decentrian on Nostr: > you are comparing a medley of experimental error-prone contraptions that have not ...
> you are comparing a medley of experimental error-prone contraptions that have not been battle-tested with the act of handing someone a piece of paper in meatspace
- how does something become battle tested if it doesn’t get tested in battle ? We have to at least try and use the protocols to assess their viability. Also it’s not transacting p2p that’s the problem , cash is definitely fungible in this scenario but it’s the reporting of these transactions that is a problem. Go to a gas station and pay for gas and you tell me if that bill doesn’t go directly into a ledger that gets sent once a year to the IRS for tax purposes. Just because it takes longer doesn’t make it better. They can pin point your geographical location based on where you are spending the money and also create a profile of you based on what you are purchasing. The only option a person really has to obfuscate these transactions would be to launder the money and that would require a lot of money to establish businesses that generate a lot of cash flow to be able to mix it with the revenue.
> bitcoins only behave like privacy coins 1% of the time if I'm being generous, and it is the most difficult way to use them, with the most unappealing tradeoffs.
- This is true but again development has not stopped. Coinjoins/silent payments/bolt12/etc. They will get better over time.
> people in real life who have serious business to attend to, like selling drugs and staying out of jail, have drifted away from bitcoin.
- This is true they use monero now.
> even when a near-perfect privacy coin is used, they still have to do very complicated things to wash their money and they often fail. one of the most common things they do with their ill-gotten cryptocurrency is to turn it back into banknotes and wash it using traditional methods
- im confused, this sounds like you are making my point that it is much more difficult to obfuscate cash through traditional methods. Either way, both methods are difficult but with cash you need to have businesses to launder it and takes a ton of money and coordination, with Bitcoin you can try to do it from your own computer. They both have trade offs but i believe cash requires much more preparation, planning and money.
- how does something become battle tested if it doesn’t get tested in battle ? We have to at least try and use the protocols to assess their viability. Also it’s not transacting p2p that’s the problem , cash is definitely fungible in this scenario but it’s the reporting of these transactions that is a problem. Go to a gas station and pay for gas and you tell me if that bill doesn’t go directly into a ledger that gets sent once a year to the IRS for tax purposes. Just because it takes longer doesn’t make it better. They can pin point your geographical location based on where you are spending the money and also create a profile of you based on what you are purchasing. The only option a person really has to obfuscate these transactions would be to launder the money and that would require a lot of money to establish businesses that generate a lot of cash flow to be able to mix it with the revenue.
> bitcoins only behave like privacy coins 1% of the time if I'm being generous, and it is the most difficult way to use them, with the most unappealing tradeoffs.
- This is true but again development has not stopped. Coinjoins/silent payments/bolt12/etc. They will get better over time.
> people in real life who have serious business to attend to, like selling drugs and staying out of jail, have drifted away from bitcoin.
- This is true they use monero now.
> even when a near-perfect privacy coin is used, they still have to do very complicated things to wash their money and they often fail. one of the most common things they do with their ill-gotten cryptocurrency is to turn it back into banknotes and wash it using traditional methods
- im confused, this sounds like you are making my point that it is much more difficult to obfuscate cash through traditional methods. Either way, both methods are difficult but with cash you need to have businesses to launder it and takes a ton of money and coordination, with Bitcoin you can try to do it from your own computer. They both have trade offs but i believe cash requires much more preparation, planning and money.