I know this sub can be a bit tribal but bear with me.As I am sure most of you know, Bitcoin and Bitcoin-like blockchains are completely transparent. Pseudonymous at best, their privacy has been revealed to be far less than initially assumed.This is now understood by the power structures, who have targeted specifically the entities through which most people acquire the digital asset: exchanges.Since every transaction can be analyzed, and since the exchange will, if it doesn't already, share all of this information with the government, any and everything you do with your BTC from then on will forever be available to more and more precise tracking.Perhaps your only interest in BTC / crypto is investing and cashing out to fiat, in which case fair enough, I can see why you would not care.But if you actually see the potential with this stuff, how easy it becomes to send value to anyone, anywhere.. is it really wise that this is done in a completely transparent manner, for all of the world to see?Some weeks ago someone posted here that Mastercard and Google had a deal where good old Google paid millions for MC transaction data.Why do you think that is?Do you believe a world where everything you buy is tracked and attached to your real identity makes for a better world for everyone?Or are we normalizing tyranny in this way?Would you login to your bank account without https? Why send money in a way where anyone from thieves to relatives to business competitors to embittered ex-partners to envious friends to .. (could go on) can see your financial activity?If to any of you this seems like a good idea, I challenge you to post here a link to all of your banking statements from the last year.Ok.. so it could be the way described above, or it could be the following.You receive some XMR, nobody can tell that you did unless you choose to share (viewkey), you store it or you send it to someone else, and nobody can tell that you did or did not. Your business stays your own business.When did privacy become a crime?Now after the last network upgrade, Monero transactions cost less than a cent.I am serious (and puzzled!) when I ask -- why would you use Bitcoin instead?Let me just finish by saying that I choose Monero to contrast here because in my opinion it has the best technology and the best implementation. Just substitute it in your mind for dash/zcash/verge (olol)/whatever if you don't agree, please let's not make THAT the center of the discussion.Oh, one more thing: don't mistake this for bashing bitcoin, it sparked my original interest in crypto back in the day, and there is still some interesting technical evolution happening. What I'm really curious about here is why would people choose mass-surveillance willingly rather than assert their human right to privacy.
Submitted October 28, 2018 at 04:20PM
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