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Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion => Topic started by: hugeblack on May 09, 2021, 11:57:38 AM



Title: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: hugeblack on May 09, 2021, 11:57:38 AM
you can read it from his twitter account ---> https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1391035543773929473

Quote
the worst part of cryptocurrency transforming into dragon-level wealth is witnessing good people emotionally devolve into dragons themselves: so intellectually paralyzed by the fear that everyone they see threatens their hoard that they lose sight of the world beyond their cave.
1) This is such a profoundly misleading TL;DR of a privacy-focused talk that it's hard to call it anything but intentionally deceptive.

2) To the extent I own crypto (unless and until it has been lost in boating accidents), I own more bitcoin than anything else—but

3) Bitcoin's disastrous privacy is the "missing stair" of cryptocurrency. Every expert understands it's a problem, but—as experts—they themselves know how to compensate for the risk in their own personal interactions with Bitcoin, and therefore feel no urgency to actually fix it.

4) Privacy coins are great, but they're too small and too easy to smother via regulatory actions like de-listing from exchanges. Only Bitcoin has immunity-via-dominance to delisting. It adopting privacy-by-design instantly normalizes financial privacy. Ultima Ratio Cryptum.

The central property of cash is fungibility—meaning a dollar spent by a plumber is honored equally to one spent by a sex worker: they are indiscriminable. Adversarial chain analysis of Bitcoin's public ledger reduces its fungibility over time. Only privacy guarantees fungibility.


Snowden believes that privacy is what guarantees replacability, just as it does to cash. I see that many people who use Bitcoin have become more interested in prices and their fluctuations than decentralization or privacy, which is the essence of the value of it.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: Poker Player on May 09, 2021, 01:23:23 PM
Interesting. I didn't know much about privacy, but little by little I know more and more about coin control, mixers, or coinjoin.

I would say that to some extent, Bitcoin is similar to cash although you have to be more careful to maintain privacy.

Cash is not 100% anonymous. If you go somewhere, pay for something with cash but ask for a bill and give your ID so the data appears on the bill, there is no privacy. If you go to buy drugs with cash, the dealer sees your face. Also the bills they give you at the bank are numbered and in principle could be traced if it hasn't been too long since they were given to you.

With Bitcoin you have ways to maintain privacy, and Coinjoin looks quite interesting.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: avikz on May 09, 2021, 01:30:40 PM
Bitcoin has become an investment asset more than anything else. It's not anymore a currency to the mass which is used for transactions over the internet. It's not anymore a system which lets you take over your finances from the money hungry corporates. It's not a revolution anymore!

Bitcoin has simply become an investment asset which has outperformed all other investment assets so far. So what Snowden is referring to, is true! Sad but true! It has become a way to be rich more than anything else!


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: 0t3p0t on May 09, 2021, 01:31:38 PM
you can read it from his twitter account ---> https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1391035543773929473

Quote
the worst part of cryptocurrency transforming into dragon-level wealth is witnessing good people emotionally devolve into dragons themselves: so intellectually paralyzed by the fear that everyone they see threatens their hoard that they lose sight of the world beyond their cave.
1) This is such a profoundly misleading TL;DR of a privacy-focused talk that it's hard to call it anything but intentionally deceptive.

2) To the extent I own crypto (unless and until it has been lost in boating accidents), I own more bitcoin than anything else—but

3) Bitcoin's disastrous privacy is the "missing stair" of cryptocurrency. Every expert understands it's a problem, but—as experts—they themselves know how to compensate for the risk in their own personal interactions with Bitcoin, and therefore feel no urgency to actually fix it.

4) Privacy coins are great, but they're too small and too easy to smother via regulatory actions like de-listing from exchanges. Only Bitcoin has immunity-via-dominance to delisting. It adopting privacy-by-design instantly normalizes financial privacy. Ultima Ratio Cryptum.

The central property of cash is fungibility—meaning a dollar spent by a plumber is honored equally to one spent by a sex worker: they are indiscriminable. Adversarial chain analysis of Bitcoin's public ledger reduces its fungibility over time. Only privacy guarantees fungibility.


