𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐗𝐌𝐑 | 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏
𝕎𝕠𝕫𝕦 ℙ𝕣𝕚𝕧𝕒𝕔𝕪?
Since the topic automatically resonates and I don't feel like illuminating it in the actual analysis, I'll put it in a Part 1. Obviously Wall of Text incoming.
For the "I have nothing to hide faction" I refer to a Snowden quote.
𝐀𝐫𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲.
Do we have that out of the way now. Who currently pays does this idR with cash or digitally via a EC / credit card. While with a cash payment in most cases very few data result* the digital payment methods always leave a data trace. Whether or not there is currently a "malicious" effort to abolish cash is irrelevant at this point. The question is rather how will payments be made in the future and what impact will this have?
If we assume that digital payments will prevail in the future, then the next question is in what form? We don't need to fool anyone, EC cards are on their way straight to the dump. 𝐊𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐤𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐧 (many are just debit cards, but let's not make it more complicated than it is) are available from a variety of vendors, and their functionality can basically be lumped together in a simplified way. There is some sort of value attached to the card, this is converted via the card operator if necessary and routed to a payee. What value is behind the card is quite unimportant. It can be a credit line or a positive sum of any currency or currency substitute. Meaning whether you make a payment with euros, dollarinos, bitcoin, Chuck E cheese tokens or anything else doesn't matter. The card operator as a (simplified) middleman takes the input value and distributes it, after deducting fees, converted if necessary. In the process, this intermediary receives data for this transaction. In reality, this middleman consists of several stations and information on this payment transaction is also available at the payee. How the data is handled varies from country to country. However, the desirability of this data exists everywhere.
𝐃𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫, 𝐨𝐛 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐧 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐟ä𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐠𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐧. With the existence of cash as an alternative, too excessive evaluation is probably not something that is carried forward in a big way at this time.
Methods that try card payment to reduce the information at the payee or intermediaries are good, but miss a basic problem. 𝐄𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐳 𝐰𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐠 𝐙𝐮𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐟 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧 𝐤ö𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐧. Since a sufficiently powerful state can force the central authority (simplifying the card providers) to cooperate.
So the obvious question now is, can you reliably process payments without a central authority? Yes you can. Bitcoin does it. Not so famously in Layer 1, which is why there is the Lightning Network (LN) as a Layer 2 solution. Hardly anyone will dispute that fast, inexpensive payments are possible via the LN. The basic problem with Bitcoin, however, is that Layer 1 is extremely open to analysis and the LN is currently still under development and we have to wait and see where the journey will take us.
Therefore, in the next part we will see if and how Layer 1 of a blockchain can be made more resistant to analysis and what else speaks for / against Monero.
Part 2: https://app.getquin.com/activity/tzibEgwsNA
Full Snowden quote:
Some might say "I don't care if they violate my privacy; I've got nothing to hide." Help them understand that they are misunderstanding the fundamental nature of human rights. Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right. But even if they did, you can't give away the rights of others because they're not useful to you. More simply, the majority cannot vote away the natural rights of the minority.
But even if they could, help them think for a moment about what they're saying. Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.
A free press benefits more than just those who read the paper. [1]
* Theoretically, cash could be tracked by using fingerprints or genetic traces during payment transactions. Similarly, bills have serial numbers that can be tracked. However, aside from ransomware and the like in criminal cases, cash tracking via serial numbers is, to my knowledge, rather anecdotal. See [0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_bill_tracking
