Topic: Bitcoin Leading To Total Surveillance Of Payments? (Read 223 times)

It is very possible that bitcoin will lead to an increase in surveillance of payments and transactions. Where cash is being systematically phased out by governments, what will take its place, naturally, is an electronic form of cash which is more readily traceable. The powers that be desire the ability to aggregate large amounts of data and form predictions of behavior based on spending patterns.

Money, as a language, is a very telling indicator of where people are placing their intention and their purchasing power. The political establishment will do whatever it can to ensure that users of electronic currency (and bitcoin) are tracked, controlled, and if need be, chipped.

Make no mistake about it, if the current political trajectory does not change, the political establishment will have their way and the surveillance of payments will be here very shortly. For those who do not comply or submit to authority, their representation on this electronic network will be switched off like a light switch.

Although the nuances remain undetermined, what is clear is that bitcoin empowers cashlessness. It also risks being co-opted by large mining operations. Central banks are looking at issuing their own crypto-style currency, but who will choose these over the original implementation of 2009?

There are many known unknowns in the bitcoin industry. However, what remains clear is that we have an era of total surveillance ahead of us, and bitcoin is one of many technologies which empower it.

Bitcoin allows some ways of achieving pretty good privacy - currently we have mixers, in the future there will be Lightning Network, coinjoin, schnorr signatures and other options. Users also have to take steps to protect their privacy by following some rules - don't reuse addresses, be careful with what inputs you include, don't post your addresses on social networks, etc. It's seriously wrong to portray Bitcoin as a surveillance tool.

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Isn't that Monero/Dash? Those blockchains are definetly not transparent or very user-friendly and no-one is able to see anyone else's wallet unless they have special keys, from my understanding of the coins.

I think if BTC was made with that sorta mindset, the government would be screwed, and it'll be impossible to track criminals since you can't shift through a public ledger and don't have any clues at all to go off of.

If the government really wants, they can make it hard enough for normal people to use crypto currency but that won't stop money launderers from using it. The best way would be to go through some regulations where the government would have some form of monitoring while people transacts without restrictions. Freedom doesn't mean doing anything without restrictions.

If you want to have more privacy when making transactions, use anonymous cryptocurrencies. Thus, leading cryptocurrencies like Monero, Zcash and the like just solve the problem of control of your money from anyone. And ordinary electronic money in Bank accounts of course are subject to control. All your operations are known. Banks know what you spent your money on. To be honest, I do not see this as a problem for law-abiding citizens. And, I also do not understand why some citizens so want this most notorious privacy when making money transfers and payments.

There are many known unknowns in the bitcoin industry. However, what remains clear is that we have an era of total surveillance ahead of us, and bitcoin is one of many technologies which empower it.

It is very possible that bitcoin will lead to an increase in surveillance of payments and transactions. Where cash is being systematically phased out by governments, what will take its place, naturally, is an electronic form of cash which is more readily traceable. The powers that be desire the ability to aggregate large amounts of data and form predictions of behavior based on spending patterns.

Money, as a language, is a very telling indicator of where people are placing their intention and their purchasing power. The political establishment will do whatever it can to ensure that users of electronic currency (and bitcoin) are tracked, controlled, and if need be, chipped.

Make no mistake about it, if the current political trajectory does not change, the political establishment will have their way and the surveillance of payments will be here very shortly. For those who do not comply or submit to authority, their representation on this electronic network will be switched off like a light switch.

Although the nuances remain undetermined, what is clear is that bitcoin empowers cashlessness. It also risks being co-opted by large mining operations. Central banks are looking at issuing their own crypto-style currency, but who will choose these over the original implementation of 2009?

There are many known unknowns in the bitcoin industry. However, what remains clear is that we have an era of total surveillance ahead of us, and bitcoin is one of many technologies which empower it.

It would be interesting to see how a straightforward soft fork that instantly gave impenetrable privacy would be received.

I'm pretty sure its transparency is one of the reasons it's tolerated.

If that vanished with a click a lot of people would be having kittens.

It is very possible that bitcoin will lead to an increase in surveillance of payments and transactions. Where cash is being systematically phased out by governments, what will take its place, naturally, is an electronic form of cash which is more readily traceable. The powers that be desire the ability to aggregate large amounts of data and form predictions of behavior based on spending patterns.

Money, as a language, is a very telling indicator of where people are placing their intention and their purchasing power. The political establishment will do whatever it can to ensure that users of electronic currency (and bitcoin) are tracked, controlled, and if need be, chipped.

Make no mistake about it, if the current political trajectory does not change, the political establishment will have their way and the surveillance of payments will be here very shortly. For those who do not comply or submit to authority, their representation on this electronic network will be switched off like a light switch.

Although the nuances remain undetermined, what is clear is that bitcoin empowers cashlessness. It also risks being co-opted by large mining operations. Central banks are looking at issuing their own crypto-style currency, but who will choose these over the original implementation of 2009?

There are many known unknowns in the bitcoin industry. However, what remains clear is that we have an era of total surveillance ahead of us, and bitcoin is one of many technologies which empower it.