Snowden believes that privacy is what guarantees replacability, just as it does to cash. I see that many people who use Bitcoin have become more interested in prices and their fluctuations than decentralization or privacy, which is the essence of the value of it.
That is true that most people know Bitcoin only for it's sky rocketing price but not the decentralization and privacy because of the "investment" thing people wanted to happen with Bitcoin. Profit is what matters most nowadays even billionaires did something like that if I am not mistaken. Privacy and decentralization is just a bonus I think.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: Tytanowy Janusz on May 09, 2021, 01:47:56 PM
That is true that most people know Bitcoin only for it's sky rocketing price

Because most people that we have in crypto now are new guys (because crypto community grows expotentially), lambo guys who came here to find another doge that will make them rich fast. Thats normal during bubble. No matter which tech this bubble is made from (The Dotcom Bubble, Railway Mania, housing bubble) After the bubble all of them are broken and leave crypto market. Crypto market is made from fundamential investors that day. No one is investing is shiba (x1000 in last month) only because its named after the breed of the dog from DOGE crypto.

Decentralization, safety, diversification of well balanced portfolio where you put few% into bitcoin. Thats what's most people do outside of/after mania.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: dkbit98 on May 09, 2021, 01:52:53 PM
Privacy coins are great, but they're too small and too easy to smother via regulatory actions like de-listing from exchanges. Only Bitcoin has immunity-via-dominance to delisting. It adopting privacy-by-design instantly normalizes financial privacy. Ultima Ratio Cryptum.

Snowden isn't wrong about many things he say and I understand his criticism about Bitcoin can be very constructive, but I don't think he fully understands Taproot when he said that it will make privacy even worse.
Everyone here (except maybe governments) would love to see Bitcoin developers introducing better privacy improvements maybe with some ring signatures or other solutions,
but that would mean new hard forks and potentially big problems with regulators worldwide.
I would love to see some serious discussion and suggestions about improving Bitcoin privacy on main chain without second layer or other centralized solution, and maybe Snowden just wanted to shake and wake up developers.
Without making any conclusion better listen Snowden's full interview and maybe listen what he said in his previous talks about Bitcoin and privacy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRsvz6pRtZE


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: buwaytress on May 09, 2021, 03:08:30 PM
I don't think there was ever a time when there were more Bitcoiners interested in privacy more than in its price. At least, not from the moment there was a market created for it, and a first exchange rate (calculated as the electricity cost to produce it).

No pretenses from people like me either. I first looked into Bitcoin properly out of a situation where I had time, and then actually used it out of the necessity for a PayPal alternative. Privacy is nice, and important, but I can't lie that that's why I used Bitcoin first.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: 20kevin20 on May 09, 2021, 03:14:57 PM
I think it totally depends on what we want from Bitcoin: do we want it to be a globally-accepted currency or do we want it to be an off-grid alternative to fiat? I would personally like the latter much more than the first, because while we may have "regulatory issues" the more privacy there is, does that matter when the government shows clear signs of a strong desire to control?

Privacy coins are great and if Snowden agrees that a phone without mic & cam (so without the possibility of surveillance) is better, then why would it be an issue to have a coin without possibility for surveillance? Isn't it pretty much the same deal?

Privacy is nice, and important, but I can't lie that that's why I used Bitcoin first.
I think the time will come when Bitcoin users will be seeking privacy. Definitely not all of them, probably not even the majority, but a not insignificant part of them. I started using my first phone due to the necessity of wireless communication. Today however, I am looking for phones with Lineage support and de-Google them ASAP. While 10 years ago digital privacy may have not been a big issue, today with so many intrusive platforms and corporations it's an incrementally higher concern..


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: aoluain on May 09, 2021, 03:27:16 PM
Bitcoin has become an investment asset more than anything else. It's not anymore a currency to the mass which is used for transactions over the internet. It's not anymore a system which lets you take over your finances from the money hungry corporates. It's not a revolution anymore!

Bitcoin has simply become an investment asset which has outperformed all other investment assets so far. So what Snowden is referring to, is true! Sad but true! It has become a way to be rich more than anything else!

Thats exactly it, we are seeing more and more of the "wealthy class# of people
and large companies investing in Bitcoin primarily as an inflation hedge but also
they are realising massive gains.

The upside is that anyone can own it so less wealthy people are also realising gains
which means less and less want to spend it.

