Privacy is Freedom

[5W-KILO]

John McAfee inspired my believe in privacy and freedom, may his beautiful soul rest in perfect peace..

It is pretty scary to think about that

Len Sassaman
Tim May
David Kleiman
John McAfee
Hal Finney

Almost every early crypto pioneer who is now unfortunately gone shared that same believe that

Privacy is Freedom

Although they all came in different ways, Different stories but same mission.
The freedom through code idea.

These are legends, we could say that they were all part of one unspoken rebellion, they don't keep silent about Privacy for once.

A minute of silence for these heroes.

[Kruw]

Declaring "X is Y" isn't very convincing. Try "Privacy is necessary for censorship resistance" instead.

[ABCbits]

It's hard to show him respect, knowing his hardware wallet have terrible security and he used to lie about it[1]. By the way, you may want to provide source about him supporting privacy since not all member familiar with him.

[1] https://bitcoinist.com/bitfi-hacking-unhackable-wallet-mcafee/

[Botnake]

That can still be done if you remove KYC, even though it’s mandatory now on most platforms like exchanges and casinos, it’s still possible to transact Bitcoin while keeping your privacy. It’s not for everyone though, mass adoption usually means giving up some privacy, but as a holder it’s still your choice whether you keep it or throw it out the window.

if you HOLD, this is a safer motto to you.

[flapduck]

MCaffee is a complicated individual... You can appreciate that he pushed the privacy instinct into the mainstream without having to put the guy on a spotless pedestal.

The neat part is the idea outlives the personalities, whether it's Tim May's old cypherpunk energy or Finney's quiet engineering ethos, the through-line is the same, code that lets ordinary people opt out of being catalogued, profiled, or financially muzzled.

[Kalchef]

I don't know about others but I knew John McAfee very well, not in real world but he was a shit coin shiller too, he was used to promote so many ICOs online and people hearing his involvement brings hype.

He had a Dex called McAfeeDex and he released a privacy coin called ghost, unfortunately he never lived too long after the release to see the project survived, he had many things he wanted to do for Ghost project at the time, I can remember a friend who was into crypto before me told me to join the ghost project telegram link.

The ghost coin make me believe that he is into privacy, because he build ghost into such project very similar to Monero, as for others I don't know if those are true.

[Donneski]

What strikes me is how consistent this belief was across generations of cypherpunks: privacy as a prerequisite for freedom not a luxury. Tim May wrote about this decades ago in the Cypherpunk Manifesto long before Bitcoin existed yet the ideas still echo today. You can read about the manifesto here

They didn’t all agree on everything but they agreed on this: That freedom enforced by law is fragile while freedom enforced by mathematics is harder to corrupt. Whether through Bitcoin, cryptography or ideology, they chose to build rather than ask for permission. That alone I think puts them in a different category of thinkers.

[BlackBoss_]

John McAfee inspired my believe in privacy and freedom, may his beautiful soul rest in perfect peace..

It is pretty scary to think about that

Len Sassaman
Tim May
David Kleiman
John McAfee
Hal Finney

Almost every early crypto pioneer who is now unfortunately gone shared that same believe that

Privacy is Freedom

Although they all came in different ways, Different stories but same mission.

Who made their names publicly known, even famous, want to be known don't care about Privacy.

Do you think you are just saying something opposite to the fact?
Hal Finney publicly tweeted about his Bitcoin Core, full node run, about his Peer to Peer transaction with Satoshi Nakamoto.
Johm McAfee shilled many coins before he was arrested, imprisoned and died.

I don't know about the other people, but only two people John McAfee and Hal Finney are enough to debunk your point about privacy.

[Alvin_talk]

Privacy is freedom but unfortunately, interest in privacy has reduced in recent times. Many have been carried away out of ignorance and convinience, using centralised exchanges is now a norm, KYC is now almost a must, even exchanges which claim to be decentralised are not as only few are really decentralised. I created a thread raising concerns about this issue you can check it out.

