2 ms·

Sounds far-fetched to me, but I'll play along. Assuming some third-party actor in the game, we make a mistake if we assume there was only one reason. Even if w

Sounds far-fetched to me, but I'll play along. Assuming some third-party actor in the game, we make a mistake if we assume there was only one reason. Even if we concentrate on one reason, we may be drifting off-course. The primary value of BitCoin is its anonymity and difficulty to trace. That means that the people that made it appreciated those values. The world economic system is closing up -- slowly the noose tightens, and there's less and less place to hide transactions. That creates a need both at the state and individual level. What I'm interested in is if there is a BitCoin 2.0, or 3.0. I sure hope so. I'd hate to think the very first thing that became popular ends up being the de facto anonymized currency. When I'm thinking about who would build this and how it would be reviewed, everybody jumping on the 1.0 bandwagon doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies.

feral 14y ago
>The primary value of BitCoin is its anonymity and difficulty to trace. That means that the people that made it appreciated those values. There are many simple things that could have been done to make it more anonymous. The blockchain contains huge amounts of information that could have been made much harder to analyze, if anonymity was a main design goal. The rest of the system is almost surprisingly well designed and robust, it seems surprising to me that if they set out to design for anonymity, this is the best they came up with. Hell, if we put our tinfoil hats on, and go with the line of thinking in PGs post, I'd almost say that from an anonymity point of view, in default usage, its closer to the 'clipper chip', where its just obscure enough to make people think they are anonymous, but really reveals a lot if you look at it properly. Not putting that forward as a theory, though!

2 ms·

Sounds far-fetched to me, but I'll play along. Assuming some third-party actor in the game, we make a mistake if we assume there was only one reason. Even if w

by DanielBMarkham 14y ago

feral 14y ago
>The primary value of BitCoin is its anonymity and difficulty to trace. That means that the people that made it appreciated those values. There are many simple things that could have been done to make it more anonymous. The blockchain contains huge amounts of information that could have been made much harder to analyze, if anonymity was a main design goal. The rest of the system is almost surprisingly well designed and robust, it seems surprising to me that if they set out to design for anonymity, this is the best they came up with. Hell, if we put our tinfoil hats on, and go with the line of thinking in PGs post, I'd almost say that from an anonymity point of view, in default usage, its closer to the 'clipper chip', where its just obscure enough to make people think they are anonymous, but really reveals a lot if you look at it properly. Not putting that forward as a theory, though!