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0 pointsCantinflas9mo ago0 comments

Is the govt going to manage your private keys any time soon? How would that work?

0 comments

Yes. There are tons of different proposals, but generally speaking the common thread is that the banks (possibly The Central Bank) will keep the keys for you. They will still be middlemen in all transactions so they can harvest data and make sure you aren't buying anything the government doesn't like. They can also do tax enforcement a lot better that way

lrvick9mo ago

A key is just a 256 bit number. You can literally create one with paper and dice rolls. They will no sooner figure out who is holding most of these than they will figure out who is holding cash, or the identities of the 25m+ people downloading pirated media right now.

At best they can ask the public to please turn over their private keys, which will go about as well as efforts to stop piracy.

bitwize9mo ago

They can prosecute transactions with unregistered keys as money laundering. They may not have the resources to get everybody but they can collect a few scalps pour encourager les autres.

lrvick9mo ago

They tried making examples of a few people for piracy too and adoption only went up.

Stopping cryptocurrency is as hard as stopping end to end encrypted messaging or banning porn.

You either allow access to the open internet or you do not.

freedomben9mo ago

Yep, they can also prosecute merchants who accept payments that don't go through "approved" middlemen (banks, etc), or even ban/regulate crypto that allows users to make their own keys.

At one point the US gov was building their own crypto currency, and I'm sure it wasn't because they felt the existing options weren't private enough from oversight.

Y_Y9mo ago

> key is just a 256 bit number. You can literally create one with paper and dice rolls

Well sure, but if you want to actually use it you need the whole keypair. Unless you're really good with you elliptic curve abacus you're going to need a computer for that l.

andrepd9mo ago

How does the state prohibit illegal drugs? They will never be able to eradicate it, obviously, but the state can make it incredibly hard to acquire and use cryptocurrency.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

freedomben9mo ago

lrvick9mo ago

At best they can ask the public to please turn over their private keys, which will go about as well as efforts to stop piracy.

bitwize9mo ago

They can prosecute transactions with unregistered keys as money laundering. They may not have the resources to get everybody but they can collect a few scalps pour encourager les autres.

lrvick9mo ago

They tried making examples of a few people for piracy too and adoption only went up.

Stopping cryptocurrency is as hard as stopping end to end encrypted messaging or banning porn.

You either allow access to the open internet or you do not.

freedomben9mo ago

Yep, they can also prosecute merchants who accept payments that don't go through "approved" middlemen (banks, etc), or even ban/regulate crypto that allows users to make their own keys.

At one point the US gov was building their own crypto currency, and I'm sure it wasn't because they felt the existing options weren't private enough from oversight.

Y_Y9mo ago

> key is just a 256 bit number. You can literally create one with paper and dice rolls

Well sure, but if you want to actually use it you need the whole keypair. Unless you're really good with you elliptic curve abacus you're going to need a computer for that l.

andrepd9mo ago

How does the state prohibit illegal drugs? They will never be able to eradicate it, obviously, but the state can make it incredibly hard to acquire and use cryptocurrency.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse