Cryptography could be illegal soon

[LeGaulois]

Last week I stumbled upon a blog with an article titled "cryptography could become illegal in the future". I did only read the introduction because I thought it was probably a click bait.

Today after reading "Spies still butthurt they can't get at encrypted comms data Five Eyes to tech: We have ways of making you comply"
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/31/five_eyes_2018_meeting_encryption_terrorist_content/

Encryption is vital to the digital economy, a secure cyberspace and the protection of personal, commercial and government information. The five countries have no interest or intention to weaken encryption mechanisms. We recognise, however, that encryption, including end-to-end encryption, is also used in the conduct of terrorist and criminal activities

I started to think that they're crazy enough to really want to ban cryptography. (I like the "terrorist and criminal activities" excuse, you can use it for a lot of things)

I found that there is a regulation in my country about cryptography, looking to know how others countries consider the cryptography, to my surprise I found it's an industry regulated in a lot of countries, some even ban it...

In the name of the cybersecurity and using the fear, do you think cryptography could be an industry with regulations more strictly tightened

[1715447943]

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[paxmao]

Ridiculous , they have no idea that cryptography is around everyone who use digital device/surfing on internet. From HTTPS, SSL, PGP, password hashing and many more that i even don't realize.

Unfortunately, it is more serious than it looks. For the first time the government cannot look freely into the letters, the telegraph, tap the phones... It is scaring the sh*t out of them. Is as simple as claiming that encryption has to be prohibited to prevent... terrorism, paedophilia, illegal drugs and all the sudden you have a perfect case to put the public opinion in favour of the big brother model of society.

[byteball]

Internet commerce, online banking and much more can't work without encryption.
Giving keys to spies would create HUGE moral hazard. Even for those spies who are only mildly criminal by now, not involved in anything gross.
It's like introducing IP whitelisting in a very corrupt country.
In Russia we have a requirement that the only kind of encryption allowed is one visible to FSB.
It is not enforced, obviously, and cannot be.

Is as simple as claiming that encryption has to be prohibited to prevent... terrorism, paedophilia, illegal drugs and all the sudden you have a perfect case to put the public opinion in favour of the big brother model of society.

Ermmm... but doesn't the sensible part of public as little as suspects that terrorism, paedophilia, illegal drugs are Big Brother's most lucrative business?
What kind of stupid "public" do you speak of?

[yatsey87]

I started to think that they're crazy enough to really want to ban cryptography. (I like the "terrorist and criminal activities" excuse, you can use it for a lot of things)

So do they think if they make something illegal the terrorists are going to stop using it?  . The irony is it's the overbearing state intrusion of ordinary citizens that forces the regular Joe to have to start thinking about things like encryption. If it wasn't for states such as the UK and US trying to spy on everyone the average person wouldn't even need to be doing this.

The protecting 'against terrorism or bad guys' shtick is usually the excuse they use. It'll be the same thing they try to go after bitcoin for.

B-b-b-b-ut terrorist and drug dealers use it!

[medussa]

It would make no sense at all to ban cryptography since it already permeates a large section of modern applications, not limited to cryptocurrency, for example, you need cryptography to login to your account, blockchain is only a portion of it.

[LeGaulois]

war material...

Some means of cryptology are classified as "war material"   . In this specific case, the operations relating to these means of cryptology are only regulated by the war material regime, at the domestic and export level.

In France, cryptographic means are subject to specific regulations.

The use of a cryptology means is free. There is no action to be taken.

On the other hand, the supply, import, intra-Community transfer and export of a means of cryptography are subject, unless otherwise specified, to declaration or request for authorisation.

[joerogers8]

Two words false flag.  They can make anything illegal with this tactic and the larger populace will eat it up.  Each time the governments need to make a unpopular rule they just need to ram some planes into buildings (need to kill off those pesky Arabs) or kill some school children (to ban evil assault rifles).  The list goes on and on.  It's not the government you need to worry about.  They are mostly ineffective on their own.  Its the billion people who actually listen to their shit and OBEY.   Next time a major terrorist event happens really take the time to study it.  Don't listen to the news.  Do the research yourself.  You will be shocked.  

