
Secret millions for 0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184 - nissimk
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/secret-millions-for-0x00a651d43b6e209f5ada45a35f92efc0de3a5184
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Jabanga
>“In this context, anonymity will become more a hindrance than an asset for
virtual currencies” and their potential future popularity.

The EU parliament report is wrong. Without privacy, money's utility is
extremely limited. Accounts that leak private financial information are also a
major security liability, that empower criminals who engage in violent crimes
like kidnapping for ransom, not to mention run of the mill scams like
phishing.

Former Bitcoin lead developer Gavin Andresen notes how resistance to past
government efforts to stifle privacy has had huge economic benefits. [1]:

>In the '90s, there was a group of people called the cypherpunks who were
pushing to get encryption technology declassified. It used to be you couldn't
create encryption products and ship them overseas because they were classified
as a munition and the U.S. government didn't want you shipping munitions
overseas. The notion of software being a munition seemed ridiculous to these
people, so they began to change the way that technology was seen and used.
It's thanks to them that we have good encryption that lets things like
e-commerce work on the Web. There was also a lot of talk back then about
digital cash and whether there was a way to pay for things that doesn't
require you to trust a government or central authority.

There is now an effort by some government bodies to eliminate cash [2], and
prevent the emergence of electronic cash, because of the financial privacy it
gives people. I believe it's extremely important for the future that these
efforts be resisted.

[1] [http://fortune.com/2015/01/22/qa-gavin-andresen-bitcoin-
foun...](http://fortune.com/2015/01/22/qa-gavin-andresen-bitcoin-foundation/)

[2] [https://aeon.co/essays/if-plastic-replaces-cash-much-that-
is...](https://aeon.co/essays/if-plastic-replaces-cash-much-that-is-good-will-
be-lost)

~~~
petre
> The EU parliament report is wrong. Without privacy, money's utility is
> extremely limited.

Without privacy the authorities are able to tax you and track your purchases.
That is why they hate cash, because it's anonymous. You can now cross the
border with millions worth of USD stored on a microSD card without declaring
anything. One of the purposes of cryptocurrencies was to escape the regulating
grip of governments. What the bureaucrats in power do not understand is that
anything could be used as money as long as there is confidence in that thing.
In ancient China and Japan bags of rice and tea bricks were used as money
during _interesting times_ , some of which lasted up to 700 years.

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zupreme
This individual or group is going to face the same issues everyone who makes
huge gains in crypto faces: Limited liquidity.

You may have $200 million in your "wallet" but it's not a lot of use to you
unless you can find enough people to give you "real money" in exchange for
your cryptocurrency.

I tan into this issue early on with Bitcoin. I was an early miner and at one
point had some serious coin on hand. Unfortunately selling it all took a
really long time and of course because it took so long my gains fluctuated
wildly from transaction to transaction. I still walked away from the
experience with more money than I had going into it - but nothing like I would
have had if I had simply been able to dump it all at the peak of the market
like I could do with a blue chip stock.

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personjerry
> 0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184 couldn’t be reached for further
> comment.

Was this just a cute line or is it actually possible to reach them and get
comments?

~~~
heptathorp
It was a joke but you can send data in a transaction to an account. In fact,
somebody did that today.

[https://etherchain.org/tx/0x16b867d064cab80f0f5d938adda6d03c...](https://etherchain.org/tx/0x16b867d064cab80f0f5d938adda6d03c62985b93c7778244928d9d74e39ab10c)

------
siproprio
>[...] concerned regulators say it might be time to link wallet IDs with
actual humans

Good luck with that! :D

~~~
Fjolsvith
Imagine when some AI gets smart enough to start trading in digital currency...

