Re:North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last ...
by neilv on Friday February 24, 2023 @07:02PM
(#34932053)
"Mixers" of various kinds (even before cryptocurrency) used to seem a legitimate, if nerdy, idea for privacy.
One of the more recent difficulties with a lot of privacy technology is that the main user might not be the abused and those wanting to avoid being abused, but instead... really awful criminals.
And with anything cryptocurrency or blockchain in the last decade, it's not only the users who are criminals, but much of the technology itself is built by scamming atop scamming.
I'd quibble with any article today that mentions cryptocurrency/blockchain at all without acknowledging how sketchy the entire space is.
Pre-Web cynical cyberpunk writers were better at predicting much of the modern world, than were the optimistic techies who mostly saw tremendous opportunity for goodness.
One of the more recent difficulties with a lot of privacy technology is that the main user might not be the abused and those wanting to avoid being abused, but instead... really awful criminals.
And with anything cryptocurrency or blockchain in the last decade, it's not only the users who are criminals, but much of the technology itself is built by scamming atop scamming.
I'd quibble with any article today that mentions cryptocurrency/blockchain at all without acknowledging how sketchy the entire space is.
Pre-Web cynical cyberpunk writers were better at predicting much of the modern world, than were the optimistic techies who mostly saw tremendous opportunity for goodness.