[steego]

When has anonymously transferring large values of money ever been a right? It’s never been a right.

It’s like saying money laundering should be a right or evading taxes should be a right.

Cash transactions and commerce has been regulated for most of human history, whether it’s been for tax collection purposes or to regulate certain types of transactions.

People who work in cash businesses have never had a right to anonymity. They’ve always had to report sales receipts and earnings so they can pay income, sales taxes or value added taxes.

If you want to buy things with cash, you can. If they don’t take paper currency, use a gift card.

Keep in mind, you’re on camera everywhere and your phone is always tracking you. Practically speaking, it’s very unlikely you’ve been anonymous for some time.

[ashwagary]

>When has anonymously transferring large values of money ever been a right?

Most of human history. People were born with this right.

[empthought]

I don't know where to begin telling you how wrong you are. Hammurabi's code has plenty of examples of a punishment of being put to death because you didn't have witnesses, a contract, or a receipt for paying for something. (It's easy for someone else to accuse you of stealing.)

[ashwagary]

Incorrect.

Even in Hammurabi's code, receipts for agents, witnesses, and contracts, were only used for settling disputes in court where fraud may have been committed. Those instances with conflicting claims were a tiny minority of overall transaction volume, meaning receipts were optional and not required for the vast majority of transactions; especially between trusted parties.

As far as that "state" was concerned, all transactions were anonymous until a dispute was brought to court.

[empthought]

Incorrect. The reason fraud was rare was because of the general insistence on documentation. Court challenges were rare because people did in fact KYC.

[ashwagary]

False. What Hammurabi's code describes is a customer keeping proof of agreement for settling disputes which is Know Your Seller (KYS) not KYC, and it was not required.

[empthought]

Wrong. The transactions everyone is talking about here (whether Bitcoin or conventional financial transactions) fall under the banking laws, not the ones about simple purchases.