However, I'm happy we still have few who are advocating for privacy rather than only speculating for the price of bitcoin to go bullish. I really wish we could go back in time when privacy was truly cherished.

[Oshosondy]

Privacy is freedom but unfortunately, interest in privacy has reduced in recent times. Many have been carried away out of ignorance and convinience, using centralised exchanges is now a norm, KYC is now almost a must, even exchanges which claim to be decentralised are not as only few are really decentralised. I created a thread raising concerns about this issue you can check it out.

People do not like to make research, but some things online now are fake. We are now in the world you will see online that some exchanges that are centralized are decentralized. Some people do not have the knowledge to make the right investigation to know that it is all lies.

I have noticed that people like KYC and centralized exchanges also, this will really help the government to effectively tax their citizens. But I will still prefer the use of noncustodial wallet but the low liquidity on decentralized exchange is an issue now.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

We are now in the world you will see online that some exchanges that are centralized are decentralized.

I have never known any centralized exchanges are actually decentralized.

The opposite is more true, exchanges that claim to be decentralized are not decentralized but actually centralized. A casino that uses clickbait as no-KYC can be a KYC casino, it's quite true with many casinos nowadays.

Similarly, a wallet can advertise as open source while it is actualy close source like Trust wallet but it is impossible that an open source wallet advertise it as close source.

Perhaps you made a typo in your post, otherwise I can not get your message in it.

[vanesha]

They are heroes who fight for privacy in the digital world. Respect to them, may they be granted the best place by God.

Speaking of privacy, I do not understand why privacy coins are so few and not very attractive to buy. The latest information I got about privacy coins is that they are not for short-term investment, the time horizon is very long, and their price movement is slow. But their function is extraordinary. Do you understand why this happens?

[Satofan44]

These are legends, we could say that they were all part of one unspoken rebellion, they don't keep silent about Privacy for once.

While I don't think that the battle for privacy is over, I don't think that where we stand today is a very good position. Most people are apathetic to this issue at best, most often they are unwillingly ignorant. They value their ability to buy their next meal at McDonald's more than they value their own privacy and freedom. In a world like this, we are always on the brink of a complete nightmare. If the key entities that are resisting the Orwellian nightmare fall, then we will end into a period that would be considered the Dark Ages of Modernity. Most of these people will regret their ignorance but only once the consequences of their ignorance directly impact them. At that point it will be too late, and it will be too late for those who think that they will be able to say "I told you so" since they will share the negative impacts of the collective's decisions.

Declaring "X is Y" isn't very convincing. Try "Privacy is necessary for censorship resistance" instead.

It is a pretty correct claim in this case. There is no freedom without privacy, it would be an impossible situation. Imagine that you are living in a world where you are under surveillance 24/7. There would only be an illusion of freedom, all your choices would be bound by or at least influenced by the fact that you are being observed. To make things worse, anything that is surveilled can be recorded and used against you at any point in the future. Freedom without privacy is delusional slavery.

It's hard to show him respect, knowing his hardware wallet have terrible security and he used to lie about it[1]. By the way, you may want to provide source about him supporting privacy since not all member familiar with him.

[1] https://bitcoinist.com/bitfi-hacking-unhackable-wallet-mcafee/

While I agree in principle, nobody is perfect. Mistakes are made. McAfee was anyway a very special character, quite crazy actually. That does not mean that he did not fight for privacy. If you only knew some of the people that have actually met and spent some time with him even simply as acquaintances, they have stories that are the stuff of movies. 

[Fiatless]

People do not like to make research, but some things online now are fake. We are now in the world you will see online that some exchanges that are centralized are decentralized. Some people do not have the knowledge to make the right investigation to know that it is all lies.

I have noticed that people like KYC and centralized exchanges also, this will really help the government to effectively tax their citizens. But I will still prefer the use of noncustodial wallet but the low liquidity on decentralized exchange is an issue now.

