Is Bitcoin the New Swiss Bank Account (And Is That a Problem?)

[alyssa85]

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/is-bitcoin-the-new-swiss-bank-account-and-is-that-a-problem-cm597377

Last week, President Barack Obama said he believes a balance must be sought between privacy and security. As one example of the risks of strong encryption, and seemingly referring to cryptocurrencies, Obama pointed out that if government can't access phones, "everybody is walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket."

...Several Bitcoin wallet apps currently offer "zero knowledge security" which ensures user data by generating private keys completely client side.

But what happens if Pandora's Box is opened? What if encryption is weakened or even broken by state agencies?

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, sees trying to break the encryption protecting one phone as having "extremely damaging implications" for the rights of many millions of people worldwide, with possible effects on their physical and financial security.

Obama, meanwhile, seemed to suggest that this kind of financial security should in fact not be absolute. He believes a balance must be struck, suggesting encryption should be weakened to allow government agencies access to encrypted phones in certain cases.

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[rienelber]

"
Obama, meanwhile, seemed to suggest that this kind of financial security should in fact not be absolute. He believes a balance must be struck, suggesting encryption should be weakened to allow government agencies access to encrypted phones in certain cases."


that just does not make any sense.

"weakened encryption" is no encryption at all!!

[RoommateAgreement]

don't read to much into it.

the article is coming from obama's speach which was not even directly about bitcoin, and it was about them wanting to increase their survailance and control.

[alyssa85]

The "swiss bank in your pocket" was definitely a reference to bitcoin. What else could it be?

[jack1111]

it is good support for bitcoin from the president of the strongest country in the world .

[unamis76]

Obama's speech was directed at the current situation between the FBI and Apple, where the FBI wants/wanted Apple to decrypt a terrorist's phone.

I do think it can also be applied to Bitcoin (although that likely was not on his mind during the speech).

If people have issues in seeing someone store their own money by their own means in a secure way, then that's jealousy or greed. Either that or you work for the financial system

If the Pandora Box is open, you can kiss goodbye to your privacy. It only takes one example to set a bad precedent in this case. I am glad Apple said no to the FBI's demand. This is what terrorists do: make governments break their own laws and principles through the fear they spread and their actions.

If encryption is cracked by governments you can even say goodbye to the internet. We cannot let this happen. If somehow governments find a way to attack Bitcoin we must immediately discover new ways to protect ourselves and our funds. But that's pretty hard to happen, at least for now

[Lauda]

Even though the speech might not be directly related (who knows?), I don't see how this is a problem for the people. This might be a problem for the groups that are trying to control everything. They stand to lose a lot of money and power if Bitcoin becomes mainstream.

it is good support for bitcoin from the president of the strongest country in the world .

I don't see signs of support.

the article is coming from obama's speach which was not even directly about bitcoin, and it was about them wanting to increase their survailance and control.

It may or may not be; currently it is open to interpretation.

"weakened encryption" is no encryption at all!!

Exactly. There is no such thing as "weakened encryption".

[mkc]

New Swiss bank account means Bitcoin is a way to hide your wealth, even from government for taxation purpose. This can provoke government to ban it altogether.
And government are stepping up in regulation on all gateway where you can convert Bitcoin to fiat.
You can still do local exchange, but amount is small. In a sense, this is the balance government wants.

[Zeke2345]

Obama has been all about stripping rights and uses terrorism to push his agenda. Not the only one,I see on my local news they
are wanting to set up cameras on every corner to protect us. 5 years ago they said this and people where not having it.
Funny what a terrorist attack will do to push the police state agenda.

Some people have nothing to hide,or so they think,just have not thought it all out in how easy it is to sweep people up that where in the area for questioning.

Back to the Swiss bank issue. If they take the anon factor out of bitcoin it no longer serves a lot of the purpose.
Gambling would become tracked and these dice,sportsbook and poker rooms would instantly close.
Darkweb would suffer but could manage if they prepare for it.
Traders would be hit with taxes that would make trading for most dabblers not worth it.
Lots going on but they break encryption we can say good night to bitcoin.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

My bank asked me two weeks ago about a bunch of Circle transactions,  and they wanted to know if I was the only one who was using the bitcoin or something like that.  Spooked me a little,  I have to say.  But I don't do anything illegal so I'm not sure what the problem was.

