That's your interpretation.  I'm sure there are a plethora of Federal prosecutors and Judges that will see it differently.  Masternodes are essential for anonymous transactions on the Darkcoin network so they could claim that they are involved in the transmission of funds.  That's all it would take for an overzealous prosecutor to make a name for him/herself.  

Masternodes are involved in the transmission of funds.  That's enough.

It's entirely possible that without registering as an MSB you might get a visit from FinCEN for running a masternode in the United States.

So I'm naive and immature because I am not paranoid or feel the need to hide in the shadows?  You're naive for thinking that the United States government wouldn't and couldn't shut down some altcoin called Darkcoin if they thought it was being used to facilitate financial transfers to those deemed as enemies.

Please continue with the insults and name calling instead of actually addressing some of the valid points I have made regarding government and it's capabilities to shut down an anonymous cryptocurrency if it is deemed to be used for purposes not in the best interests of the United States.

I don't know what so hard to understand.  They shut down Silk Road.  Seized the guys bitcoin, auctioned it off, and the guy is sitting in jail looking at spending the next couple decades in a Federal prison.  The only reason they didn't go after Bitcoin was because they needed it to build their case due to the fact that they could track the transactions on the blockchain.  If you take that ability away you are putting yourself in a position to be deemed as a threat.  An anonymous cryptocurrency can never be regulated like cash due to it's main purpose.  Bank records can be opened by subpoena.  How do you subpoena something that doesn't exist like anonymous transactions?  

If anyone thinks that the United States government isn't capable of shutting down a cryptocurrency they are mistaken.


Feds Use Patriot Act To Crack Down On Virtual Currency Exchange
http://americasfuture.org/feds-use-patriot-act-to-crack-down-on-virtual-currency-exchange/

http://www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/Volume40/documents/Middlebrook.pdf

FinCEN acknowledges that the third-party exchange might appear to be conducting a bona fide purchase and thus entitled to an exemption, but notes that the safe harbor
does not apply when the only service being provided is money transmission

What does a masternode do other than transmit Darkcoin?  

An administrator or an exchange that transmits convertible virtual currency to another person or location would be required to register as an MSB.

“An administrator or exchanger that (1) accepts and transmits a convertible virtual currency or (2) buys or sells convertible virtual currency,” however, is a money transmitter unless an exemption
applies.102

It appears that FinCEN is fine with masternode operation as long as the administrator registers as an MSB.

How many masternode operators are registered as an MSB?

Do you doubt that the United States government wouldn't pull the plug.  The person that enforces the law isn't the person making the laws so her opinion doesn't mean too much. She'll enforce whatever law is in place whether she agrees with it or not.

http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/testimony/html/20140220.html

On the virtual currency front, with all we have seen transpire this past year; it is clear that the virtual currency industry has reached a crossroads. I think we can all agree that the stakes are too high – for both the industry and the government – to allow virtual currency systems to be used by bad actors. FinCEN will continue to draw from the knowledge we have gained through our regulatory efforts, use of targeted financial measures, analysis of the financial intelligence we collect, independent study of virtual currency, outreach to industry, and collaboration with our many partners in law enforcement to protect the integrity and transparency of the U.S. financial system.




PREPARED REMARKS OF JENNIFER SHASKY CALVERY DIRECTOR FINANCIAL CRIMES ENFORCEMENT NETWORK
http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/speech/pdf/20140318.pdf

What is important is that financial institutions that deal in virtual currency put effective anti-money
laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) controls in place to harden themselves
from becoming the targets of illicit actors that would exploit any identified vulnerabilities.




Jennifers boss doesn't necessarily share Jennifers views on cryptocurrency.

Just this morning, David Cohen, the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial
Intelligence at the U.S. Department of the Treasury – and my boss – delivered remarks on virtual
currency at an event in New York City, where he made a compelling case for transparency and
regulation in the virtual currency space.

However, if levels of adoption increase more
significantly, and if it appears that daily financial life can be conducted for long stretches
completely within a virtual currency environment, we may need to consider whether to apply a
more “cash-like” regulation to the virtual currency space.

This guy isn't the county Sheriff and it's people like him that will set the policy not Jennifer Shasky Calvery.

If the United States government gets a hint that a one cent of funds was transferred to any terrorist organization using the Darkcoin network it's lights out.  Plausible deniability doesn't mean a thing when Amazon and every other provider in the United States complies with a court order and shuts down the masternodes.  

I'm not promoting cryptonote coins as they have plenty of their own problems.  But they offer true P2P anonymity that isn't subject to having a masternode network shut down.

Thanks for posting the article.  I agree that bitcoin does allow for snooping of financial transactions once you have the bitcoin address.  But instead of embracing Darkcoin I think businesses will just continue to conduct their financial transactions through normal banking channels.  Also, overstock.com generates a new btc address for each purchase so as long as businesses didn't just reuse the same address there wouldn't be an issue with being spied upon.

How does DRK solve any problem for merchants and clients?  I have bought items from reputable merchants using Bitcoin. I didn't notice any problems.  In fact, every purchase I have made from overstock.com was flawless and immediate.  There isn't any problem that needs to be solved.    
 and as long as you pay taxes when you convert to fiat they
DRK does indeed solve BTC's traceability when it comes to money laundering and other nefarious purposes.  