I figure there will be some pedophile ring (this is their go to tactic as they are mostly child molesters themselves - see pizza gate) that is using cryptography to hide their trafficking.  Then anyone who does not like the new rule and calls it out for what it is will be labeled a hater and someone who loves for children to be raped.  Once it goes over the news they will have their millions and millions of mouthpieces who think they are informed because they watch the BBC, foxnews, msnbc etc.  

[TECSHARE]

This is going to happen. Kind of. This is how it will go down, pay attention people...


As you have seen they have been cracking down on exchanges one after another in an attempt to create bottlenecks. They will implement all the same KYC and AML regulations in the exchanges and make them under the same controls as banks, and effectively and legally liable in fiat.

Eventually the focus will turn to the protocols themselves, and some coin teams will cooperate, and some won't. The ones that cooperate will be given full access to the banking system, including nice streams of fiat money to pump it up and incentivize people to go to them and leave the others. Note they don't need to really buy the coin to do this, this can be done with various manipulations such as messing with margin calls with short trading to simply holding fractional reserves of the exchange's purported full amount among other things.

Next they will start criminalizing protocols that don't essentially force KYC and AML regulation enforcement. There will be the "good" coins, and the terrorist, Iranian, hacker, Russian, money laundering, global warming, North Korean, drug dealer coins. They will tack on whatever labels they can, and people, ignorant of the systems as they are, will suck down the lies and ask for more.

Cryptocurrency has been disruptive, but it also fills many of the stated goals of the monetary elite and the internationalists. Primarily the desire to get rid of cash economies, and the desire to implement a digital world currency. Cryptocurrency is quite the conditioning mechanism for getting people comfortable with digital money, and building the next generation of rubes. The technology is capable of freeing humanity, but be ready for its subversion, because it always comes to one degree or another.

[paxmao]

Ermmm... but doesn't the sensible part of public as little as suspects that terrorism, paedophilia, illegal drugs are Big Brother's most lucrative business?
What kind of stupid "public" do you speak of?

May I ask you for a proof of paedophilia being a main source of income for the governments in general?

[paxmao]

.... kill some school children (to ban evil assault rifles)

So in your world the US Government encouraged the killing of children in  school. May I hear your theory about... let´s say this one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting

[jiya jaena]

I think everything is relative, has a good side and also a bad side, but for cryptography, I think there is no need to be afraid to develop because it is a technology that must continue to be developed, of course with effort to minimize the negative side of cryptography

[JasonXIII]

It's ok when the level of encryption is not a military level

[BitcoinSupremo]

This is going to happen. Kind of. This is how it will go down, pay attention people...


As you have seen they have been cracking down on exchanges one after another in an attempt to create bottlenecks. They will implement all the same KYC and AML regulations in the exchanges and make them under the same controls as banks, and effectively and legally liable in fiat.

Eventually the focus will turn to the protocols themselves, and some coin teams will cooperate, and some won't. The ones that cooperate will be given full access to the banking system, including nice streams of fiat money to pump it up and incentivize people to go to them and leave the others. Note they don't need to really buy the coin to do this, this can be done with various manipulations such as messing with margin calls with short trading to simply holding fractional reserves of the exchange's purported full amount among other things.

Next they will start criminalizing protocols that don't essentially force KYC and AML regulation enforcement. There will be the "good" coins, and the terrorist, Iranian, hacker, Russian, money laundering, global warming, North Korean, drug dealer coins. They will tack on whatever labels they can, and people, ignorant of the systems as they are, will suck down the lies and ask for more.

Cryptocurrency has been disruptive, but it also fills many of the stated goals of the monetary elite and the internationalists. Primarily the desire to get rid of cash economies, and the desire to implement a digital world currency. Cryptocurrency is quite the conditioning mechanism for getting people comfortable with digital money, and building the next generation of rubes. The technology is capable of freeing humanity, but be ready for its subversion, because it always comes to one degree or another.

While that may be true at a certain level I have high hopes that cryptocurrencies will survive with the help of anonymous exchanges on the dark net. This in itself is very dangerous but it will be the only option if your predictions come true.

[pozmu]

Back in 90s USA banned export of certain encryption algorithms. I don't remember which ones were subject to this ban, maybe these that NSA had backdoored 

If they ban cryptography people will switch to steganography and if they ban this too... Well, people will try to find ways around, of course bad guys won't be worried by these bans, because for them it will be better to be fined for using cryptography than to go to jail for child pornography etc.

With news such as this, ACTA2 etc. I think there is bright future for mesh networks and other p2p, decentralised technologies.
If you can stay anonymous you don't really need to encrypt your messages, you can use some code words that will make your message won't look suspicious.

[josephdd1]

Ridiculous , they have no idea that cryptography is around everyone who use digital device/surfing on internet. From HTTPS, SSL, PGP, password hashing and many more that i even don't realize.

Unfortunately, it is more serious than it looks. For the first time the government cannot look freely into the letters, the telegraph, tap the phones... It is scaring the sh*t out of them. Is as simple as claiming that encryption has to be prohibited to prevent... terrorism, paedophilia, illegal drugs and all the sudden you have a perfect case to put the public opinion in favour of the big brother model of society.

I agree with you that many of these activities are scaring not just the governments but general people also but even so I do not think they will do any thing about it yet due to the scale required to regulate or tap into it.

[myfranco]

Anything related to crime is governments' red flag. If you can't prevent crime, don't look for stupid solutions. One day, they may even want to ban Internet and anything related.

[pozmu]

One day, they may even want to ban Internet and anything related.

Have you heard about ACTA2?
You surely remember big protests against ACTA, it did work and they backed off, but as we can see only for some time.
I don't think anyone knows what ACTA2 impact will be exactly, but some are really thinking it may be the end of the Internet as we know.
I've been discussing this with my family yesterday and I'm thinking about buying something like Mikrotik router (1W of power) and joining/ building mesh network.

[MAFTRADER]

This is going to happen. Kind of. This is how it will go down, pay attention people...


As you have seen they have been cracking down on exchanges one after another in an attempt to create bottlenecks. They will implement all the same KYC and AML regulations in the exchanges and make them under the same controls as banks, and effectively and legally liable in fiat.

Eventually the focus will turn to the protocols themselves, and some coin teams will cooperate, and some won't. The ones that cooperate will be given full access to the banking system, including nice streams of fiat money to pump it up and incentivize people to go to them and leave the others. Note they don't need to really buy the coin to do this, this can be done with various manipulations such as messing with margin calls with short trading to simply holding fractional reserves of the exchange's purported full amount among other things.

Next they will start criminalizing protocols that don't essentially force KYC and AML regulation enforcement. There will be the "good" coins, and the terrorist, Iranian, hacker, Russian, money laundering, global warming, North Korean, drug dealer coins. They will tack on whatever labels they can, and people, ignorant of the systems as they are, will suck down the lies and ask for more.

Cryptocurrency has been disruptive, but it also fills many of the stated goals of the monetary elite and the internationalists. Primarily the desire to get rid of cash economies, and the desire to implement a digital world currency. Cryptocurrency is quite the conditioning mechanism for getting people comfortable with digital money, and building the next generation of rubes. The technology is capable of freeing humanity, but be ready for its subversion, because it always comes to one degree or another.

i might agree with your point.

there Is BUT ! tbh, exchange might have big problem with hack and regulation etc. Any decentralized things or any personal wallet. wont affected.

[Raja_MBZ]

Ban cryptography
Ban Telegram because of its crypto
Ban Haskell programming
Ban privacy
Ban transparency
Ban SecureRandom() function
Ban cryptocurrencies
.
.
.
Next, they're coming after your shirts & underwears, they'll ban it all up if it pleases them! And yeah, let them allow Google/Twitter/Facebook/Banking apps to have an access to your contacts, location, camera, and even your fingerprints, NICE!

[yogg]

Actually, it became legal in France to use cryptographic tools from 2005. Some forms (that were cracked by our agencies) were previously allowed.
But they authorized the use of higher standards of encryption (if not all?) from that moment.