Bitcoin & Australia's new "Assistance and Access" (Illegalizing Encryption)

[DanilaKor]

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/consultations/assistance-and-access-bill-2018
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/consultations/Documents/the-assistance-access-bill-2018.pdf

Australia are drafting a bill that is proposing to give the keys to anyone who has encrypted digital information on any smart device through tech companies (your apps). The "draft" bill propose:

1. Creates obligations on technology producers and communication providers, forcing them to work for law enforcement agencies;
2. Creates powers that would allow police to seize information directly from a device; and
3. Allows government operatives to access more data through current warrants.[/quuote]

Two great overviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3Lfx8YJuhc
https://thejuicemedia.com/DefendEncryption

What will this mean for BTC? Will this bill be passed?


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My input...
Protect your privacy. Protect your human rights. This policy not only applies for Australia, but all countries apart of the Five Eyes alliance
Take action: https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/2018/08/19/defend-encryption/

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[AutisticKid007]

This bill can go both ways from what I have read so far. Creating such laws will definitely help a country like Australia who are constantly trying to help the crypto industry to track the criminals that are associated with crypto related crimes but it also suys that having a warrant against someone will let the law enforcement agencies to have access over encrypted data which means a suspect who is innocent will also have the chance of seeing his privacy being invaded by the government.

[DooMAD]

I hope when a country does inevitably pass a law like this, it bites them in the ass.  They won't get it right.  Let them find out the hard way that banning encryption has repercussions they haven't even envisioned yet.  They're basically just going to force the criminals to up their game and drive criminal behaviour even deeper underground where it's harder to trace than it already is.  You can't realistically ban an entire branch of mathematics, which is what encryption effectively boils down to.  It's just numbers.

As for what it means for BTC, I'm assuming (and hoping) not much.  The protocol certainly won't change because of it.  It would probably make exchanges even weaker than they currently are in terms of security, but at this point most exchanges are so bad that it won't even be that noticeable anyway.  If you do have to use exchanges, just ensure you use one based in a region that doesn't have this law.

[shield132]

It's funny to see what they are doing, they want to make encryption illegal? How? Someone tell them that there is always a way to surpass any problem. When you get someone out from their comfort zone, be ready that they'll find better one. This better one will become best when you give them a reason to develop and this happens when you are strict.
To sum up, their attempt is very poor.

[pitiflin]

I hope when a country does inevitably pass a law like this, it bites them in the ass.  They won't get it right.  Let them find out the hard way that banning encryption has repercussions they haven't even envisioned yet.  They're basically just going to force the criminals to up their game and drive criminal behaviour even deeper underground where it's harder to trace than it already is.  You can't realistically ban an entire branch of mathematics, which is what encryption effectively boils down to.  It's just numbers.

As for what it means for BTC, I'm assuming (and hoping) not much.  The protocol certainly won't change because of it.  It would probably make exchanges even weaker than they currently are in terms of security, but at this point most exchanges are so bad that it won't even be that noticeable anyway.  If you do have to use exchanges, just ensure you use one based in a region that doesn't have this law.

Countries are being soooo try-hard right now. We have countries trying to introduce crypto central banks,whilst they have banned bitcoin in their country(smart af).

Banning encryption is lame, at the very least. Its unnecessary too. So what would happen to companies that use encryption? What would happen to governments encrypting their data? I am not gonna read a single article about this, because this is lame. Too lame.

[avikz]

This law is a clear violation of fundamental human rights such as privacy. Giving unlimited power in the hand of enforcement agencies will only create more chaos and confusion among their citizens.

I thought only America has Trump and North Korea has kim Jong Un. But it seems like Australia is also walking towards the same route where planned human rights violations are brewing up!

[Ucy]

We could store our private keys in our brains assuming they haven't figured out how to hack into people's brains or we could simply write them down on paper. People allover the world should be worried about this because If they succeed in passing the bills many nations will try to copy it.
The whole thing is getting too frequent these days and it is only going get worse in the future.

[blackwell77]

Australia has been confronting an online protection entanglement with a flood of enactment focusing on cybersecurity and law authorization issues. Let’s see what will happen.

[jackpot888]

The proposition looks to concede Australian specialists get forces to do stealthy reconnaissance exercises on electronic gadgets and incite tech associations to collaborate in decoding private correspondences.

[MidnightNugget]

The news comes in the wake of late Australian experiences with darknet-related difficulties coming from data encryption and the unreliable utilization of online security apparatuses.

[BumblingBee]

I am very thankful to for sharing this news with us but I haven't hear any details about this update so I would look forward to hear more from you all so that we could judge the news and the market situation also , best of luck with the future

[franky1]

doesnt affect bitcoin

if anyone wants to see the data we encrypt with our private keys... well.. its right there in cleartext viewable in a blockchain explorer. we even give them the public key for them to verify that the encrypted message (signature) matches the cleartext data.

nothing to hide thus no need to hand over our private keys..
case closed. moving on

[gentlemand]

But it seems like Australia is also walking towards the same route where planned human rights violations are brewing up!

Have you not seen what they're willing to do to the immigrants they send to Nauru? You don't need to imprison or totally dehumanise them for years on end, but they choose to do it anyway.

Stuff like this has been long threatened by the UK government too. It just goes to show how unsavvy these people are. There are already a ton of options to bypass the regular channels and if you're up to no good you'd be pretty stupid to be still using them anyway.

[ViolentBee]

Bitcoin will benefited and secure than before. this bill will pass but i have no idea about this. i want to know more about this. thanks in advance.

[Asprincess7]

it is good for bitcoin because it will ensure bitcoin security. this bill will pass but i have little bit idea about this. i want to know more about this.

[DooMAD]

Stuff like this has been long threatened by the UK government too. It just goes to show how unsavvy these people are.

Yep, since at least 2015 when they started debating that disgusting "snoopers' charter" in parliament and, in their total gormlessness, genuinely believed they were capable of banning all end-to-end encryption.  "Unsavvy" doesn't even begin to do it justice, heh.  They're utter fuckwits.  Suffice to say they didn't manage to include that part in the final draft.  Then, earlier this year, the High Court ruled they now have to rewrite most of the parts they did manage to include in that vile legislation anyway.  But in all their ignorance and stupidity, they didn't manage to cause any issues for Bitcoin whatsoever, so it's fair to assume the Aussies will have an equally unnoticeable impact if they follow down the same deluded path.

[Vikingkong]

Australia is making a bill that proposes to give someone who has encrypted digital information on any smart device through a tech company. And a draft bill has been proposed. Although I am not quite sure about this, I have to know more in this regard.

[HonestAlien]

Although there is no clear idea about the news about Bitcoin and Australia. Have to know more about what is deciding on digital information issues and smart devices.

[dothebeats]

Not a fan of such, but if ever this gets approved, many data security firms and experts would surely give an ill remark for this. Idk what prompted them to create such a bill but as far as I know, the draft is created as anti-terrorism measures mostly which I think shouldn't really be an issue to this day. Companies and governments having backdoors and complete access to a personal device seems already invasive and that's not good in any way. If anything, it's a scary thought.

[Proctopus90]

Although I'm not sure about this. Because I do not know this news yet. So, I can give a better opinion about this later. But hopefully the cryptocurrency and bitcoin will survive very well in Australia.