The privacy functions or worries of Bitcoin are rarely commented upon in the forum,
Myself included so taproot isnt a critical aspect of Bitcoin for a lot of people but
it is for the people who value the fundamentals of Bitcoinand are interested in its
development not just its $ value.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: franky1 on May 09, 2021, 03:36:08 PM
to be honest..
i have never seen any exchange blacklist any bitcoin if it was related to adult porn. nor any cannabis dispensories

however. stuff that is truly illegal and causes of harm.. well yes maybe just maybe those criminals need to be stopped.

let the kiddy porn/hitmen hard drug criminals go play with an altcoin for their privacy.
and leave bitcoin for the good stuff that doesnt need ID registration. but also doesnt need blacklisting

the solution is far simpler. let the drug addicts and child sex traffickers go play with an altcoin


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: kryptqnick on May 09, 2021, 03:48:37 PM
Since it's Snowden we're talking about, no wonder he's into privacy and doesn't like that Bitcoin isn't really private. And he's right that Bitcoin won't be delisted because it's #1, but I also don't see how Bitcoin is supposed to suddenly become private. It was built to be transparent, not to ensure anonymity, and so it's unclear how it can become something different. Moreover, he makes the argument that basically since transactions are available for everyone to observe, when some are 'marked' with shady stuff going on, people might avoid these coins even though they're technically worth the same as any other bitcoins. So this way Bitcoin might become somewhat non-fungible. But coins seized by various authorities then get sold on auctions, so I think their reputation becomes clean once again and they can then be used without issues. And if some dollar banknotes literally have traces of drugs or blood on them, for instance, it's not like they're truly fungible either.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: grabpopcorn536 on May 09, 2021, 04:07:49 PM
Bitcoin's privacy is the biggest omission of being a real currency. But Bitcoin's strong decentralization is what gives it a great value.
If Bitcoin is anonymous, they will be boycotted by the authorities as they do with Monero, Dash ...
The majority of people invest in Bitcoin for profit and that is very common nowadays. They invest for money, not Bitcoin technology. It is the incentive to develop for the benefit of the community instead of technology that has made the crypto space worse.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: Findingnemo on May 09, 2021, 05:13:28 PM
Its obvious that people are investing on bitcoin for the high returns and recent surge in the price not for the reason why it was actually created for while still adoption is adoption no matter what so these people who adopted bitcoin will know the value of privacy since I personally realized it after getting into bitcoin than become a bitcoiner. :)


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: hatshepsut93 on May 09, 2021, 07:33:37 PM
4) Privacy coins are great, but they're too small and too easy to smother via regulatory actions like de-listing from exchanges. Only Bitcoin has immunity-via-dominance to delisting. It adopting privacy-by-design instantly normalizes financial privacy. Ultima Ratio Cryptum.


Bitcoin delisting would be called "exchange ban". It's far less likely to happen now, as we get more and more adoption and even crypto lobbying is starting to emerge. But the governments have this power to stop Bitcoin if they wanted. Of course it would not be a full stop, but Bitcoin would essentially be underground money, like foreign currencies were in Soviet Union, for example. Not really a good scenario for mass adoption.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on May 09, 2021, 08:21:19 PM
I see that many people who use Bitcoin have become more interested in prices and their fluctuations than decentralization or privacy, which is the essence of the value of it.
Sadly, more people are interested in the price than in the decentralization, technology, development, even the whole point of bitcoin. This forum is filled with people who welcome government regulation and censorship, attacking the very essence of bitcoin itself, because it will help to push the price higher. Case in point is this guy:

Profit is what matters most nowadays even billionaires did something like that if I am not mistaken. Privacy and decentralization is just a bonus I think.
Speak for yourself. Just because you don't care about the entire reason behind bitcoin's creation doesn't mean that nobody else does.

If Bitcoin is anonymous, they will be boycotted by the authorities as they do with Monero, Dash ...
And yet, the boycott achieves very little. It is still very easy to buy, spend, trade, use, and sell Monero, all without touching a centralized exchange. (Incidentally, Dash is not private.) Even if every government in the world banned bitcoin tomorrow and every centralized exchange shut down, bitcoin would still be able to fulfill its primary purpose of being decentralized, peer to peer money.



Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: Gamerholic on May 09, 2021, 08:31:22 PM
That's right, it always happens when something not very valuable suddenly becomes very valuable and speculators and politicians immediately appear who are ready to do anything for the sake of profit and in order not to lose the power they have. Bitcoin has opened the world to a new perspective not only on finance and privacy, but much more. As for the exclusion of confidential coins from exchanges, I think there will always be an exchange that will not play by the rules.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: buwaytress on May 10, 2021, 09:27:26 AM
I think the time will come when Bitcoin users will be seeking privacy. Definitely not all of them, probably not even the majority, but a not insignificant part of them. I started using my first phone due to the necessity of wireless communication. Today however, I am looking for phones with Lineage support and de-Google them ASAP. While 10 years ago digital privacy may have not been a big issue, today with so many intrusive platforms and corporations it's an incrementally higher concern..

