He’s implementing digital ID on top of Bitcoin: https://microstrategy.github.io/did-btc-spec/#surveillance
The government’s plan to confiscate #Bitcoin isn’t by force but by forced identification.
The risk is not so much for governments to deem Bitcoin illegal (of course tech can’t prevent this) but rather for the tech to fail to democratize its usage the way it’s supposed to work (P2P transfers that can’t be censored in the case of #Bitcoin) . Governments attempted to stop encryption but they fail because the tech succeeded at being broadly adopted and no regulation could stop this. Bitcoin tech hasn’t proven yet that it can be widely adopted in a fashion that is out of reach of the government. But the tech can still evolve and maybe #drivechain can fix this.
Certainly a possibility but the generalization of KYCed bitcoins may be good enough to reach the end goal: control.
I agree however the current tech stack and ecosystem around it doesn’t properly protect #Bitcoin users from interacting with the looming credentialing stack and the parts that help it (mixers) are being attacked. Not all is lost but Bitcoin still has a long way to go to win this war.
#Saylor just made the most compelling case for #privacy to be built on the base layer.
#Monero #XMR
Freedom cannot exist without #privacy. This is also true for #Bitcoin.
Indeed, I think the risk is for governments to require CEXs to adopt this system as a standard. #Bitcoin users may be required to link their #BTC with their #DigitalID every time they interact with a regulated entity (on-ramp, off-ramp and potentially regulated non-custodial entities as well). They may also require to specify any potential change of ownership when using these services. Someone transferring btcs to someone else without a change of ownership would then expose himself to unintended legal liability (what if bitcoins tied to someone’s identity are linked to a crime because this person didn’t properly update the ownership?). This has the potential to further increase the non-fungibility of Bitcoin and to equip chain #surveillance companies with a powerful tool. It doesn’t look good…
I fear that the addition of DIDs on #Bitcoin by #Saylor may lead to the normalization of KYCed BTCs which could then be used as a standard for authorizing bitcoins to be off-ramped to fiat. Is this fear unfounded? What’s the use case of #DigitalID for #MicroStrategy? nostr:note1aed2j7cdrdggc027jcgxar3vnl8gwf2qu7a6lwcfpadrzmtpfnxq7vg9s3
I don’t think we should oppose the political approach vs individual pragmatism. They are complementary to each other. Although you certainly can attain a good degree of privacy by using the right tech/tools, it will be easier/safer for you to do so if you live in a society where doing so is legal and values as opposed to illegal and frown upon.
I’m afraid that without accessible privacy the censorship resistance property of Bitcoin will be greatly reduced.
Would anyone paying with their credit card find acceptable that merchants can access all their transactions history and bank accounts balance? Absolutely not. So why this should be accepted for #Bitcoin?
The narrative that is being pushed by the anti-#crypto army that #blockchain #privacy tech is only used for money-laundering or tax evasion is ridiculous. We need to push back hard on this.
Financial privacy is absolutely normal and shouldn’t be questioned.
Scaling and privacy are the two missing tech capabilities for #Bitcoin to be more widely used as a medium of exchange. Fees have been spiking during every cycle but I’m not seeing a lot of willingness to scale Bitcoin. For privacy tech, I’m afraid it will remain a niche theme for a while still but at least the current events shows that privacy tech has to be as decentralized as possible. Interestingly, I think #drivechains may be the most interesting option to handle both scaling and privacy but it seems to have received very little support from the plebs. At some point, the plebs is going to have to wake-up if they want to make Bitcoin more resilient to adversarial attacks.
That’s right, I forgot about that.
zkSNACKs forbidding US citizens from using #WasabiWallet but North Korea, Russian oligarchs and terrorists are still welcome. This is clearly not about fighting money laudering.
#Bitcoin #Privacy nostr:note1m4zegxr6yrzrqfm2z648fu5tfx82nfesypalk3jv0zmkgff9akzqrmv3ct
With #SamouraiWallet and now #PhoenixWallet going down plus #Metamask being sued by the #SEC all in the same week, it’s clear that Operation Choke-Point 2.0 is in full force, targeting #privacy tech and self-custody of #crypto. The compromise the government is willing to make:
- Buy #Bitcoin ETF if you want exposure to #BTC price
- Buy #MicroStrategy if you want exposure to leverage BTC
Acceptable?
True but let’s check back in 6 months and see if #Saylor has addressed the matter and in which terms if he does address it. So far Saylor has voiced his opinion against the use of #Bitcoin in a #privacy preserving way.
Probably 3 letter agency AI trolls 🤖 🧌