It's entirely predictable that any system that's truly private, anonymous and untraceable will be abused. That's simply because some people are wont to abuse others.
But that doesn't require that we eliminate privacy and anonymity, and make everything traceable. Personally, that would be intolerable. And unless people became hugely more tolerant, it would tend to enforce conformity, and inhibit dissent.
Also, perhaps ironically, "scams, Ponzis and other fraud" are reliable indicators that systems are truly private, anonymous and untraceable. Canaries, one might say.
>But that doesn't require that we eliminate privacy and anonymity
But it seriously limits any sort of appeal it may have to regular folk who don't really care about that anonymity.
In the case of Liberty Reserve and e-gold, just their mention becomes a huge red flag for any legitimate activity. Cryptocurrency is basically there too, particularly as it's a worse system in pretty much every other way.
It's entirely predictable that any system that's truly private, anonymous and untraceable will be abused. That's simply because some people are wont to abuse others.
But that doesn't require that we eliminate privacy and anonymity, and make everything traceable. Personally, that would be intolerable. And unless people became hugely more tolerant, it would tend to enforce conformity, and inhibit dissent.
Also, perhaps ironically, "scams, Ponzis and other fraud" are reliable indicators that systems are truly private, anonymous and untraceable. Canaries, one might say.