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The existence of shitty countries doing shitty things to their citizens is not enough reason to not do reasonable things in developed countries. And again, f'i

by dlp211 5y ago

The existence of shitty countries doing shitty things to their citizens is not enough reason to not do reasonable things in developed countries. And again, f'ing crypto. This is the entire reason for crypto, to execute black market purchases (even if no one wants to make that the headline use of crypto). And if you think that your all cash purchases aren't being tracked, I have some bad news for you. If you walk into a store with a cell phone, you are being tracked, transaction and all. Facial recognition is going to be used the same way in those shitty countries (see China), so even going analog isn't going to save you. There is no anonymity anymore unless you literally eschew all society and go live in the wilderness. Even then, it's not a guarantee.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago
But it's not centralized. Yes, the gay porn store might have a VHS security cam, and the phone can locate you to the shopping center where the gay porn store is, and also walmart and home depot, but none of this is centralized, and none of those things can be easily done en masse. Look at tracking for example... even in ancient history, someone could follow you around whereever you went, but that meant a dedicated person following you, and only you. For someone else, another dedicated person. And a wage, someone to replace them after their workday is done, etc. Now, with mobile phones, you can track 95% of the population just by doing a simple database query. There is a huge difference between those two levels of tracking.
- yunohn 5y ago
  I completely agree with your line of reasoning - there is definitely a massive difference between cash transactions being potentially tracked by CCTV, and a centralized ledger… I’m not sure what the other commenter is getting at, other than a weird attempt to shift the Overton window on financial privacy expectations.

by dlp211 5y ago

ajsnigrutin 5y ago

But it's not centralized. Yes, the gay porn store might have a VHS security cam, and the phone can locate you to the shopping center where the gay porn store is, and also walmart and home depot, but none of this is centralized, and none of those things can be easily done en masse. Look at tracking for example... even in ancient history, someone could follow you around whereever you went, but that meant a dedicated person following you, and only you. For someone else, another dedicated person. And a wage, someone to replace them after their workday is done, etc. Now, with mobile phones, you can track 95% of the population just by doing a simple database query. There is a huge difference between those two levels of tracking.

yunohn 5y ago
I completely agree with your line of reasoning - there is definitely a massive difference between cash transactions being potentially tracked by CCTV, and a centralized ledger… I’m not sure what the other commenter is getting at, other than a weird attempt to shift the Overton window on financial privacy expectations.