[ETH_start]

Those with the most power can legalize everything they do. The monopoly on violence wielded by the government tends to concentrate power. Mass-surveillance of financial transactions, or conversely, lack of private money, extends the reach of the government, and with it, the ability of the most powerful to extract resources from the general population.

Those in the centers of power don't need to launder money. They write the laws, so their income is not illicit.

[throwaway290]

> Those in the centers of power don't need to launder money.

Oh yes they do. Read about all the ways dictators and their friends wash ill-gained riches in the West to buy real estate, enjoy lavish lifestyle, finance activities that undermine democracies and further their own agenda, etc. Sanctions exist for a reason.

You can't have anonymity without enabling crime and laundering. In a digital world where you need less to be physically present to profit from a crime, I want law enforcement to be able to seize criminal's funds.

If you think your government abuses that power try electing a different one, if you are in a democracy you can. If you want lawless anarchy I'm not with you, we had something like that in Russia in the 90s and it's not fun.

[ETH_start]

It's only the dictators of banana republics, which by definition are not great power states, which need to engage in that kind of corruption, and only because they don't wield government power within the largest economies, where they would prefer to park their wealth due to their centrality and stability.

Those at the top of the political order within the centers global economic power have no need to engage something as crude as money laundering, or at least not the kind that depends on clandestine exchanges of briefcases filled with cash. Everything is reported and ostensibly legal.

>>You can't have anonymity without enabling crime and laundering.

You can very much combat crime without warrantless mass-surveillance of private financial transactions. Real crime leaves huge numbers of evidence trails that can be followed. Private electronic cash can also be utilized by law enforcement to incentivize informants to come forward anonymously.

Warrantless mass-surveillance enables tyranny. It enables the kind of systemic repression that can harm billions of people.