The beauty of BTC not being anonymous is that it will be adopted by the mainstream and used for actual financial transaction.  I still have not heard where you will be able to spend DRK or even any reputable vendor embracing DRK as a payment method.  It likely won't happen because businesses are not going to put themselves in a position where they could potentially run into trouble with FinCEN.  In case you don't know, FinCEN "Financial Crimes Enforcement Network http://www.fincen.gov/ " mission is:
 
"FinCEN’s mission is to safeguard the financial system from illicit use and combat money laundering and promote national security through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence and strategic use of financial authorities."

I would hate to have my fortune tied up in an anonymous cryptocurrency that could be shut down at anytime by the United States Government using the Patriot Act and National Security as justification.  They find a Darkcoin wallet on a seized terrorist laptop and it's lights out for Darkcoin.  Any company hosting masternodes in the United States will comply with any order to shut down Darkcoin network traffic.  European governments would follow suit, most South American countries will do whatever the US tells them to do and the Chinese don't want any crytptocurrency.

What many fail to see is that the main selling point of Darkcoin could actually cause it's demise.  Do you actually think that the United States government is just going to allow people to send whatever they want to whoever they want?  Potentially funding terrorists or laundering money to avoid paying taxes?  Not gonna happen.  Congress would find bipartisan support to enact laws to prevent just that from happening.  

I appreciate that your reply to my post was made in a thoughtful and intelligent manner.   But I still do not believe that Darkcoin is the best solution for anonymity.  In fact, I question the logic in investing in a coin that could potentially be shut down by various governments because of the anonymity and potential for money laundering and financing terrorists, etc...  One of the reasons that Bitcoin has avoided those issues is because it isn't anonymous.

I am also somewhat confused regarding your statement about Darkcoin going mainstream.  No anonymous cryptocurrency will ever become mainstream where you will be able to use it as a form of payment for anything of significance.  How do you become mainstream when the concept of mainstream conflicts with the anonymity feature?  Mainstream would be like Bitcoin about to be listed as an ETF on NASDAQ.  That will never happen with an anonymous coin.

The vast majority of retailers, vendors, and businesses will never conduct financial transactions anonymously.  So if RC4 is a success like you say it will be where do I spend Darkcoins?  I can buy merchandise with Bitcoin already.  One of the reasons that Bitcoin is accepted by retailers like overstock.com is because it has an infrastructure that allows it to be accepted and processed in a way similar to a credit card transaction.  No entity is going to process payments for an anonymous coin where they are unable to track the transaction.  So that means you would need to send Darkcoin without anonymity.  I might just as well use Bitcoin.  It's already established as a form of payment.
  
I didn't just lose faith in your project, I have lost faith in the entire anonymous coin frenzy.  I think it's been more hype than anything.  Darkcoin, Monero, All the Darkcoin clones, Cryptonote clones.  Mostly just a fad.    

What people need is a coin with things like fast transactions and confirmations, clearing houses to process transactions and convert to fiat, mobile clients, and most importantly places that accept it.  Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that does all of these things, some better than others.

I wouldn't have cluttered up your thread with many of my posts if it wasn't for the personal attacks levied at anyone by a few pathetic members of the Darkcoin community that I'm sure you wish would tone down their rhetoric.  

One last thing.  It was the decision to tax the miners 20% to pay the masternode operators that changed my faith in Darkcoin.  That is unfair and blatantly favors those that have more than others.  Some individuals have posted they are running numerous masternodes.  Because they have thousands of coins they get to take 20% from someone that is likely not even breaking even mining Darkcoin.   You have people on here playing Tax man and going after pool operators as if they are criminals for not making masternode payments.  Some people even suggested DDOSing non-compliant pools.  You have all these anti-government types embracing Darkcoin while at the same time supporting the same kind of taxation that they are supposedly opposed to.      

Without master nodes there is no anonymity.

Exactly!  Darkcoins anonymity exists only with a masternode cluster fuck.  There are better anonymity solutions being developed.


You actually confirm some of what I posted "buy 1000 DRK and tie them up in Master Nodes.".  Masternodes require people to invest in 1000 DRK and then keep them off the market therefore driving up the price.  How convenient.

Darkcoin was being mined for months without masternodes.


Bottom line is that other solutions already provide at least the same a level of anonymity as Darkcoin without the need to tax one user to pay another for running a masternode.  Everyone knows that Bitcoin isn't anonymous.  Darkcoin is a Bitcoin clone.  Darkcoin is trying to be something it was never intended to be.  A truly anonymous coin will be designed with anonymity from the beginning.  There are some right now.  The masternode network is basically a hack that will prove to be problematic and suffer from issue after issue due to the fact that it's trying to make something into something it was never intended to be.  Already two failed rollout attempts.  It also creates an image of unfairness by taxing miners to pay masternode operators.  A better solution would have been to charge enough of a fee from the users sending anonymously to pay masternode operators an amount that still made it profitable to run a masternode.  But then you wouldn't have people wanting to use the network.  