Scalability became a necessity four years ago, and that's when everyone clamoured for it, and eventually that hasted upgrades and Layer 2. I think the discussions for privacy is heating up, and development has, rightly so, been focused on it now after the scalability hoo-ha. Like you said, the time will come when they will be seeking for it. But users, not newcomers. At least, not for the next few years when speculation is still the main attractive force.

Privacy may not be the gateway, but we'll all eventually need it, whether we realise it or not.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: Kittygalore on May 10, 2021, 09:35:25 AM
That's right, it always happens when something not very valuable suddenly becomes very valuable and speculators and politicians immediately appear who are ready to do anything for the sake of profit and in order not to lose the power they have.
That's how bandwagons do ever since, they try to play both sides because that way they can stay on top, this topic reminded me of a meme made from a clip in Always Sunny in Philadelphia where the guy says that he plays both sides to stay on top.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: dkbit98 on May 10, 2021, 10:32:14 AM
Privacy may not be the gateway, but we'll all eventually need it, whether we realise it or not.
I agree with you and we may need it sooner rather than later, so I am looking to find and collect any projects or initial ideas that are working on improving privacy on main Bitcoin chain.
How hard would it be to introduce code updates that would enable Bitcoin to use zk-SNARKs, ring signatures, mimblewimble technology or something totally new?
Everything I heard so far is some projects that re using sidechains like zCash Sidechain (https://www.truthcoin.info/blog/zside-meltcast/) or mercury wallet (https://mercurywallet.com/) but nothing on main chain, and of course we always have coinjoins that have some limitations, and mixers like Chipmixer.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: BlackHatCoiner on May 10, 2021, 11:30:42 AM
Everything I heard so far is some projects that re using sidechains like zCash Sidechain (https://www.truthcoin.info/blog/zside-meltcast/) or mercury wallet (https://mercurywallet.com/) but nothing on main chain, and of course we always have coinjoins that have some limitations, and mixers like Chipmixer.

I doubt if Bitcoin can go beyond CoinJoin. Generally, any consensus change to the protocol, would result in a fork, such as ring signatures. The solution must be found on a second layer. If you think about it, coinjoining transactions is actually happening off-chain (on its first stage). You're establishing a connection with someone and you both agree to increase your level of privacy by mixing the inputs.

So if CoinJoin isn't suitable, I guess that there aren't any other alternatives. The mixer surely helps, but a third party is required.



As for the topic, I'll state my personal opinion. Yes, Bitcoin isn't that much fungible. Yes, Monero is indeed fungible and will be needed in the future, because it has the first mover advantage. I remember reading a discussion with Satoshi and another user on bitcointalk explaining the fungibility on a very technical level. The consensus rules were his/her decision and along with a thousand other reasons, maybe that's why he/she left.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: sheenshane on May 10, 2021, 03:53:01 PM
I don’t really think that privacy has to be fixed here and I don’t think that the fungibility of the cash offers is missing in Bitcoin.
In Bitcoin, the value you spend is indiscriminate to the extent that it is way beyond cash.

Cash will be traced, and soon once the financial institutions summons the person who owns it, they will then question the personality of him/her and ask where did they earn that cash.  Like who the hell would say cash can stop indiscrimination?

IMO, it might the only agenda of this guy and why he publishes these statements is the frustration he has when he lost his cryptocurrencies.  Just my two cents!


Title: Re: Snowden Tôi và bitcoin.
Post by: grabpopcorn536 on May 10, 2021, 04:28:04 PM

If Bitcoin is anonymous, they will be boycotted by the authorities as they do with Monero, Dash ...
And yet, the boycott achieves very little. It is still very easy to buy, spend, trade, use, and sell Monero, all without touching a centralized exchange. (Incidentally, Dash is not private.) Even if every government in the world banned bitcoin tomorrow and every centralized exchange shut down, bitcoin would still be able to fulfill its primary purpose of being decentralized, peer to peer money.


