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by sangnoir 846 days ago
Hypothetically, getting those who hate "the feds" to record their transactions on a public ledger would be criminal intelligence coup even bigger than when FBI's "Encrypted Phone" platform became popular with criminals[1]. In this hypothetical, the FBI would hack/subvert/operate their own mixer service and eliminate uncooperative services, so that all money-flows are transparent to investigators.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/fbi-s-encrypted-phone-p...
1 comments
TimeBearingDown 846 days ago
Not all cryptocurrencies use public ledgers. Bitcoin was the first, but it was always intended to add privacy tech - see MimbleWimble.

Zero knowledge proofs and other strong privacy protections are available on more modern projects. Some ledgers are entirely dark, granting a decent anonymity set.

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sangnoir 845 days ago
How many of those cryptocurrency were created by Satoshi Nakamoto, the subject of the thread's speculation? I was speculating on the why a 3LA would have created Bitcoin, specifically.
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TimeBearingDown 845 days ago
Others like Monero also have mysterious origins. I don’t think Satoshi was behind the design even in part, but it’s one theory.

I’m pointing out that even if Bitcoin was the creation, the introduction of this concept and class of data structure is much more important and will have more lasting impact.

Surely any government agency would have considered the feasibility of new alternatives with similar designs.

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