Darkcoin suffers from a bad methodology to achieve anonymity and it's put everything into this one basket.

Been hearing that "Strong Hands" nonsense for months.  You really should come up with something new.  But oh wait, there isn't anything new so you have to regurgitate the same nonsense over and over again.

Obvious carsen kock coin.

Yeah, the masternode compliance police have been out in full force making sure people are paying their masternode tax.  Will there be penalties going forward  for not paying the masternode tax?  Will a non-compliant pool operator be charged late fee's once they do become compliant?  You could probably get a lot of good ideas from the United States Internal Revenue Service about collecting the masternode tax and what to do to those pool operators that are non-compliant.  Maybe you could put a lien on their server or take them to court.  There has to be some way to punish these individuals for tax evasion.  Darkcoin is starting to resemble a government entity or corporation.  It even has has it's own compliance officers and tax collectors.  Enjoy your new image.  It's amazing that you have confessed anarchists embracing a coin that is doing the same things that people complain about governments doing.  I would imagine that if it was possible, some on this thread would condone incarceration and/or fines handed out to those non-compliant pool operators.  Hang em High!

Just dumped the last of my DRK holdings.  I can't get away from this stench fast enough.  I'm obviously not alone either.  Enjoy your centralized masternode solution and compliance officers.  Big Brother will make sure that the masternode operators get every last dime of taxes levied on the miners.  It seems that entire purpose of this coin is to provide income for masternode operators and that the entire masternode concept was designed to take DRK's off the market thereby causing the value to go up.  Anonymity is obviously no longer the driving force behind this coin.  It's all about masternode payments to a few large holders and nothing more.  Enjoy your slow but steady decline towards the bottom.  I just noticed Ripple passed DRK on Coinmarketcap and Peercoin is right behind. The writing is on the wall for everyone to see.


Darkcoin masternode payment compliance
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg7772443#msg7772443

Compliance & Enforcement - Internal Revenue Service
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Compliance-&-Enforcement

Bank Compliance Officer
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-07-01/bnp-compliance-officers-were-fine-with-some-non-compliance

Office of Compliance
http://www.compliance.gov/

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/tax-evasion-foreign-account-tax-compliance-act-108740.html

Regulation-Compliance - White Papers
http://www.banktech.com/whitepaper/Regulation-Compliance

They'll never learn. 

carsen kock is a slimy punk from some hick town in Idaho.  He puts out shitcoin after shitcoin.  He isn't a dev.  All he does is copy a github repository, change a few parameters, and launches another shitcoin.  Apparently he contracted AIDS from performing in Gay porn.  He's just another scammer. 

may be he hates the govt that's why.
[/quote]

i believe he wants to push us/community/DRK in that corner !
but we are all friendly !… aren't we …. haaaaa
[/quote]

Careful now.  Embracing anarchist ideology is a losing proposition.  You must purge yourselves of this disease.

OK, how about WTB 10000PLT for .0125BTC

WTB 10000PLT for .01BTC

The level of complete ignorance exhibited by people like you is amazing.  People have been hiding their money for years without the need for an anonymous currency.  Do you actually think Bill Gates or Warren Buffet is going to use an anonymous cryptocurrency to hide their money?  NO they'll continue to use privacy-focused banking industry that they always have.

The greatest feature of cryptocurrency is the ability to make instant financial transactions to any entity anywhere anytime.  Not the ability to hide your transaction.  It will be embraced as an alternative form of payment.  Not as a vehicle to hide.  Sorry to burst your bubble but Wall Street, Big Banks, and Governments are in charge now and will continue to be.  

You couldn't be more wrong.  Bitcoin will soon be traded as an ETF on NASDAQ under the symbol COIN.  Since when did Wall Street cozy up with anarchists?  The number one cryptocurrency in existence is Bitcoin and it's going mainstream.  You can entertain your flawed ideals all you want but the fact of the matter is cryptocurrency's that fail to go mainstream and exist only to hide transactions will never be more than just a very small part of cryptocurrency going forward.  Sure some people will embrace anonymity but that will never be more than just a small percentage.  There is an argument that businesses will use anonymous cryptocurrencies as a way to prevent competitors from knowing what they are doing.  That argument is completely wrong because businesses need records of their financial transactions and publicly traded companies have to open their books for audits.  The only people that will be using anonymous cryptocurrencies will be criminals, drug dealers/buyers, money launderers, and paranoid anarchist types.  Most people will use cryptocurrency to buy things from retailers like overstock.com or pay their Dish Network bill using bitcoin.  There will still be a place for a coin like Darkcoin.  But it will never be mainstream and will only be used by a few.  The majority of people have nothing to hide and don't feel the need to live in the shadows.  

Sorry to spoil your fantasy but big money from the types of players that are the opposite of anarchy are already driving the cryptocurrency car.  


I'm on this forum because it's BITCOINTALK not anarchisttalk

I put everything I make trading/mining altcoins into bitcoin for the long term.  Altcoins will come and go but Bitcoin is here to stay and will remain the leader indefinitely without the need for anonymity.