Re:Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha
by 13thLetter on Monday January 25, 2016 @08:19PM
(#10971305)
Just like the rest of the cyberlibertarian blue-skying that went on back in the '90s, it was a nice dream, seriously! But in reality it turns out that governments can just send some armed men around to beat up the people with the encrypted faxes, email, and digital cash, and that'll largely put an end to it. The extent to which a government is helpless to stop that behavior is purely the extent to which it is reluctant to send, or incapable of sending, the armed men.
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Re:Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha
by haberman on Monday January 25, 2016 @10:38PM
(#10971689)
See also: https://xkcd.com/538/
Re:Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha
by wyager on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @12:26AM
(#10971956)
Except for the fact that this hasn't happened at all. Even with Bitcoin, which isn't as anonymous as zcash claims to be, people making illicit purchases have had very little difficulty evading police or government capture. There are a few notable cases of high-profile Bitcoin users (like DPR) being arrested, but I don't know of any cases where Bitcoin was at fault.
Re:Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha
by Retric on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @07:08AM
(#10972999)
There a lot of cases where Bitcoin transsctions are traced back to some crime. The justice system does not make a big deal about this as educating criminals only makes there job harder.
Re:Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha
by wyager on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @03:42PM
(#10975882)
Evidence? In which cases was tracing Bitcoin transactions used?
Re:Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha
by msgilligan on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @08:38PM
(#10977643)
I'm not sure how much (if any) of the investigation into the Carl Force and Shaun Bridges cases used Bitcoin transaction data, but I suspect it played some role:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-silk-road-task-force-ag...