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China is a perfect example. A Chinese citizen only needs a VPN and USB drive to exit the highly-controlled digital yuan and put his savings in Bitcoin. When he
by jonathan-adly 5y ago
China is a perfect example. A Chinese citizen only needs a VPN and USB drive to exit the highly-controlled digital yuan and put his savings in Bitcoin. When he needs to get to a local currency or USD, a P2P exchange like Bisq would do it.
The other person at Bisq would simply wash his bitcoins through monero - and that would be that.
Not only its good for Chinese citizens, it is very good for western democracies to funnel money to opposition figures in hostile countries (or plain old spies). In a world where the digital Yuan reigns supreme (where everything is monitored), would the US want to pay a Chinese spy in paper USD, washed bitcoins, or digital yuan?
- kragen 5y agoHow does exiting the highly-controlled digital yuan work?
- jonathan-adly 5y agoI have x amount of savings of Yuan. I keep 6 month expenses in Yuan and the rest in Bitcoin. When I need to make an unapproved transaction (donating to a Muslim charity if you are a Yighur for example). I go through the hassle of using Bitcoin, either directly or after changing to USD by P2P exchange.
- XorNot 5y agoThis doesn't explain anything. Who's buying yuan from you in exchange for Bitcoin? Who's selling you yuan in exchange for Bitcoin? Given that yuan is tightly controlled... How is Bitcoin hiding anything in this process?
- kragen 5y agoCan you be more concrete? Here's what I'm imagining you're saying: first you take a month's paycheck out of the bank in yuan, in cash; then you walk down the street to a jeweler's shop that will exchange your yuan in cash for US$100 bills; then you send a WeChat message to a guy who sells Bitcoin, and the next day you take a taxi with your US$100 bills to a cafe, where he transfers you the Bitcoin and you give him the US$100 bills. Is that what you mean? I'm wondering if somebody who spends all of their highly-controlled digital yuan in cash every month, and not on anything detectable, will draw suspicion.
- bravura 5y agoI've appreciated your arguments so far, but how does "only needing a VPN" qualify as easy? I live outside China and I am baffled about how you get a VPN that you trust. A VPN is a third-party who shields you and that you trust. Everyone on HN recommends Mullvad because of their track record. Do you know that Mullvad is not compromised? If you lived in China, how would you find a VPN that you trust?
- jonathan-adly 5y agoI didn’t live in China, but lived in a Middle Eastern county where the vanilla internet is monitored. The locals know what to use. Also, you don’t need a non-monitored VPN. Just one that’s not monitored by your own government.