It’s reasonable to assume that the vast majority of their throughput is used for crime.
The overwhelming majority of people do not leverage crypto in any way. Even crypto scam promoters almost exclusively focus on speculation and do not use crypto as money.
And you do not need the payment for your order of bell peppers and toilet paper to be private. Let’s be real here.
Over the 15+ years that we’ve had crypto, there have been only two viable uses. All others have failed:
Criminal activity (including brutal stuff like enabling NK/Russia and drug cartels)
Financial speculation (in of itself often a malicious activity where the goal is to dump your worthless bags on a mark)
Over the 15+ years that we’ve had crypto, there have been only two viable uses. All others have failed:
Criminal activity (including brutal stuff like enabling NK/Russia and drug cartels)
Financial speculation (in of itself often a malicious activity where the goal is to dump your worthless bags on a mark)
Huh, Weird… Every use I’ve ever used crypto for doesn’t fall into these two categories. So I guess your assumptions and thus everything you based your logic/responses on must be faulty and incorrect.
I use Crypto much like I use my second language/citizenship. Rarely… However, that doesn’t mean I don’t use it legally. And simply holding onto the crypto != financial speculation. Nobody treats a savings account as “financial speculation”.
I’ve paid for plenty of things from my crypto wallets. Ranging from several to thousands of dollars.
And yes, I would like my payment for toilet paper and bell peppers to be private. Strictly for the fact that I don’t want Mega-corpo stores to be able to track and advertise to me based on my payment method. “Club cards” to advertise/track you are a thing. Large chains can do this same thing with payment methods details. So yes, being “real” here, I not only require it, but demand it.
Your premise is bad. And based on your other responses you don’t care to address it at all.
The need for privacy in crypto is significant and a hinderance to wide adoption. With most crypto if you send me money once I then know your wallet address and I can then look up every transaction you’ve ever made with that wallet and every future transaction you make later. Clearly that’s a problem.
The fact that criminals are more motivated by privacy concerns doesn’t reduce the need and expectation of privacy for the rest of us.
And you do not need the payment for your order of bell peppers and toilet paper to be private. Let’s be real here.
the zcash method really doesn’t work. because then when you want to pay for something legitimate privately, that’ll immediately be “suspicious” and you know who will be knocking on the door soon.
I do want to pay for bell peppers and toilet paper privately and everyone deserves to be able to do so, for similar reasons why I want to keep my youtube watch history private, even from google, and why am I using a pseudonymous forum.
that’s why I almost exclusively use cash too. fuck the cashless society.
I’ve used crypto for legitimate transactions in the past. It bailed me out once, big time, when I had to top up a foreign SIM card while abroad and their website wouldn’t take my US credit card. I found a site selling top-up codes that took crypto and sent some from my phone, and I was back in business. (The site was legit, but even if it turned out to be a scam I knew they could never take anything more than what I sent them because of the way crypto worked.) But this was back when people were still using it to transact.
The worst thing that ever happened to law-abiding people using crypto was when it’s price zoomed up. Because for all those early adopters, every individual transaction now has a considerble capital gain attached. That’s why people don’t spend crypto anymore, because it’s been turned by the market into a Store of Value. (And by developers, but that’s a different thread).
I shouldn’t feed the troll, but there is a teachable moment here.
Crypto transactions that are direct on a Blockchain, by design, are immutable. Once they are validated in a block, and future blocks are validated on top of that, it is impossible for any entity to change that history unless they control a majority of the validation power of that network. Yes, even the NSA can’t do it. It’s math.
Yes, if the government wants your crypto, it will get it. But the only way to do that is to obtain your private keys. It cannot reverse a transaction, nor reverse-engineer your private keys from a transaction. Yes, not even the NSA can do it. It’s math.
Governments do have other tools at their disposal. But those tools must center on obtaining the key. They cannot “hack” it any other way.
It’s fascinating how you assume that anyone who has a critical outlook on crypto has no clue what they are talking about.
Although it is to be expected for crypto promoters (see my OP about crypto being used either for criminal activities or for dump bags on the next mark).
And you do not need the payment for your order of bell peppers and toilet paper to be private.
Yes I do.
Just because you don’t value your privacy doesn’t mean nobody does. It’s none of the government’s business what I buy, nor is it my bank’s. They’ll need to find another way to catch criminals than forcing me to be transparent about my transactions.
Good, mixers are legitimate privacy tools
Do you have any evidence to back this up?
It’s reasonable to assume that the vast majority of their throughput is used for crime.
The overwhelming majority of people do not leverage crypto in any way. Even crypto scam promoters almost exclusively focus on speculation and do not use crypto as money.
And you do not need the payment for your order of bell peppers and toilet paper to be private. Let’s be real here.
