2 ms·

I agree the wording is a little vague, but now you're just being pedantic. Her point still stands. "Freeze exchange of tokens" doesn't have to mean "stop the Bi

by _xnmw 5y ago

I agree the wording is a little vague, but now you're just being pedantic. Her point still stands. "Freeze exchange of tokens" doesn't have to mean "stop the Bitcoin network from operating", it could also mean simply issuing a government order to all exchanges to not accept a particular UTXO. Anybody operating an exchange who doesn't want to go to prison has to comply with the order. Governments can do that -- it's not that hard to issue an Interpol alert for a particular UTXO, legislation and enforcement just haven't caught up yet. That effectively "freezes the money", because then the person holding that UTXO cannot withdraw it anywhere. Governments already do this with paper money, which is why laundering cash is such a headache, and Bitcoin only makes it EASIER to track and prevent illegal flows of money. Paper cash is still more decentralized than Bitcoin, hence the article's main point stands: Blockchain-based systems are not what they say they are.

newswasboring 5y ago
If bitcoin is the only crypto currency that exists then yes you are right. But there are already ways to work around such a ban (like swapping to monero). In several of the recent hacks, big exchanges did try to ban addresses but were not successful in stopping the laundering. Or at least that is my understanding right now.
garydevenay 5y ago
If you freeze a UTXO, one can spend that UTXO inside the network by committing a transaction and the output will be a new UTXO which is different from the previous one, thereby unfreezing it. This is the basis for mixing services which do this at scale. The fact is that the author is using intellectually dishonest arguments to try and convey something as the truth, which is not true. The above also doesn't take in to consideration any L2 or Taproot transactions that provide even easier ways to mitigate Government overreach.

by _xnmw 5y ago

newswasboring 5y ago

If bitcoin is the only crypto currency that exists then yes you are right. But there are already ways to work around such a ban (like swapping to monero). In several of the recent hacks, big exchanges did try to ban addresses but were not successful in stopping the laundering. Or at least that is my understanding right now.

garydevenay 5y ago

If you freeze a UTXO, one can spend that UTXO inside the network by committing a transaction and the output will be a new UTXO which is different from the previous one, thereby unfreezing it. This is the basis for mixing services which do this at scale. The fact is that the author is using intellectually dishonest arguments to try and convey something as the truth, which is not true. The above also doesn't take in to consideration any L2 or Taproot transactions that provide even easier ways to mitigate Government overreach.