One of the most corrupt governments in the history of my country wants to increase taxes. They have failed to improve the living conditions of the people. The cost of government has kept increasing because of the bogus salaries and allowances of politicians. Yet they want to increase taxes. This is the time one needs decentralised exchanges. Privacy is freedom because these politicians want to enslave citizens.

      

[Oshosondy]

Privacy is freedom but unfortunately, interest in privacy has reduced in recent times. Many have been carried away out of ignorance and convinience, using centralised exchanges is now a norm, KYC is now almost a must, even exchanges which claim to be decentralised are not as only few are really decentralised. I created a thread raising concerns about this issue you can check it out.

People do not like to make research, but some things online now are fake. We are now in the world you will see online that some exchanges that are centralized are decentralized. Some people do not have the knowledge to make the right investigation to know that it is all lies.

I have noticed that people like KYC and centralized exchanges also, this will really help the government to effectively tax their citizens. But I will still prefer the use of noncustodial wallet but the low liquidity on decentralized exchange is an issue now.

You did not understand me at all, I said you will see online that centralized exchanges are decentralized but in real life, it is the opposite. There are examples of exchanges that I can mention that it is online that they are decentralized, but which are lies because they are centralized. Even on this forum, many people are posting that they are decentralized but which is not true.

[Wincob]

Privacy is freedom but unfortunately, interest in privacy has reduced in recent times. Many have been carried away out of ignorance and convinience, using centralised exchanges is now a norm, KYC is now almost a must, even exchanges which claim to be decentralised are not as only few are really decentralised. I created a thread raising concerns about this issue you can check it out.

People do not like to make research, but some things online now are fake. We are now in the world you will see online that some exchanges that are centralized are decentralized. Some people do not have the knowledge to make the right investigation to know that it is all lies.

I have noticed that people like KYC and centralized exchanges also, this will really help the government to effectively tax their citizens. But I will still prefer the use of noncustodial wallet but the low liquidity on decentralized exchange is an issue now.

You did not understand me at all, I said you will see online that centralized exchanges are decentralized but in real life, it is the opposite. There are examples of exchanges that I can mention that it is online that they are decentralized, but which are lies because they are centralized. Even on this forum, many people are posting that they are decentralized but which is not true.

It's just like how Binance is offering a peer to peer trade when it shouldn't be called peer to peer anymore since it's a complete centralised exchange, what is peer to peer when you are asked to pass KYC verification first? Some people don't care about this because they aren't pushed to the wall yet where privacy is necessary.

[Satofan44]

People do not like to make research, but some things online now are fake. We are now in the world you will see online that some exchanges that are centralized are decentralized. Some people do not have the knowledge to make the right investigation to know that it is all lies.

I have noticed that people like KYC and centralized exchanges also, this will really help the government to effectively tax their citizens. But I will still prefer the use of noncustodial wallet but the low liquidity on decentralized exchange is an issue now.

One of the most corrupt governments in the history of my country wants to increase taxes. They have failed to improve the living conditions of the people. The cost of government has kept increasing because of the bogus salaries and allowances of politicians. Yet they want to increase taxes. This is the time one needs decentralised exchanges. Privacy is freedom because these politicians want to enslave citizens.

You did not understand me at all, I said you will see online that centralized exchanges are decentralized but in real life, it is the opposite. There are examples of exchanges that I can mention that it is online that they are decentralized, but which are lies because they are centralized. Even on this forum, many people are posting that they are decentralized but which is not true.

It is you who does not understand the implications of the world decentralized. Surely there are services that falsely advertise themselves as something that they are not, but what about it? That has nothing to do with the issue at hand and it is an argument akin to saying water is wet. It happens in every industry so that makes it unimportant -- shady people make false claims. The leading decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid, PancakeSwap, and Uniswap are decentralized. You are confusing the interface with the exchange, and this leads to a false understanding of how things work. The underlying exchange is decentralized, the website which is just a graphical interface to the exchange is not. It can not be, at least not in any user-friendly form as it is now using the technologies that we have today.

