Posted on 03/28/2024 9:59:16 AM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
Across my career at the intersection of national security and our economy, I have witnessed firsthand several game-changing technological revolutions. From GPS to the internet and from smartphones to artificial intelligence, our nation’s unmatched capacity to innovate has created unprecedented benefits for the economy and security.
Another wave is upon us: Blockchain and crypto offer America the chance to lead another generation of critical innovation, but policymakers must do their part, or this opportunity will slip away. If the Biden White House and Congress don’t provide the support and regulatory certainty this burgeoning industry requires, there is little doubt it will develop and thrive elsewhere.
Blockchain is a technology that provides a transparent ledger for something of value. Crypto uses blockchain to enable transactions between people online. The benefits of America leading in blockchain and crypto are clear.
First, these technologies are grounded in principles such as individual freedom, limited government, and privacy, which, as a conservative, I hold dear. Conducting transactions through blockchain eliminates powerful and oftentimes expensive intermediaries, making the financial system more accessible.
While the ledgers showing transactions are public, the identity of account holders is anonymous, providing privacy for accounts doing legal transactions while exposing illicit transactions to significant scrutiny. This balance between privacy and the free flow of data is sorely needed in an age in which social media platforms and other tech companies have unparalleled data on every user.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Hmm. Wonder who inspired him to write this.
"Sound as a dollar" used to be unironically proverbial.
The administrative state craves nothing as much as complete control and the data on all financial transactions, from buying a tank of gas to, a hamburger, to an taxi fare to paying property taxes.
A government controlled digital currency does this. A government supported cryptocurrency prevents it.
“While the ledgers showing transactions are public, the identity of account holders is anonymous, providing privacy for accounts doing legal transactions while exposing illicit transactions to significant scrutiny.”
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I don’t know that much about the details of crypto-currency ledgers. Does the ledger display some kind of “Username”? Maybe an account/member#?
If this is the case, then it seems likely that a program could eventually narrow down or even discover someone’s identity based upon where and when they frequently shopped/made purchases. And this does not even take into account a possible leak from those empowered to regulate the transactions taking place on the ledger.
“at the intersection of “
Lost me with that phrase.
Don’t support this clown, and I know nothing else about him.
For example, public exchanges like Coinbase probably couldn't hide their cold wallets if they tried, since they transact so heavily. And that means anyone can see the inflows and outflows from them. That means you can often trace funds back to a given exchange, and then law enforcement can ask them for account information on who withdrew the given funds.
If there are multiple steps after that point or it was an anonymous account, the trail may run cold. But in the long run law enforcement has gotten pretty good at tracking criminals down. Since the ledger is permanent, it is usually just a matter of time before a criminal screws up and is caught. For example a hacker holding a fortune in bitcoin may gift a bit to a girlfriend years later, who uses it for an online service - triggering law enforcement that is automatically monitoring downstream TX to contact the online service, who traces it back to the girlfriend, who winds up in an interrogation cell, and then you have the SWAT raid an hour later.
That's the basic idea at any rate. As mentioned, there are many permutations and exceptions. Crypto is no more one-size-fits-all than in the global stock market.
Why must we lead? Someone is selling electrons. A bit of data that only has the value someone convinces others it does.
Turn off the internet and it’s useless. Give government control, it TAKES control.
Screw that...
Has Pennsylvania had its GOP primary yet?
If the Blockchain-Crypto guy is our general election candidate, I am not optimistic about our chances.
“If the Biden White House and Congress”
Let me stop you right there....
Absolutely not. He’s a RINO.
What happens when private crypto-currency is made illegal?
Saule Omarova?
The Reader’s Digest version:
Government needs more power!
What about non-hackers? People who have just held cryptocurrency since its beginning?
Really, this is a battle we all expected from the beginning, but surprisingly it never came to pass. There won't be a general ban now, with tens of millions of people holding crypto. I get the impression crypto skeptics have no idea how broad the userbase already is. There are hundreds of millions of people using it globally. In some countries like Turkey a flat majority of adults hold bitcoin. Wall Street is in too deep now with the success of ETFs to stand for a ban.
And the bans have little or no effect, as evidenced by China regularly issuing shrill warnings and denunciations to its own citizens about use of crypto, despite banning it years ago. It's gotten to be a joke.
If you hold mined cryptocurrency without TX from it there is very little chance you can be identified, short of you making some information public to make it traceable. That’s why Satoshi has never been identified.
This system is a recipe for slavery, social control and loss of all freedom, with out current form of gov’t. Any gov’t-controlled/sponsored cryptocurrrency is a very, very bad idea.
In 2021, when the new gold and silver Eagle coins were released, there was discussion of the new “notch” in the reeding along the edge of the coin. Supposedly anti-counterfeiting tech. Then someone proposed this tiny space could be used for an engraved code that would tie the coin to the blockchain. Interesting
So in order to buy and sell using private crypto, I will need to be a criminal. Swell.
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