Goodbye, privacy, goodbye, it was nice while it lasted.

[Abiky]

Undoubtedly governments will continue to try to regulate crypto. Will they be able to fully succeed, that is the question. In principle, people don't need their permission or approval to use crypto, and nothing prevents them from using it explicitly.

I don't think governments will succeed because of the decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of crypto/Blockchain tech. Regulations can only be enforced on centralized exchanges and centralized wallet providers. Anything that's not centralized would be out of a single government's jurisdiction. As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies become more popular, governments will implement stricter regulations in order to minimize its growth worldwide. What ultimately matters is decentralization. As long as Bitcoin is able to stay that way, it will last a lifetime.

And here I disagree with you. Fiat forms of money are already being rapidly superseded by the digital version as more and more people pay with plastic cards and mobile apps. The proportion of people still paying with cash has been decreasing every year and will continue to decrease. And since fiat is practically impossible to control (just try to track the movement between people) and is 100% anonymous (there is no binding of banknotes to a specific person), then with the departure of fiat, society's finances will turn out to be more controllable and traceable.

Digital Fiat will mark the end of an era for privacy. After all, governments will have more control over people's finances. Fortunately, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be there to save the day. With decentralization at the forefront of crypto, I don't think privacy will fade away into oblivion anytime soon. Just my thoughts

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[tanitel]

..................

Digital Fiat will mark the end of an era for privacy. After all, governments will have more control over people's finances....

fully true.
1984 arrives progressively nowadays.

[franky1]

I don't think governments will succeed because of the decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of crypto/Blockchain tech. Regulations can only be enforced on centralized exchanges and centralized wallet providers. Anything that's not centralized would be out of a single government's jurisdiction.

government cannot control bitcoin (the technology) just like they cant tell a bottle of wine to stop being swallowed.

however governments can regulate PEOPLE. and laws apply to people. because people can be punished and people can read the law.
(bitcoin(and wine) has no brain or eyes. it cant read paper laws. it cant be punished. but people can)

governments can regulate businesses(run by people). and create laws obided by people.
people can try to evade the law. but at risk of punishment if found. and governments can find ways to find people (like how silk road creator was found even with things like tor, proxies)..

yes the laws on alcohol (1920's prohibition.. and under age drinking) has not been effective. and people still drunk it. ... though many people were also caught and punished

yes the laws on drugs ('war on drugs') has not been effective. and people still got high ... though many people were also caught and punished.

..
so although drugs are still available, and alcohol is still available even to underage people and even when it was prohibited in the last century... and bitcoin will still be available .. people using them are limited in their freedom and openness about their utility of it

..
many businesses are not lobbying against it. because these limitations become opportunities. if they can afford the fines or afford the licencing to become legitimate merchants of the limited use items. they can monopolise the market and not have much competition.

regulations are the opposite of the 'free market'.. but hey.. thats capitalism

(im against monopoly and capitalism, and where regulations are used to stifle growth/openness.. but i atleast understand it.)

[vectisitch]

All they need to do is make it illegal for any business or bank to dea lwith Crypto currencies other than governments own digital currency. Game over.
I'm only surprised the yhaven't done it yet. They are slowly moving to strip us all of every privacy.

[Abiky]

government cannot control bitcoin (the technology) just like they cant tell a bottle of wine to stop being swallowed.

however governments can regulate PEOPLE. and laws apply to people. because people can be punished and people can read the law.
(bitcoin(and wine) has no brain or eyes. it cant read paper laws. it cant be punished. but people can)

governments can regulate businesses(run by people). and create laws obided by people.
people can try to evade the law. but at risk of punishment if found. and governments can find ways to find people (like how silk road creator was found even with things like tor, proxies)..

yes the laws on alcohol (1920's prohibition.. and under age drinking) has not been effective. and people still drunk it. ... though many people were also caught and punished

yes the laws on drugs ('war on drugs') has not been effective. and people still got high ... though many people were also caught and punished.

..
so although drugs are still available, and alcohol is still available even to underage people and even when it was prohibited in the last century... and bitcoin will still be available .. people using them are limited in their freedom and openness about their utility of it

..
many businesses are not lobbying against it. because these limitations become opportunities. if they can afford the fines or afford the licencing to become legitimate merchants of the limited use items. they can monopolise the market and not have much competition.

regulations are the opposite of the 'free market'.. but hey.. thats capitalism

(im against monopoly and capitalism, and where regulations are used to stifle growth/openness.. but i atleast understand it.)