That means that the website has to comply with rules and sanctions. This is normal and expected. You need to expand your understanding. Even if the developers were entirely anonymous (which they aren't), failing to comply with rulings can simply lead to the domain being taken away from them. So what does that accomplish? They didn't protect decentralization by refusing to comply, and to make things worse they have cause damage from the chaos. If you have the technical skills to create transactions manually, you can always interact with these exchanges. Nobody can block your access to it. They are decentralized, regardless of what the user interface website has to do. There is the other issue that the blockchains on which they operate are not as decentralized as they claim, but that is a separate topic -- and there has not been a case where the government has intervened on a chain to actually stop something like a DEX.

For Bitcoin, there are also decentralized solutions like Bisq but they are more complex and have their own set of issues. Bitcoin has on-chain limitations for security and scalability reasons, but then the tradeoff is that it is more limited in functionality and thus anything that could resemble like a DEX will always be more complicated.

It's just like how Binance is offering a peer to peer trade when it shouldn't be called peer to peer anymore since it's a complete centralised exchange, what is peer to peer when you are asked to pass KYC verification first? Some people don't care about this because they aren't pushed to the wall yet where privacy is necessary.

No, that example is incorrect. It is a peer to peer functionality delivered through a hybrid model (P2P on a centralized platform, not P2P in a decentralized environment) among users within a centralized environment, it is designed to prevent people from getting scammed by making trades with complete strangers. It serves its purpose. Unless it is being advertised for stuff that it is not, for example "P2P trade in a completely decentralized way" then it is not wrong.

[jossiel]

Almost every early crypto pioneer who is now unfortunately gone shared that same believe that

Snowden is still there and he's one of the believers of bitcoin and also a security expert that has shared so much to the world.

Privacy is Freedom

Although they all came in different ways, Different stories but same mission.
The freedom through code idea.

These are legends, we could say that they were all part of one unspoken rebellion, they don't keep silent about Privacy for once.

They have went against big corporations that have hidden a lot of things from us.

And have advocated for privacy whilst the government is against for it and never had done something to push for it.

Well, hats raised for these people.

[PrivacyG]

A long list of people seem to be Privacy advocates but Privacy is becoming less and less important to the average human.  You see everybody around you giving up their information for free.  In fact, they are pretty much paying using their own information as the method of payment.  Serving Tik Tok and Meta all they want and need to feed the algorithm and bring more addictive short form videos to the front of the feed so the doom scrolling can continue.  Giving up Privacy because it takes only 2 minutes to start a new Bank Account.  And so on.

While technology evolves, we are regressing a lot when it comes to Freedom and Privacy.  And no matter how many smart people call for Privacy to be protected, it ends up becoming worth less and less in time until people will simply not care any more.  It actually already feels like people do not care any more.  They are ready to give any thing for more comfort and convenience.  And the funny part is that their convenience is having microphones all around the house listening to you 24 out of 7 so you can start music using your voice.

Privacy is important.  But most important right now is that Privacy remains a human right.  And that I can look for my own Privacy with out having to explain all my decisions to the Government because they decide to treat everybody like a terrorist all of a sudden.  The fight has never been over, we are always fighting and the way things look, we will always have to fight for it from now on.

[nakamura12]

It's just like how Binance is offering a peer to peer trade when it shouldn't be called peer to peer anymore since it's a complete centralised exchange, what is peer to peer when you are asked to pass KYC verification first? Some people don't care about this because they aren't pushed to the wall yet where privacy is necessary.

It is because of those people who are doing illegal activities that cause the exchange platform owners are forced to implement a KYC hence why there's an AML on every platforms that let's you exchange or even in a casino. The reason they have to do it is to avoid being seized by the feds when running an exchange platform. If you know about a mixer which defeats the purpose of AML are being seized by feds so if an exchange is the same where there's no KYC then there's a chance of it being seized by feds