to change the way people make financial transaction. In Indonesia however, bitcoin is more famous for its negative issue, such as money laundering, rather than its usage in financial transaction. One interesting fact to observe is the absence of regulations that explicitly governs the usage of bitcoins. This paper analyzes the factors influencing Indonesian authorities in defining regulations for bitcoins and how the existing regulations left open some opportunities for a bad guy to perform money laundering with the help of bitcoins. A qualitative approach is used in this research for data collection and analysis. Interview with two experts representing bitcoin exchange company and legal consultant was conducted in data collection. The outcome of this research is to find out vulnerabilities in bitcoin that allows money laundering and give suggestions on how to prevent money laundering with bitcoin from the perspective of regulations and bitcoin company in Indonesia.