Too much regulations will do more harm than good for the growth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the market. Governments want to abolish privacy because they want to prevent people from gaining true freedom and financial independence. It's a good thing most cryptocurrencies are decentralized, or they would've been easier targets by mainstream governments. Most people don't care about their privacy these days, so they will use CBDCs even if such currencies will be under the full scope of governments and central banks alike. After all, most people don't have nothing to hide.

Fortunately, privacy won't go anywhere soon thanks to anonymous cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash. While governments can impose regulations to restrict or even ban the use of privacy coins, they can't be enforced because of the decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of crypto/Blockchain tech. I hope crypto remains that way in order to minimize government's power over the people as much as possible. Just my thoughts

[Smartvirus]

I kinda had a feeling that this vote will go this way that is bad for crypto. I guess there still is a chance this won't happen any time soon because it has to go trough a bunch of other bureaucracy stuff in order to go trough. However, I really do think that unfortunately this is the future for crypto in the EU. Maybe a distant future (because of bureaucracy), but definitely a future.

Of course it is a future and one that is definitely realisable as it favours the government. The silent reality about it is, its not going to be effective only in the EU although, it might lay its foundation there in the EU but, would be slowly adopted by other regions, Unions and nations in our world, given the fact that its a government favoured orientation and almost all government looks towards crypto regulation. Although, the policy adaptation would be largely dependent on the success of the intent in the EU and there is a very little chance for it not to be effective on the exchanges being a profit organisation that would do what it takes for them go be functional in certain regions and in compliance with the government. This is generally bad for privacy concerned investors but in all, I think they can't end the will of crypto enthusiasts for cryptos and its operations.

[n0nce]

Fortunately, privacy won't go anywhere soon thanks to anonymous cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash. While governments can impose regulations to restrict or even ban the use of privacy coins, they can't be enforced because of the decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of crypto/Blockchain tech. I hope crypto remains that way in order to minimize government's power over the people as much as possible. Just my thoughts

I'd just like to point out that Zcash always relied on a set of private keys being created and exchanged securely in a so-called 'ceremony' made by a set of people (developers) when they started the project. I wouldn't trust a dime to a system like this.

Apparently, they planned to move away from this in May (last month), but the text is still in past tense, so I have no idea if this ever happened.

In May of 2022, Zcash will begin using the Halo 2 proving system, which removes reliance on a complex setup ceremony and upgrades the underlying cryptography. But when Zcash launched in 2016, its zero-knowledge proofs required a setup phase to produce public parameters that allowed users to construct and verify private transactions.

At that time, some random numbers were sampled (which we refer to as the “toxic waste”) and were then used to construct the parameters.

After the setup phase, the toxic waste had to be destroyed to prevent counterfeiting of Zcash.

[Abiky]

I'd just like to point out that Zcash always relied on a set of private keys being created and exchanged securely in a so-called 'ceremony' made by a set of people (developers) when they started the project. I wouldn't trust a dime to a system like this.

Apparently, they planned to move away from this in May (last month), but the text is still in past tense, so I have no idea if this ever happened.

In May of 2022, Zcash will begin using the Halo 2 proving system, which removes reliance on a complex setup ceremony and upgrades the underlying cryptography. But when Zcash launched in 2016, its zero-knowledge proofs required a setup phase to produce public parameters that allowed users to construct and verify private transactions.

At that time, some random numbers were sampled (which we refer to as the “toxic waste”) and were then used to construct the parameters.

After the setup phase, the toxic waste had to be destroyed to prevent counterfeiting of Zcash.

That was at the beginning. But the recent network upgrade has changed all of that (apparently) by removing the trusted setup. Some said Zcash was compromised from the start, as the company (Electric Coin Company) introduced a backdoor to help governments circumvent/bypass privacy features. I guess the only true privacy coin is Monero with its proven track record of development and innovation.

Governments don't like privacy, so they will do their best to bring the revolution down to the ground. It'll be up to us to help support privacy-preserving technologies to prevent governments from winning in the long run. As long as decentralization prevails, there should be nothing to worry about. Just my thoughts