Bitcoin's core value comes from decentralization. The blockade of centralized institutions only hinders the global release of Bitcoin. This will cause Bitcoin to rise in price more slowly and demand to rise more slowly.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: seoincorporation on May 10, 2021, 05:00:46 PM
He is right about the privacy coins, they are great but they need the right markets to be traded, and if they get delisted then is like closed doors for those ones who are searching for their privacy. And it already happens with Monero, we saw how it gets delisted from a lot of exchanges.

It would be nice to have more information about how he lost them in the boat accident.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on May 10, 2021, 07:54:02 PM
I don’t really think that privacy has to be fixed here and I don’t think that the fungibility of the cash offers is missing in Bitcoin.
I disagree. The privacy of bitcoin could be improved and the fungibility is under threat. We already see centralized exchanges and service freezing accounts, deeming some coins to be "tainted", and blacklisting some addresses. We are now seeing mining pools which are refusing to mine "tainted" transactions. Bitcoin's fungibility needs addressed.

He is right about the privacy coins, they are great but they need the right markets to be traded, and if they get delisted then is like closed doors for those ones who are searching for their privacy. And it already happens with Monero, we saw how it gets delisted from a lot of exchanges.
If you are buying and using Monero because you are truly interested in the privacy it can bring you, then you aren't using centralized exchanges which require KYC in the first place. You are trading peer to peer on exchanges such as Bisq or LocalCryptos. Whether or not centralized exchanges choose to delist the coin is completely irrelevant in terms of the coin still functioning, and delisting is probably beneficial in terms of privacy because if they don't list it then they stop trying to use blockchain analysis to deanonymize it and trace transactions.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: riiiiising on May 10, 2021, 08:45:10 PM
you can read it from his twitter account ---> https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1391035543773929473

Quote
the worst part of cryptocurrency transforming into dragon-level wealth is witnessing good people emotionally devolve into dragons themselves: so intellectually paralyzed by the fear that everyone they see threatens their hoard that they lose sight of the world beyond their cave.
1) This is such a profoundly misleading TL;DR of a privacy-focused talk that it's hard to call it anything but intentionally deceptive.

2) To the extent I own crypto (unless and until it has been lost in boating accidents), I own more bitcoin than anything else—but

3) Bitcoin's disastrous privacy is the "missing stair" of cryptocurrency. Every expert understands it's a problem, but—as experts—they themselves know how to compensate for the risk in their own personal interactions with Bitcoin, and therefore feel no urgency to actually fix it.

4) Privacy coins are great, but they're too small and too easy to smother via regulatory actions like de-listing from exchanges. Only Bitcoin has immunity-via-dominance to delisting. It adopting privacy-by-design instantly normalizes financial privacy. Ultima Ratio Cryptum.

The central property of cash is fungibility—meaning a dollar spent by a plumber is honored equally to one spent by a sex worker: they are indiscriminable. Adversarial chain analysis of Bitcoin's public ledger reduces its fungibility over time. Only privacy guarantees fungibility.


Snowden believes that privacy is what guarantees replacability, just as it does to cash. I see that many people who use Bitcoin have become more interested in prices and their fluctuations than decentralization or privacy, which is the essence of the value of it.

+1 and nothing to add! Rest assured it is only the minority who still cares for privacy and decentralization. Most holders just set up their accounts and leave their crypto on exchanges. Most of them are secure, but it's not like they care about understanding the technology, the advantages it brings about and its weaknesses. Having the IRS hire hackers to get access to hardware wallets is a good reason to better educate yourself and create a secure setup for yourself.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: buwaytress on May 11, 2021, 12:44:17 PM
How hard would it be to introduce code updates that would enable Bitcoin to use zk-SNARKs, ring signatures, mimblewimble technology or something totally new?
Everything I heard so far is some projects that re using sidechains like zCash Sidechain (https://www.truthcoin.info/blog/zside-meltcast/) or mercury wallet (https://mercurywallet.com/) but nothing on main chain, and of course we always have coinjoins that have some limitations, and mixers like Chipmixer.

Well, I guess Taproot is the one we're all waiting for (as you can see above discussions) as the first big step towards privacy, not the most technical person so don't shoot me if I get it wrong but I think there's already ongoing signalling for consensus for the soft fork that'll activate it (hence Snowden's rant) -- similar to how SegWit got introduced. It started out as a proposal, so I guess BIPs are still your route to do what you want.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on May 11, 2021, 01:17:20 PM
Well, I guess Taproot is the one we're all waiting for
Taproot doesn't automatically make your transactions more private though. If anything, the first people switching to taproot will experience a privacy decrease, since they will be in the minority and it will be trivially easy to identify which outputs are change since they will be the ones not being sent to a taproot address. Taproot will bring an automatic privacy improvement for things like multi-sig which use taproot instead, but for standard transactions taproot adds very little.

