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by ianmiers 1736 days ago
Because Bitcoin is twitter for your bank account. It exposes everything you do to anyone who can download the blockchain.

You can argue that some gov/regulator should have access, though good luck finding one country everyone trusts. More realistically, and practically, you could require that, as many jurisdictions do with cash, we should have reporting requirements for when a merchant sells something for large amounts of cryptocurrency.

But its pretty hard to argue everyone should be financially naked and exposed to anyone who wants to look. To fix that, even if you're government surveillance friendly, you first need to make the blockchain zero-knowledge (which Monero actually isn't good at, but thats irrelevant here).
2 comments
minsc__and__boo 1736 days ago
Right?

The whole "I don't understand how people can possibly think that identity obfuscation at scale is a good thing for a financial system" can be answered by, "Will you share your entire transaction history and account balances with the entire world? Why not?"

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colinmhayes 1736 days ago
Most people agree that financial regulations regarding money laundering are a good thing. You're arguing a strawman, no one is saying everyone's banking transactions should be on a blockchain.
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logicchains 1736 days ago
>Most people agree that financial regulations regarding money laundering are a good thing

Not people who've done any research on the matter. Regulations on money laundering have been almost completely ineffective at reducing crime (the end goal); the drug market is bigger than ever. What they do achieve is imposing a significant burden on individual and small businesses, while large banks like HSBC can get away with money laundering by paying a nominal fine.

Money laundering regulations are like the financial version of the war on drugs: completely ineffective at what they set out to do, succeeding only at giving the government more power and making life harder for the powerless.

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devoutsalsa 1736 days ago
Reminds me of Blippy => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blippy.

And Venmo => https://www.mic.com/p/matt-gaetz-who-is-definitely-not-a-sex...

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