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By pretty much the same argument strong encryption cannot work because governments would prefer it not to exist; terrorists and rogue states can use encryption,
by rmtech 7y ago
By pretty much the same argument strong encryption cannot work because governments would prefer it not to exist; terrorists and rogue states can use encryption, and it is not technically possible to build encryption that "only works for the good guys".
In reality there is an ongoing battle over encryption where various governments try to ban it, people fight back, etc. I suspect that we will see the same thing play out over cryptocurrency.
In any case I don't see anyone on hacker news asking how we can design an encryption algorithm that prevents all and only the bad uses of encryption. It is generally understood to be a dumb question because good and bad are complicated enough that we cannot hope to formalize them right now, and ad-hoc attempts to make a technology only work for the good guys have been repeatedly shown to help the bad guys (e.g. backdoors etc)
- acdha 7y agoEncryption isn’t quite the right comparison because it’s not a running network. Anyone doing merchant/banking activities with a cryptocurrency isn’t just using the same software but also risking being involved in a transaction chain involving someone trying to launder money. Imagine how the crypto wars would have gone if GPG users had to take active measures to prevent forwarding messages from untrusted strangers. Tor is a better comparison, especially with the reason why most people consider it highly risky to run an exit node.
- rmtech 7y agoI don't think this is an important distinction. In both cases there mere existence of the technology helps both good and bad parties to achieve their aims, that is all that matters.
- acdha 7y agoYou should think about it from a legal perspective: if you use GPG, will the FBI show up at your house just because the local drug dealer also does even though they never send you a message? Now, suppose that there’s a transaction chain which involves you – say said local dealer buying from one of the few other people using it — and how you’d prove that you weren’t a knowing participant in some sort of laundering scheme or deal. This is why tumblers aren’t likely to be used by most people and why running a Tor exit node is so risky: you have to worry about being charged with the worst thing done over the network and proving that you aren’t just trying to look like a naive user.
- rmtech 7y ago> This is why tumblers aren’t likely to be used by most people I think that the ZK (ZCash, AZTEC, etc) technology will solve this problem and we will be back to the case where the government wants to make the technology itself go away.