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I am absolutely of the opinion that we deserve more privacy when it comes to our transactions. We need and deserve a privacy-oriented payment system but we also
by elliekelly 5y ago
I am absolutely of the opinion that we deserve more privacy when it comes to our transactions. We need and deserve a privacy-oriented payment system but we also need a financial system that is reliable, trustworthy, and most of all, fair. That’s not Bitcoin.
I don’t know whether predatory investments and outright scams are simply inevitable with the anonymity cryptocurrency provides. I’d like to think there are some perfectly valid and net-beneficial use cases. But it seems pretty clear that crypto, in its current iteration, is exploitative at best and the only real use case beyond pyramid schemes is facilitating criminal activity.
It was a cool experiment. We tried it. It doesn’t work. A lot of people have learned (and some are still yet to learn) the hard way why our financial systems are so heavily regulated. But if we’re looking for increased privacy (and we should be!) we need to start looking beyond Bitcoin.
- randomhodler84 5y agoWhat makes you say it doesn’t work? And, you can’t have privacy and still prevent illicit transactions. Any way that leaks intent is by definition not private. Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies work fine, and achieve their goals.
- elliekelly 5y ago> And, you can’t have privacy and still prevent illicit transactions. Any way that leaks intent is by definition not private. Sure you can. Cash does. It’s why we don’t have large denominated bills.
- meowkit 5y agoThis is a really cynical and oversimplified take in my opinion. Our centralized financial systems have a lot of regulation for outsiders, but the rules selectively apply to those with power and capital. If the Panama Papers/FinCEN leaks have shown me anything its that our financial systems are not sufficiently policing themselves. Having all transactions on open source ledgers is a good start. With zero knowledge proofs I’m fairly confident we can design auxiliary systems that can obfuscate senders/receivers/amounts while also allowing for fraud detection by the community as a whole - with slashing style incentives we won’t have to worry as much about regulatory capture and similar things.
- randomhodler84 5y agoSlashing is a disincentive, and should be a good reason for distrust. I would not trust a public ledger that can delete my funds. You can’t have fraud detection and privacy. They are mutually exclusive.
- r00fus 5y agoBitcoin and the like simply make Panama papers style hidden wealth all the more likely and possible.