Time to Boycott all US Companies

[justusranvier]

http://bitcoinism.blogspot.com/2013/11/is-it-time-to-boycott-all-us-bitcoin.html

As of today, the efforts of Bitcoin Foundation and others who have told us that Bitcoin should be altered to make it more acceptable to the regulatory apparatus has finely bore fruit. A group of investors announced Coin Validation, a service designed to remove all possibility of financial privacy for Bitcoin users.

This service will work by asking Bitcoin businesses to voluntarily (at first) violate their customer's privacy by providing them with a list of every bitcoin address known to be associated with that customer. The list will be used to create a database of "clean" addresses, where clean means tied to AML/KYC information, with the ostensible goal of allowing these businesses avoid "tainted" Bitcoins.

The first thing to note about this plan is that it will in no way remain voluntary. Regulators in the US and possibly other countries are waiting for such a database to exist so that they can require all companies in their jurisdiction to only accept payments from customers whose identities can be fully tracked. So far they have not been able to require this because the technology does not exist, but Matt Mellon, Alex Waters, and Yifu Guo are apparently willing to build it for them. Now you who to thank for selling out your financial privacy.

Countermeasures

Use and create non-US alternatives:

It's virtually certain that every US-based Bitcoin company, as well as any company backed by venture capital firms, as well as any currency exchange which deals with USD is going to sign on to this plan. Bitcoin users who which to retain their privacy should avoid dealing with all of these companies, as well as create alternatives that are based outside the United States and not susceptible to political pressure.

Mobilize the international Bitcoin community:

Non-US Bitcoin users should demand that Bitcoin companies in their countries respect their privacy and refuse to participate in this or any other surveillance scheme.

Use privacy-enhancing technology:

Protocols like CoinJoin, if properly implemented and used,  can render the information in this database useless. Anyone who cares about financial privacy should ask the developers of their wallet software to implement this ASAP.

Practice good Bitcoin hygiene by never using the same address twice.

Abandon traditional businesses:

There's no point in lobbying traditional businesses based in the US and other repressive regimes to resist this kind of pressure. They are too vulnerable to pressure and are going to do whatever the regulators tell them to do.

They are, however, in no way essential to the future of Bitcoin.

The economy of the future is System D. Traditional businesses with their physical offices, corporate charters, bank accounts and licenses are holdovers of a dying paradigm. We should focus instead on creating tools to empower individuals to create censorship-resistant business models.

We will not build a bridge to the future by conforming to the past. While it's unfortunate that traditional Bitcoin businesses are trapped in a position where they must cripple the features of the currency in order to be allowed to operate, we as a community must continue to move forward even if it means leaving them behind.

[2048-bit]

Zerocoin? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Zerocoin
--
From the BitcoinMagazine article: "Some of the proposals which have been suggested in the past include: adding the capability to reverse transactions, confiscation of balances, creating a central authority that can whitelist and/or blacklist addresses, and requiring all users to register their wallets with a government agency. So far none of these have been implemented into the protocol but the pressure to do so is will only continue to increase, especially by venture-funded companies, especially in the USA."

If those things will happen to Bitcoin, I will leave it.

[justusranvier]

Zerocoin? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Zerocoin

Last I heard it was orders of magnitude too slow.

[Lethn]

I think this is what it's going to come down to, I would still happily trade with the U.S if it's in cryptocurrencies which they can't control but paying in paper money? Fuck it, it does seem like that's the way the rest of the world seems to be going now, we now finally have a peaceful way of abandoning a government, lets hope they realise most people don't want anything to do with them.

[Painful Truth]

Lots of comments about this also on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1qj7sw/sanitizing_bitcoin_this_company_wants_to_track/

 


Quote from that reddit thread:

Bitcoins should not be assessed according to where they have been. That would ruin their fungibility and require coin blacklists that would create a central authority.

This post on Reddit explains how in 1749, a court sided with the Royal Bank of Scotland in its legal challenge to a request for such a blacklist. The court ruled that making money responsible for the acts of its previous holders would "render the Notes absolutely useless":

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1le87j/bitcoin_core_dev_on_stolen_coins_and_transaction/cbycmhk

[shawshankinmate37927]

Lots of comments about this also on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1qj7sw/sanitizing_bitcoin_this_company_wants_to_track/

 


Quote from that reddit thread:

Bitcoins should not be assessed according to where they have been. That would ruin their fungibility and require coin blacklists that would create a central authority.

This post on Reddit explains how in 1749, a court sided with the Royal Bank of Scotland in its legal challenge to a request for such a blacklist. The court ruled that making money responsible for the acts of its previous holders would "render the Notes absolutely useless":

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1le87j/bitcoin_core_dev_on_stolen_coins_and_transaction/cbycmhk

Individuals/criminals should be blacklisted, not money.

