Not to mention severely limiting freedom of the individual. Look at the Eich's ousting - donate to the wrong party, support an "objectionable" point of view, a

Not to mention severely limiting freedom of the individual. Look at the Eich's ousting - donate to the wrong party, support an "objectionable" point of view, and you stand to lose everything. Maybe CEO's should expect this sort of scrutiny. Maybe it's even justified. However, removing one of the few means of privately utilizing wealth left in the world (Bitcoin isn't there yet, and might never be) means that private individuals can expect that same sort of public scrutiny over all their actions. Reading this sounds like strident distopian conspiracy ravings, but I honestly do believe there is a push by governments and large corporations (Google, BoA, etc) to have total information awareness about the day to day dealings of everyone, be it for "security" or data mining or what have you. I believe that push is fundamentally opposed to the spirit of liberalism that let us develop advanced democracies. Quite frankly, I think the possibility of a bit (or more than a bit) of money laundering is an easy price to pay in exchange for personal privacy.