There seems to be a few places in the world where you can truly live on bitcoin right now (El Salvador, Lugano in Switzerland). It seems companies are using services like Bitfinex pay to process bitcoin payments. I'm worried about shotgun-KYC becoming the norm for all payments (you can pay but then you must ID yourself to get the purchased goods/services). Terms and conditions will include full KYC/AML compliance and there's nothing you can do about it as a customer. Taking your business elsewhere won't be possible either if every merchant follows those same rules.
Discussion
Do you think that will be less of an immediate issue if people use appropriate privacy tools to protect the status of the rest of their stack?
Well, sure but the pressure to KYC has never been greater and will probably get considerably worse. The recent EU legislation is a case in point. Using the tools is only part of a solution. You also need to think long-term geopolitical arbitrage to not get fucked.
What you say makes sense.
Do you also see the possibility that game theory will make 'zero KYC' options an attractive offering both for individual companies/merchants and for jurisdictions?
All one needs to do is to break the seal and recruit first followers like Sampson Maow (sp). is trying to do.
I think that not enough people care about the non-KYC principle to make offering it an attractive strategy for companies/jurisdictions. Sadly. I think the slow boil strategy of gradually tightening KYC is highly effective whether it's conscious or not.
sadly, I agree
sometimes I forget many people are not oriented to care.