[bee7]

The thought was flying around for a long time though:

Zerocoin: Anonymous Distributed E-Cash from Bitcoin:

Since all Bitcoin transactions are public, anonymous
transactions are necessary to avoid tracking by third parties
even if we do not wish to provide the absolute anonymity
typically associated with e-cash schemes. On top of such
transactions, one could build mechanisms to partially or
explicitly identify participants to authorized parties (e.g.,
law enforcement). However, to limit this information to
authorized parties, we must first anonymize the underlying
public transactions.

Document created on Sat, March 16, 2013

[beetcoin]

but couldn't you just send your coins into a tumbler and throw the trackers off.. track?

[GodfatherBond]

If I have understood correctly it´s up to miners/pools which version of bitcoinid they will accept / take in use. I hope all privacy violating possible future versions will be rejected and development will be taken over. There are talented people all over the world to replace the gore dev team if required.  

[rampantparanoia]

each miner should be required to send their coin to a known tainted mixer prior to selling on an exchange. all coins are created equal.

[adamstgBit]

If I have understood correctly it´s up to miners/pools which version of bitcoinid they will accept / take in use. I hope all privacy violating possible future versions will be rejected and development will be taken over. There are talented people all over the world to replace the gore dev team if required.  

this project will probably be independent from the bitcoin protocol, it will track coins, and tell merchant whether or not a coin is "valid"


will one of the devs please say something!


question 1) WHY!?
question 2) you are FIRED!

[samson]

I'd like to see any curent and future government seized Bitcoins banned from ever becoming confirmed transactions on the blockchain.

Of course this won't happen now as regulation is going to start hitting hard and what 'the government' say goes.

In this case we're talking about the most over zealous government in the world - the US Government.

Those SR coins should never be allowed to move wallets again.

[rampantparanoia]

each miner should be required to send their coin to a mixer prior to selling on an exchange, so all coins are tainted.

Yes, lets force people to do things!

if all coins are blacklisted, it defeats the system being introduced. of course, no one can really be forced to do anything without the $5 wrench...

[justusranvier]

will one of the devs please say something!


question 1) WHY!?
question 2) you are FIRED!

One did:

Is destroying user's financial privacy and Bitcoin's fungiblity the next big business for someone to get rich quick on?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/11/13/sanitizing-bitcoin-coin-validation/

It doesn't have to be, but preventing the future requires substantial movement in the default behavior of everyday Bitcoin users, not just a minority of people with special interests.

[Sage]

Just one of many attempts that are sure to follow to co-opt Bitcoin.

I trust that the Bitcoin community is smart enough to see through this one (and the many that will follow).

[Anon136]

let the little men in their little silos hatch their little schemes. who cares. if this thing does get implemented than we will need to mix our coins with a system like coinjoin. if the government is able to put enough pressure on merchants to force them to reject mixed coins, than i will still mix my coins anyway even if it makes them worth less and then i'll just buy my toilet paper and shaving creme on the silkroad 8.0 with mixed coins.

[MaxBTC1]

Lots of comments about this also on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1qj7sw/sanitizing_bitcoin_this_company_wants_to_track/

 


Quote from that reddit thread:

Bitcoins should not be assessed according to where they have been. That would ruin their fungibility and require coin blacklists that would create a central authority.

This post on Reddit explains how in 1749, a court sided with the Royal Bank of Scotland in its legal challenge to a request for such a blacklist. The court ruled that making money responsible for the acts of its previous holders would "render the Notes absolutely useless":

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1le87j/bitcoin_core_dev_on_stolen_coins_and_transaction/cbycmhk

Individuals/criminals should be blacklisted, not money.

>visiting, reading, or even copying what reddit says ever

Seriously?

[Izerian]

     I understand, but I won't resort to that which I am trying to escape.

I had to log in just to quote / +1 / bump that...

Carry on.

[MicroGuy]

each miner should be required to send their coin to a mixer prior to selling on an exchange, so all coins are tainted.

Yes, lets force people to do things!

Lol. Yes. I vote that we start forcing people to submit.

[hlynur]

The economy of the future is System D. Traditional businesses with their physical offices, corporate charters, bank accounts and licenses are holdovers of a dying paradigm. We should focus instead on creating tools to empower individuals to create censorship-resistant business models.

We will not build a bridge to the future by conforming to the past. While it's unfortunate that traditional Bitcoin businesses are trapped in a position where they must cripple the features of the currency in order to be allowed to operate, we as a community must continue to move forward even if it means leaving them behind.

ForeignPolicy.com is blocked as long as don't i don't sign up for an account.
here's a quick pdf capture of the linked article "The shadow superpower": http://document.li/2TrW


this is a serious issue. it was just a question of time until some people start getting on their knees for integration by trading honour and trust for individual wealth & power and start disrupting the technology.
i'm curious about future developments next year in that regard.