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by lwansbrough 1750 days ago
> It is traceable when the appropriate dataset is overlaid on top of it. Ie. IP addresses, known public keys associated with people/organizations. Within itself, you don't know who is sending or receiving.

You mean the kind of information governments readily have access to?

> Yes, its almost as if you need to take steps and precautions to ensure that your government cannot track you down. You know where its even easier to trace your transactions and freeze your assets? Your bank account.

Ever heard of cash?
2 comments
coralreef 1750 days ago
You mean the kind of information governments readily have access to?

Ever hear of a VPN, Tor, or BitTorrent? How's the war on movie piracy going?

Ever heard of cash?

Yeah, I've also heard of civil forfeiture where the police take your money without cause or ability for remediation.

I've heard of authoritarian governments who scan your face and keep your social credit score, and will prevent you from making transactions and opening accounts, making your life much more difficult.

I've heard of a house fire, and cash burns pretty easily if I recall, even if its the new stuff made of plastic polymers.

I've heard of counterfeit bills too.

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sgammon 1750 days ago
the FBI can, and has, seized bitcoin. the FBI cannot, and has never been able to, seize cash they cannot find or otherwise touch with their hands.
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coralreef 1750 days ago
The FBI can seize Bitcoin if the private keys are insecure by way of being physically available and unencrypted on servers/devices domiciled in the United States, or by cooperation of a party with access to said private key.

The FBI, or any government entity, cannot seize Bitcoin from an address otherwise. To do so would demonstrate the ability to break the encryption underpinning Bitcoin's opensource key creation protocol.

Put another way: there's a billion dollars sitting at addresses right now for you to steal. If you can crack the keys, go steal that money and make it public. That would destroy Bitcoin quickly. The open market bet is that you (or anyone else) can't.

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0-_-0 1750 days ago
Cash is easy to trace
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