Over the 15+ years that we’ve had crypto, there have been only two viable uses. All others have failed:
Huh, Weird… Every use I’ve ever used crypto for doesn’t fall into these two categories. So I guess your assumptions and thus everything you based your logic/responses on must be faulty and incorrect.
I use Crypto much like I use my second language/citizenship. Rarely… However, that doesn’t mean I don’t use it legally. And simply holding onto the crypto != financial speculation. Nobody treats a savings account as “financial speculation”.
I’ve paid for plenty of things from my crypto wallets. Ranging from several to thousands of dollars.
And yes, I would like my payment for toilet paper and bell peppers to be private. Strictly for the fact that I don’t want Mega-corpo stores to be able to track and advertise to me based on my payment method. “Club cards” to advertise/track you are a thing. Large chains can do this same thing with payment methods details. So yes, being “real” here, I not only require it, but demand it.
Your premise is bad. And based on your other responses you don’t care to address it at all.
Nothing what you wrote contradicts my original OP.
You using crypto to buy your toilet paper is not a mass scale use case and it is irrelevant.
You can of course be pedantic and say, well I buy toilet paper with crypto therefore what you’re saying is wrong.
Way to go man!
The need for privacy in crypto is significant and a hinderance to wide adoption. With most crypto if you send me money once I then know your wallet address and I can then look up every transaction you’ve ever made with that wallet and every future transaction you make later. Clearly that’s a problem.
The fact that criminals are more motivated by privacy concerns doesn’t reduce the need and expectation of privacy for the rest of us.
the zcash method really doesn’t work. because then when you want to pay for something legitimate privately, that’ll immediately be “suspicious” and you know who will be knocking on the door soon.
I do want to pay for bell peppers and toilet paper privately and everyone deserves to be able to do so, for similar reasons why I want to keep my youtube watch history private, even from google, and why am I using a pseudonymous forum.
that’s why I almost exclusively use cash too. fuck the cashless society.
I’ve used crypto for legitimate transactions in the past. It bailed me out once, big time, when I had to top up a foreign SIM card while abroad and their website wouldn’t take my US credit card. I found a site selling top-up codes that took crypto and sent some from my phone, and I was back in business. (The site was legit, but even if it turned out to be a scam I knew they could never take anything more than what I sent them because of the way crypto worked.) But this was back when people were still using it to transact.
The worst thing that ever happened to law-abiding people using crypto was when it’s price zoomed up. Because for all those early adopters, every individual transaction now has a considerble capital gain attached. That’s why people don’t spend crypto anymore, because it’s been turned by the market into a Store of Value. (And by developers, but that’s a different thread).
This is not a serious example in terms of scale and market share.
My point stands.
Well, nothing anyone says is going to convince you, because you’re obviously correct. How silly of me to question you!
Totally, your top up example is so relevant! It’s a major part of economic activity!
The true killer use case for crypto!
You are what we like to call “confidently incorrect”.
Well, when we’re trying to be nice, anyway.
Keep telling yourself that!
I have my own experience. Didn’t want people I transacted with to know how much I had, so I had to use some kind of mixer eventually
Ridiculous example.
This is not an issue for any transaction. When I send my friend money from my bank account, they don’t know how much is on it.
No, but if the US government sends money into your bank account, they can just as easily take it back.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2025/02/12/trump-administration-takes-back-80-million-in-fema-money-from-nycs-bank-accounts-city-alleges-highway-robbery/
Crypto was designed to be a peer-to-peer method for immutable transactions. Crypto transactions are irreversible, even for governments.
Don’t be stupid. If the government wants to get your crypto, they will.
It’s all a matter of whether they see the effort as being worth it.
I shouldn’t feed the troll, but there is a teachable moment here.
Crypto transactions that are direct on a Blockchain, by design, are immutable. Once they are validated in a block, and future blocks are validated on top of that, it is impossible for any entity to change that history unless they control a majority of the validation power of that network. Yes, even the NSA can’t do it. It’s math.
Yes, if the government wants your crypto, it will get it. But the only way to do that is to obtain your private keys. It cannot reverse a transaction, nor reverse-engineer your private keys from a transaction. Yes, not even the NSA can do it. It’s math.
Governments do have other tools at their disposal. But those tools must center on obtaining the key. They cannot “hack” it any other way.
It’s fascinating how you assume that anyone who has a critical outlook on crypto has no clue what they are talking about.
Although it is to be expected for crypto promoters (see my OP about crypto being used either for criminal activities or for dump bags on the next mark).
I know plenty of people with a critical outlook on crypto who have a clue what they are talking about.
Yes I do.
Just because you don’t value your privacy doesn’t mean nobody does. It’s none of the government’s business what I buy, nor is it my bank’s. They’ll need to find another way to catch criminals than forcing me to be transparent about my transactions.
You debasing the notion of privacy and government spying if you think your toilet paper purchases are relevant in the context of this discussion.