This critique is applicable to all forms of
comsec/infosec/anonymity/Tor although the
incessant promotion various means to escape being
hacked, tracked, decrypted, identified appears to
be unstoppable due to the monetization and
assurances of protection for internet users by
predators and bullshitters working hand in hand
with authorities which are extremely pleased with
the aiders and abetters, not a few which came
into prominance and profitability on this shewd
mail list and its offshoots, luring gullible
readers into capacious honeypots, watering holes,
stings, dark markets, cults of dead cows
exploitation, enlistment into spy agencies and
professorships and law offices and NGOs and financial theiveries..
"PGP and Gnupgp," "PRZ," "RSA," "AES," "open
source," "digital cash," "e-gold," "bitcoin,"
"Satoshi," "work around censorship," "don't trust
governments," "write code," "assassination
politics," "EFF," "WikiLeaks." Hut, two, three, four.
Some have died on public duty, others smeared,
imprisoned and exiled, quite a few gone onto
dreary jobs in the security industry bossed,
herded, contemned, retired by MBA lunkheads
reaping top benefits over the grunts chained to
computers deranged by dreams of what could have
been and maybe still can be. Get sec vaxed,
often, jabbed with updates unending as wars. Best
to cooperate, deliver speeches, grab bounties,
warn of threats, dismiss opponents.
At 02:05 PM 6/12/2021, David Barrett wrote:
I am very confused why anyone thinks Bitcoin is
untraceable, anonymous, or anything less than a
privacy disaster. It is literally the least
private currency ever devised: once I know your
wallet, I know truly everything you have ever
done back to the very start. Bitcoin is as
private as sharing all your credit card
purchases via twitter: yes, very noisy, but
totally in the open (and "mixing" things
between wallets is just silly -- computers can
unwind all that in a millisecond). Â
If you have a mapping of "human identity to
wallet" (which the government nearly always has
because virtually every path to convert BTC to
USD/EUR/etc is regulated), then no matter how
many intermediate steps and secret wallets are
used as some kind of "factoring" approach toward
money laundering, you can always figure out who
is being paid by whom. In fact, it's *easier*
for the FBI to unwind your laundering via BTC
than normal banks, because normal banks *have
shitloads of privacy protections and subpoena requirements that BTC doesn't*.
The only way it's private is if you skip every
exchange, but that's the classic tradeoff of
privacy for convenience -- yes, there are lots
of ways to maintain your privacy inconveniently,
and BTC is just one more. And if the only way
to truly do anonymous transfers is by meeting up
in person to exchange cash for a keydrive
containing a wallet private key, then BTC is
really no better on the privacy/convenienceÂ
spectrum than just handing someone a suitcase of gold.
Blockchain is great and all, but in none of the
ways people investing in it claim.
-david
On Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 7:13 AM jim bell
<<mailto:jdb10...@yahoo.com>jdb10...@yahoo.com> wrote:
The National: Colonial Pipelineâs ransom
recovery sparks debate on Bitcoin traceability.
<https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/colonial-pipeline-s-ransom-recovery-sparks-debate-on-bitcoin-traceability-1.1238908>https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/colonial-pipeline-s-ransom-recovery-sparks-debate-on-bitcoin-traceability-1.1238908