Look how long it has taken segwit to reach mass adoption and for all exchanges and services to support it. 4 years and we still aren't there yet. It will be years before taproot reaches mass adoption, and it will be years before useful privacy enhancing methods and services are built utilizing the improvements taproot brings.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: buwaytress on May 11, 2021, 02:52:34 PM
Well, I guess Taproot is the one we're all waiting for
Taproot doesn't automatically make your transactions more private though. If anything, the first people switching to taproot will experience a privacy decrease, since they will be in the minority and it will be trivially easy to identify which outputs are change since they will be the ones not being sent to a taproot address. Taproot will bring an automatic privacy improvement for things like multi-sig which use taproot instead, but for standard transactions taproot adds very little.

Look how long it has taken segwit to reach mass adoption and for all exchanges and services to support it. 4 years and we still aren't there yet. It will be years before taproot reaches mass adoption, and it will be years before useful privacy enhancing methods and services are built utilising the improvements taproot brings.

I think it's expected (the same way it was expected for Coinjoin I believe, which would actually expose the early contributors).

Agree that it's taken a really long time for Segwit compatibility (never mind native) -- I'm still only using one service that's completely switched to native Segwit, and it's not even the one I use the most.

Bring back to the necessity argument, I guess. Until and unless it's direly needed, people won't be obliged to upgrade.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on May 11, 2021, 03:02:12 PM
Until and unless it's direly needed, people won't be obliged to upgrade.
Privacy has never been more needed. With the government and exchanges blacklisting addresses, with blockchain analysis companies working for the FBI, CIA, and others, and now with mining pools censoring transactions from "tainted" addresses, we need more people using the privacy tools we currently have available, and we need new and better ones to be developed rapidly.

Don't get me wrong, once we get things like taproot powered swaps and payment channels up and running I'll definitely be using them, but most people won't. Censorship is a massive threat to bitcoin and we need more people to take their privacy seriously.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: Alucard1 on May 11, 2021, 03:17:54 PM
All of the things that Snowden has said are true, Bitcoin is now a good asset for investment, the higher the risk, the higher the profit that you may have, bitcoin now is really different before, as what Satoshi Nakamoto's intention for creating this bitcoin which is for alternative currency for fiat currency and for an online payment transaction, it is now more useful for investment, no other assets that can be better to bitcoin in terms of investment. Bitcoin is the only one that can make you secure your life in the future once you hold it for a long term.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: aysg76 on May 11, 2021, 04:09:38 PM
The recent investment in Bitcoin by large population is just because of profits associated with it and that's why exchanges trade volumes have increased these days as investors find crypto more lucrative than stocks and fiat but the main thing is they are ignorant of the technical working behind Bitcoin and how they can use this decentralised coin for their privacy and freedom.The community decide how they want to perceive particular assest and at current they have recognised Bitcoin as financial assest or say alternative to other investments with higher returns.This can be seen from Dogecoin investment also as memecoin is pumping and declared most profitable altcoin this year but why ?Just because investors want to have profit on seeing price rise without realising that it has no potential to grow and will soon crash leaving them hopeless.People really need to understand the true usage of Bitcoin and how transaction works based on consensus mechanism secured by miners.Snowden is right on his part because he is depicting sad truth about Bitcoin growth.


Title: Re: Snowden I own more bitcoin than anything else—but
Post by: riiiiising on May 12, 2021, 05:29:58 PM
All of the things that Snowden has said are true, Bitcoin is now a good asset for investment, the higher the risk, the higher the profit that you may have, bitcoin now is really different before, as what Satoshi Nakamoto's intention for creating this bitcoin which is for alternative currency for fiat currency and for an online payment transaction, it is now more useful for investment, no other assets that can be better to bitcoin in terms of investment. Bitcoin is the only one that can make you secure your life in the future once you hold it for a long term.

Snowden clearly said that Bitcoin is dangerous because it is only pseudonymous and the perfect tool for spying agencies to gather information. The complex problem to solve here is that everybody using it needs to understand that by exposing yourself your also expose others that you interact with. Everybody has to take care and be cautious about how they are using it or everybody will be exposed.