I took notice that there are more and more people interested in crypto and I would like to make them realize that this is a technology that can save us all or enslave us all. Or at least make some people think about fungibility and it’s importance in this “new world” they are being introduced to.Short example posted above TLDRFirst off, what is fungibility?Taken from https://ift.tt/3cz6m2H Person A lends Person B a $50 bill, it does not matter to Person A if he is repaid with a different $50 bill, as it is mutually substitutable. In the same sense, Person A can be repaid with two $20 bills and one $10 bill and still be satisfied, since the total equals $50. Conversely, as an example of non-fungibility, if Person A lends Person B his car, it is not acceptable for Person B to return a different car, even if it is the same make and model as the original car lent by Person A. Cars are not fungible with respect to ownership, but the gasoline that powers the cars is fungible.Hypothetical question:You have money to buy one Bitcoin and are confronted with two options:1) You buy it from a regulated reputable exchange. 2) You buy it from your friend who got it as payment from a recent extortion. Immediately you are faced with two fundamental problems:1) Clean BTC should actually be more valuable then dirty BTC, since you would obviously want the BTC that can not be backtraced to any criminal activity. (Note that what China defines as criminal activities for instance may not be the case in another country) 2) BTC could be confiscated at any point in time since it’s origin can be traced, even when it hasn’t been blacklisted straight away. You could be facing serious consequences. We see this already today, addresses that hold coins related to criminal activities are closely being monitored. When they move, it gets noticed and all eyes are on them.https://ift.tt/2A2shSE you buy OTC or through DEXes how will you know that your BTC is clean?This is not a post to tell you criminals should get away with their activities because they shouldn’t, i’m trying to explain that you should never be in any position where your money can be confiscated because it suddenly gets tied to those activities. Your money being confiscated could actually be the least of your problems in such a situation anyway. Think about how easy it becomes to imprison someone that your government doesn’t like.I’m sure the governments would love to fade out regular cash though, because obviously they can just block your account and take away your basic rights. It happens already to people all over the world who use digital money services like PayPall for instance. https://ift.tt/3dzJEc3 people like Snowden, or for Wikileaks bitcoin was their solution at that time. Today, there are better alternatives and everyone should think carefully about what world they want to live in.To bitcoins defense, there are certain things you can do to make your transactions more private. Bitcoin mixing is a thing. Bitcoin's Lightning Network is expected to give users the option to make transactions that will not be recorded on the blockchain.Optional privacy raises eyebrows though, authorities could be knocking on your door asking you why you made an optional private transaction. Privacy by default is what we need in the future we see in front of us.You can find tons of information about deanonymization. This is something that China can “easily“ accomplish.This is taken from here https://ift.tt/3gR0Aga Bitcoin is designed to preserve the pseudonymity of its users, meaning that their real-world identity cannot be linked to a Bitcoin address they have used to transact. However, in practice there are complications that make deanonymization attacks possible. China might seek to deanonymize users for two reasons. First, they may wish to enforce laws and regulations; for example, enforcing capital flight restrictions by identifying users purchasing foreign goods or exchanging Bitcoin into foreign currencies. They might also use a deanonymization attack for ideological (or political) ends: to publicly reveal malfeasance by subversives or political opponents or simply to demonstrate the superiority of centralized control as an ideology and discourage enthusiasm for decentralized systems. We identify four attacks that China could use to deanonymize specific users. First, they could use known research techniques to (a) heuristically cluster pseudonymous identities (e.g., connect multiple addresses to the same user) [31,44]. The simplest example of such a heuristic is to cluster addresses that appear as multiple inputs to the same transaction, as they presumably belong to the same user. The only required capabilities are access to the blockchain and marginal compute power to run the analytics, so these attacks are not unique to China; virtually anyone could commit them. Where China has an advantage over typical adversaries is in linking these pseudonyms to IP addresses. One approach would be to covertly (b) monitor Bitcoin network traffic and identify which IP addresses transactions originate from [4,27]. Because Bitcoin traffic is unencrypted, this can be done through deep packet inspection (DPI). China could also use (c) coercion or regulation to covertly compel service providers that deal in Bitcoin, such as merchants or exchanges, to identify their users. Further, it has been shown that when Bitcoin is used for online purchases, enough information is leaked to web trackers that they can uniquely identify the transaction on the blockchain and link it to any identifying information provided by the purchaser [21]. China could covertly (d) intercept this tracking information over the Internet (using DPI) to perform the same attack, compel domestic tracking companies to provide the information (also covertly), or inject their own trackers into Internet traffic to collect similar information themselves. Tracker injection could be detected by anyone specifically monitoring Internet traffic for such attacks, so we note that it would be overt. Finally, China could target users directly using (e) coercion or regulation to compel them to deanonymize themselves or their transaction partners. Again, as long as targets are compelled to keep quiet about orders to reveal information, this attack is covert.For fungible coins these deanonymization attacks are probably not impossible but a hell of a lot harder.Just to clarify i am not an expert on the matter. I just feel that to few people are aware about the importance and hope this post maybe sparkle some interesting opinions and conversations along the way.If you made it this far I applaud you :-), now check how much balance this guy has in his wallet and see how much he earns every month :Dhttps://moneroblocks.info/search/4AdUndXHHZ6cfufTMvppY6JwXNouMBzSkbLYfpAV5Usx3skxNgYeYTRj5UzqtReoS44qo9mtmXCqY45DJ852K5Jv2684RgeExample:Imagine you want to buy a CAR, and your friend needs to sell his CAR. You did some digging in the market to find an agreement on the price and proceed with the transfer. It happens OTC because there is no need for a middleman, it’s your buddy right?! (For clarity, you both sign a contract to change ownership) You are super excited with your new cool ass CAR, never had one before :-) do some drinking and have an accident. You turn up in the hospital and while you pay for your way out you get arrested. Apparently the CAR was stolen and used in a kidnapping affair.1st point: A lot of people can buy CARs, and since the CAR owners/transactions are all stored somewhere on a ledger... do you think the authorities will let you keep that CAR when they find out it was stolen or maybe something worse?2nd point: a CAR is a non fungible asset, meaning that you can trace past owners/origin and could end up with a CAR that should actually be worth A LOT less than what you paid for (because it was obviously dirty)Now go back to the beginning of the example and switch CAR with BTC, then you will know why fungibility matters.TLDR; to fungible or not to fungible, that is the question and the answer will either save us all or enslave us all.Edit: added short example
Submitted June 05, 2020 at 05:00AM
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