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A comment on EU draft proposes identity requirement for cryptocurrency transactions. Parent comment

Re:EU draft proposes identity requirement for cryptocurrency... by specialp on Friday February 18, 2022 @04:07PM (#30391129)
The freedom to send absolutely anonymous payments comes with the cost of people using said freedom to extort people in an untraceable manner, and fund illicit activities that harm society such as terrorism. Every freedom comes with a cost, but usually the freedom to do such an act greatly outweighs the cost.

I am interested in why we should live with the cost of this? What are the real benefits to society? Not just hypothetical ones, but what are real uses of paying someone completely anonymously that have the benefit of outweighing the real harms we have already seen?

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Re:EU draft proposes identity requirement for cryptocurrency... by zaroth on Friday February 18, 2022 @05:04PM (#30391725)
The real benefits to society are absolutely tremendous.

Extrapolate just a few more years of this trajectory and any protest or political candidate that isn’t endorsed by the ruling class will be impossible to fund or donate to.

You can see it happening right before our eyes with the “Freedom Convoy” and the shutdown of donations and now freezing of bank accounts.

When you can walk up to your political opponents and simply switch off their campaign financing you no longer have a functional democracy.

I guess if you don’t like democracy then you could be totally fine with this trade-off?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU draft proposes identity requirement for cryptocurrency... by soco on Monday February 21, 2022 @04:33AM (#30413661)
But when you drive up to innocent citizens and switch off their city, do you have a functional democracy? Or is this the new way the US understands exporting democracy?
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