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Bitcoin has a public record of every transaction by every user, with every users' current balance made public (the former might be possible to reduce with Light

by cyphar 8y ago

Bitcoin has a public record of every transaction by every user, with every users' current balance made public (the former might be possible to reduce with Lightning, but the latter is not since you have to settle everyone's balance on-chain at the end of the day). Can you please clarify by which token VISA and banks (and GNU Taler) are "government spyware" and Bitcoin is not? I happen to think that none of these systems are "government spyware" but if you want to argue otherwise, it would be nice to have substantiated statements.

jstanley 8y ago
The part where Visa and banks know your name and address and the blockchain doesn't.
- cyphar 8y ago
  Every single exchange I've used requires providing multiple forms of government ID. Practically speaking, most Bitcoin users identify themselves in this manner. Yeah, there's localbitcoins.com but just because it's technically possible to do doesn't mean that it is a practical difference if very few people do it. Don't get me wrong, I agree that it's generally a problem that all of these institutions know your name and address. But to be honest, I trust my bank to better protect my personal information than some random Bitcoin exchange.
  - jstanley 8y ago
    But with Bitcoin you don't have to use any exchange. You can get paid directly in Bitcoin for goods and services. With fiat, there is no way to do digital transactions without attaching your name and address.
    - cyphar 8y ago
      > You can get paid directly in Bitcoin for goods and services. While I do understand why this is valuable, no government accepts taxes to be paid in Bitcoin (nor do banks give out loans in Bitcoin). As a result, everyone will need to convert some of their Bitcoin to fiat eventually, allowing for de-anonymisation. Not to mention that basically nobody gets paid in Bitcoin (personally there's no way I would accept my wage be paid in a currency that is that volatile). > With fiat, there is no way to do digital transactions without attaching your name and address. Taler is a system that can work on any medium of exchange (fiat, cryptocurrency, sheep, whatever) and doesn't attach your name and address to all transactions.

by cyphar 8y ago

jstanley 8y ago

The part where Visa and banks know your name and address and the blockchain doesn't.

cyphar 8y ago
Every single exchange I've used requires providing multiple forms of government ID. Practically speaking, most Bitcoin users identify themselves in this manner. Yeah, there's localbitcoins.com but just because it's technically possible to do doesn't mean that it is a practical difference if very few people do it. Don't get me wrong, I agree that it's generally a problem that all of these institutions know your name and address. But to be honest, I trust my bank to better protect my personal information than some random Bitcoin exchange.
- jstanley 8y ago
  But with Bitcoin you don't have to use any exchange. You can get paid directly in Bitcoin for goods and services. With fiat, there is no way to do digital transactions without attaching your name and address.
  - cyphar 8y ago
    > You can get paid directly in Bitcoin for goods and services. While I do understand why this is valuable, no government accepts taxes to be paid in Bitcoin (nor do banks give out loans in Bitcoin). As a result, everyone will need to convert some of their Bitcoin to fiat eventually, allowing for de-anonymisation. Not to mention that basically nobody gets paid in Bitcoin (personally there's no way I would accept my wage be paid in a currency that is that volatile). > With fiat, there is no way to do digital transactions without attaching your name and address. Taler is a system that can work on any medium of exchange (fiat, cryptocurrency, sheep, whatever) and doesn't attach your name and address to all transactions.