[3163] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: An Essay on Freedom, Anonymity & Financial
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ant@notatla.demon.co.uk)
Sun Aug 9 17:33:53 1998
From: ant@notatla.demon.co.uk
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 21:16:36 +0100
To: cryptography@c2.net, dianelos@tecapro.com
From: Dianelos Georgoudis <dianelos@tecapro.com>
>> The World Financial Police Attack Anonymity
>> http://www.zolatimes.com/V2.23/anonymittext.html
> Money laundering and tax evasion are very real, very big and very
> harmful. I believe that all financial instruments, including
> money, should exist in a form that guaranties non-anonymity.
Isn't this to propose technology never before seen in the world ?
Plain cash has always been somewhat anonymous. Communication in
general has some capacity for anonymity until all letters have to
be posted at a staffed post office.
> Consider: almost all crimes are about money. In an international
> system where money is by definition stamped with the identity of
> its current and previous owners, stealing money, for example,
> would be impossible. Tax evasion would also be impossible. Illegal
> commercial activities such as drug trafficking would also become
> impossible. Extortion and terrorism would become a lot more
This does not make crime impossible, it only deals with detection.
And don't you also need details of the transactions in the history:
Event date New Owner
----- ---- --------
minted <date>
issued <date> <bank name>
withdrawn <date> <account holder name>
spent <date> <account holder name>
deposited <date> <bank name>
So how do you distinguish between "spent" and "extorted" in the
history ? (Subliminal channels in the vendor's signature may help,
as described by Bruce for unsaleable votes.)
> On the whole, the potential benefit for society would be so huge,
> that I cannot imagine that such a financial system will not be
> created in the future. The vast majority of people wouldn't care
> if the authorities could get information about the history of
> their financial assets, after proper procedures are met.
'After proper procedures are met' has been the common slogan of
governments while proposing systems whose main features seem to be
bypassing the proper procedures.
You been reading Revelation chapter 13 recently ?
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or
in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,
or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
> Fortunately, in democratic societies people have control over
> their governments.
Give or take a few states of emergency and a few executive orders
when the President can't find the votes for his plan.
Tracking money as a means of detecting crime looks wasteful as
well as intrusive. Aren't the vast majority of exchanges going
to be legitimate, or do you presuppose an all-criminal population ?
The misgiving some of us have about anonymous cash is that it makes
it easier for the rich to avoid taxation so more of the bill gets
picked up by the poor. This would be an amplification of current
capability rather than a new feature of the market.
Your cure seems worse than the disease it's aimed at, without
being likely to cure much either.
--
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# Antonomasia ant@notatla.demon.co.uk #
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