Privacy cost: was Re: anti-prosecution tactics

[coderman]

On Sat, Jan 18, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Troy Benjegerdes <hozer at hozed.org> wrote:
> ...
> The god damned mental anguish I have to deal with because the fricking bitcoin
> client generates a new address for every damned transaction. I just want a
> couple of well known addresses to keep track of my stuff.

you don't have to use this feature.  i just sent some coin back to
originating wallet on command line some hours ago, in fact. (and many
wallet services, as much as i hate them, can also do this for you as
transfer option.)



> If I want privacy (and for the record, I don't), I can hide in high-frequency
> automated trading and buttonwood exchanges. Otherwise known as 'tradecraft'.
>
> The software attempting to 'do it for me' makes for worse privacy and opsec
> for EVERYONE, at substantial mental, storage, and computation cost. I dunno,
> maybe I'm missing something here, but then, if I am missing it, how the hell
> are non-coders (aka, the real world, or journalists, or dissidents) supposed
> to figure it out?


the issue is that anonymity loves company. so those that need it badly
also need those who care less to use it for best effectiveness.  e.g.
NSA may be hacking Tor users, but NSA is also a Tor user!   the bomb
hoax debacle, etc.

that said, the rest of your argument i am in agreement with.  the
existing techniques suck, privacy is too expensive, and myriad well
intention-ed idiots are pissing in the pool already filled with IC
dookie.



best regards,