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).
     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 <[1]jdb10987@yahoo.com>
     wrote:

The National: Colonial Pipeline’s ransom recovery sparks
debate on Bitcoin traceability.


          [2]https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/colonial-
          pipeline-s-ransom-recovery-sparks-debate-on-bitcoin-traceability
          -1.1238908

References

   1. mailto:jdb10987@yahoo.com
   2. https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/colonial-pipeline-s-ransom-recovery-sparks-debate-on-bitcoin-traceability-1.1238908