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Re:A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe by StavrosK on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @10:49AM (#16745121)
You can prove that you purchased something by having a receipt. It can be as simple as a unique purchase number. If you pay by some cryptocurrency, you can even prove you own the sending address.
Re:A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe by theclaw on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @06:49PM (#16750146)
True but cryptocurrency is not particularly anonymous once you're buying physical goods that need to be shipped to an individual. Imagine how useful the blockchain would be to Amazon if they knew the addresses of all their customers wallets (which they would surely collect) and the addresses of all their competitors wallets. They could see where their customers shop and micro-target deals.

I like the GNU Taler model mentioned in the article where the payer decides whether they want to be identified, but the payee is always identifiable. Combine this with a crypto-signed receipt from the payee and you have a system that better respects privacy.