Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by TameAntelope 1456 days ago
> Coinbase Tracer allows clients, in both government and the private sector, to trace transactions through the blockchain, a distributed ledger of transactions integral to cryptocurrency use.

Because both the parent comment and I have read the article, so we both have evidence to support the claim that Coinbase is only using publicly-available information, as that's how Coinbase Tracer, the license to which was reported as sold to ICE for $29,000, works.
1 comments
braingenious 1456 days ago
I think the person you’re talking to is theorizing about the possibility that Coinbase may not be completely honest in their statement about the nature of the service they provide to ICE. The article does not provide proof aside from repeating Coinbase’s statement.

If your standard of proof is “somebody wrote something online,” then GP provided you with proof that it’s possible that Coinbase lied.

link
TameAntelope 1456 days ago
> If your standard of proof is “somebody wrote something online,” then GP provided you with proof that it’s possible that Coinbase lied.

I literally cannot parse this sentence, can you rephrase?

link
braingenious 1456 days ago
I’m not sure how this is unclear. If Coinbase wrote a paragraph about their practices and that paragraph is “proof” of their practices, why wouldn’t another party writing a paragraph constitute “proof” of their position?

The topic of this sentence is “the definition of proof.”

link
TameAntelope 1456 days ago
Eliminate the word “proof” from your vocabulary.

All we have here is evidence, which is fundamentally different.

link
braingenious 1455 days ago
Okay, there are words saying that “maybe Coinbase’s work with ICE is more sinister than they divulged.”

Those are words online! That’s evidence! You cannot refute that someone wrote those words. I know that those are words online because I wrote them! Now you have evidence and testimony.

The funny part about all this is that nobody is claiming that they know that Coinbase is lying about this contract. It’s all been entirely hypothetical (hence the word “maybe.”)

What evidence or proof have you seen that there exists no possibility of a corporation lying about their relationship with a controversial government agency?

link
TameAntelope 1455 days ago
Rational thinkers don't consider beliefs just because they haven't conclusively been "disproven".
link