At 08:40 PM 3/11/00 -0500, Petro wrote:
> In other words, does the government have a legitimate reason
>to prevent you or me from hiding the origin of a legitimate source of
>income from prying eyes.
Taxation. If the fed can't see you get paid, its difficult to tax you.
Constitutionality of taxation aside, as long as the fed relies on income
taxes as a signifigant revenue source, they have a vested interest in
preventing unauditable cash transactions from being widely avaliable. The
reasons typically given (drugs, ransom notes, and the myriad variations of
"think of the children") are inconsequential in comparison, but they sound
better.
As a side note, I did some contract work on client software for the
"Mondex" electronic cash system last year. Interesting system, could have
been untracable (chip-chip). Except that every bank and almost every
vendor wanted audit log capability in all equipment. I stopped working on
the system.
