Re: The National: Colonial Pipeline’s ransom recov ery sparks debate on Bitcoin traceability

[John Young]

This critique is applicable to all forms of 
comsec/infosec/anonymity/Tor although the 
incessant promotion various means to escape being 
hacked, tracked, decrypted, identified appears to 
be unstoppable due to the monetization and 
assurances of protection for internet users by 
predators and bullshitters working hand in hand 
with authorities which are extremely pleased with 
the aiders and abetters, not a few which came 
into prominance and profitability on this shewd 
mail list and its offshoots, luring gullible 
readers into capacious honeypots, watering holes, 
stings, dark markets, cults of dead cows 
exploitation, enlistment into spy agencies and 
professorships and law offices and NGOs and financial theiveries..

"PGP and Gnupgp," "PRZ," "RSA," "AES," "open 
source," "digital cash," "e-gold," "bitcoin," 
"Satoshi," "work around censorship," "don't trust 
governments," "write code," "assassination 
politics," "EFF," "WikiLeaks." Hut, two, three, four.

Some have died on public duty, others smeared, 
imprisoned and exiled, quite a few gone onto 
dreary jobs in the security industry bossed, 
herded, contemned, retired by MBA lunkheads 
reaping top benefits over the grunts chained to 
computers deranged by dreams of what could have 
been and maybe still can be. Get sec vaxed, 
often, jabbed with updates unending as wars. Best 
to cooperate, deliver speeches, grab bounties, 
warn of threats, dismiss opponents.

At 02:05 PM 6/12/2021, David Barrett wrote:
>I am very confused why anyone thinks Bitcoin is 
>untraceable, anonymous, or anything less than a 
>privacy disaster.  It is literally the least 
>private currency ever devised: once I know your 
>wallet, I know truly everything you have ever 
>done back to the very start.  Bitcoin is as 
>private as sharing all your credit card 
>purchases via twitter: yes, very noisy, but 
>totally in the open (and "mixing" things 
>between wallets is just silly -- computers can 
>unwind all that in a millisecond). Â
>
>If you have a mapping of "human identity to 
>wallet" (which the government nearly always has 
>because virtually every path to convert BTC to 
>USD/EUR/etc is regulated), then no matter how 
>many intermediate steps and secret wallets are 
>used as some kind of "factoring" approach toward 
>money laundering, you can always figure out who 
>is being paid by whom.  In fact, it's *easier* 
>for the FBI to unwind your laundering via BTC 
>than normal banks, because normal banks *have 
>shitloads of privacy protections and subpoena requirements that BTC doesn't*.
>
>The only way it's private is if you skip every 
>exchange, but that's the classic tradeoff of 
>privacy for convenience -- yes, there are lots 
>of ways to maintain your privacy inconveniently, 
>and BTC is just one more.  And if the only way 
>to truly do anonymous transfers is by meeting up 
>in person to exchange cash for a keydrive 
>containing a wallet private key, then BTC is 
>really no better on the privacy/convenience 
>spectrum than just handing someone a suitcase of gold.
>
>Blockchain is great and all, but in none of the 
>ways people investing in it claim.
>
>-david
>
>
>
>
>
>
>On Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 7:13 AM jim bell 
><<mailto:jdb10987 at yahoo.com>jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>The National: Colonial Pipeline’s ransom 
>recovery sparks debate on Bitcoin traceability.
>
><https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/colonial-pipeline-s-ransom-recovery-sparks-debate-on-bitcoin-traceability-1.1238908>https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/colonial-pipeline-s-ransom-recovery-sparks-debate-on-bitcoin-traceability-1.1238908
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