Steve Schear wrote:
[snip]
In real life, following the money is just as important as following
the man. It's time for the system to be rebalanced.
In fact, I believe, it is even more important because it is the
snail trail that connects the people involved. Significant sized
anti-social activities are very rarely one-man bands.
Given this, rather than requiring proof of identity to open bank
accounts, etc, we should encourage transactions through the
normal channels in order to better follow the money, if we are
truly after criminals. All the extra controls do is force
ordinary people who can't, for whatever reason, meet the proof of
identity standards to create covert channels to transact their
business. These then become the means the real crooks then use to
commit whatever it is they do.
The best parallels I can think of are Prohibition and the War on
Drugs. Look at the total chaos brought on by Prohibition.
Fortunately we were wise enough to put a stop to that relatively,
for social controls, quickly. The War on Drugs; however, we have
not been as smart about, and now, just over 100 years later we
are spending multi-billions to bring forth an occasional mouse
displayed in screaming headlines.
Both Prohibition and the War on Drugs responded to each new
general control by creating covert channels for transacting
business. The $10,000 alert system created smurfing where
deposits were always less. Now that they have instituted controls
on transfers of $5,000 or more, guess what? I think you can see
the trend. In addition by imposing general controls what they do
is spread the work around. The crooks have to hire more people to
do the work which creates a mindset in a larger number of people
that laws oppress and that you are better off living outside the
law.
To bring it back to encryption, what are the goals we are trying
to achieve by using encryption? Are they goals whereby we create
barriers between people? Or are the goals to assist people in
creating connections that are secure and enhance trust? The tools
themselves are neutral.
Best,
Allen
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