Stallman's views on Bitcoin and privacy make no sense. It almost sounds like he doesn't understand how Bitcoin works. From the original article (https://www.co

Stallman's views on Bitcoin and privacy make no sense. It almost sounds like he doesn't understand how Bitcoin works. From the original article (https://www.coindesk.com/free-software-messiah-richard-stallman-we-can-do-better-than-bitcoin https://www.coindesk.com/free-software-messiah-richard-stall...): “If bitcoin protected privacy, I’d probably have found a way to use it by now.” Bitcoin does protect privacy. It just does so using a model most people, including apparently RMS, don't see very often. It's called pseudonymity, and you won't find that word once in the article. Later RMS claims: “What I’d really like is a way to make purchases anonymously from various kinds of stores, and unfortunately it wouldn’t be feasible for me with bitcoin.” Whatever distinction between the current Bitcoin experience of buying things from "various kinds of stores" and what RMS envisions is far from clear. Then later: “I wouldn’t want perfect privacy because that would mean it would be impossible to investigate crimes at all. And that’s one of the jobs we need the state to do.” Say what? He doesn't wan't "perfect privacy," yet less than perfect privacy is exactly what bitcoin offers today. Block chain analytics companies are everywhere, hawking their data analytics to governments, advertisers, and anyone else who wants to take advantage of Bitcoin users who make privacy blunders. This statement in particular makes me very skeptical about the goals of Taler. If the system allows the slightest privacy backdoor, then the entire system is worthless from a privacy perspective. Privacy in the Taler system, then, is limited to users spending their digital cash. They are shielded from surveillance because, Grothoff said, “the exchange, when coins are being redeemed, cannot tell if it was customer A or customer B or customer C who received the coin, because they all look identical from the exchange.” The unanswered question then becomes how exactly does Taler enable the state to investigate crimes?