[btvGainer]

I think as a good law abiding citizens,we all should co-operate our government in what they think 'good for our national interest'.Even if it involves bitcoin and individuals secrecy is not more important than overall security of entire community or nation

[Zeke2345]

I think as a good law abiding citizens,we all should co-operate our government in what they think 'good for our national interest'.Even if it involves bitcoin and individuals secrecy is not more important than overall security of entire community or nation

You take the stance that what ever the government says is good for me?
Quite often the tactic of stripping people of their rights is done with the majority of the people saying that is fine,only to turn around years
later to realize the extent the rights protected them. Be careful how trusting you are of the government,they are there for you like the police,till one day they are not. Its better to question why then presume everything is just going to work out. Least its a difference in opinion and I love hearing how people with your thought process come to this thinking. Not a put down,I just am so much the other way,that I can not relate.

[calkob]

The "swiss bank in your pocket" was definitely a reference to bitcoin. What else could it be?

I agree, Obama like the rest of our politicians is in the pocket of the Banksters, so what if people want to keep their money in their own bank where it is safe and secure and immune to devaluation because of government counterfeiting........ Take back control

[countryfree]

Really? I don't think BTC, nor the blockchain is as safe as gold bars or a thick stack of banknotes inside a money box in an underground bank vault in Geneva. It's true you can hide some money from governments with BTC, but I believe Swiss banks are better. Unfortunately, Americans don't have this choice anymore.

It has become next to impossible for an American to open a bank account in Switzerland, but this doesn't show that Swiss banks are bad, or inferior to BTC, it just tells the world that the US government is a BIG BROTHER government which wants to have full control of what its citizens are doing with their money.

[63854]

Government has no place in Bitcoin, and people would stop using it if they did decide to snoop around and change things. The idea of a backdoor in encryption is pretty stupid, everyone pretty much agrees with that by now. I'd be suspicious of any new encryption algorithms that come out from past now.

[romero121]

One who can't have a Swiss account can own a bitcoin wallet. This bitcoin wallet can be considered as a Swiss account as it has same features of Swiss account.

[NorrisK]

The thing is that ultimately the coins will be tracable to your personal accounts as it is an open ledger. As soon as you move them to fiat, you are linked to them. So the only way it would act like a swiss bank account would be to always use bitcoin to pay and never use adresses more than once. At the current time such things are not a viable option anyway, but they may be in the future.

I would not advise to start doing it this way though. It would be better to pay your taxes (which are minimal anyway, much less than tax on wages at least!) so you can use it freely.

[DimensionZ]

Well the government (in particular the US gov) has a tendency to poke its nose into everyone's private matters  For example they tried to force Apple to decrypt the contents of their phones so the state officials could use the harvested data as evidence in prosecutions but Apple stuck it to them in the end.

[BTCLovingDude]

Well the government (in particular the US gov) has a tendency to poke its nose into everyone's private matters  For example they tried to force Apple to decrypt the contents of their phones so the state officials could use the harvested data as evidence in prosecutions but Apple stuck it to them in the end.

they are all gonna fold sooner or later. this is just for the public, the US government is going to force them to release that information to them eventually.

[thejaytiesto]

Really? I don't think BTC, nor the blockchain is as safe as gold bars or a thick stack of banknotes inside a money box in an underground bank vault in Geneva. It's true you can hide some money from governments with BTC, but I believe Swiss banks are better. Unfortunately, Americans don't have this choice anymore.

It has become next to impossible for an American to open a bank account in Switzerland, but this doesn't show that Swiss banks are bad, or inferior to BTC, it just tells the world that the US government is a BIG BROTHER government which wants to have full control of what its citizens are doing with their money.

Bitcoin is safer. You are trusting some underground bank in Gevena not stealing your coins... now if you have your private addresses offline and stored in a couple safe places under heavy encryption, that's safer. And you can always recover the funds anywhere in the world by generating a seed.
Gold is too annoying and you can't do anything with it. It doesn't feel close to you, unless you guard it yourself, in this case Bitcoin is already safer since you can't encrypt gold, only put it in some safe.
Then, have fun trying to move around carrying gold without getting detected by authorities. Let's not forget American government has passed laws to steal gold from people before.