Thread by @johnfoss69

Financial Privacy Is Not a Crime: #Bitcoin, #Zcash and #Monero.

A thread 🧵👇

This is what Zooko, CEO and developer of #Zcash , said a few years ago:

"I think we can successfully make Zcash too traceable for criminals like WannaCry, but still completely private & fungible."

1/

Developers’ judgement matter.

It can be concerning when developers building tools for public use get to decide what’s right or wrong, and talk about censoring users at their discretion.

There's a reason why most darknet markets and hackers don't use #Zcash.

2/

Why run the risk of using a cryptocurrency that could possibly be compromised?

And what happens if you live in an oppressive regime, who have decided what is right and wrong, and therefore persecute you if transactions are used for things the regime disagrees with?

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Sounds like a dystopian future right? A government selectively censoring financial transactions, and punishing those who made transactions deemed illegal by the Gov.

Well, this is a reality in 2022.

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During the Canadian Trucker protest the Canadian government froze the bank accounts of protesters, shut down fundraising campaigns, and then retroactively froze the bank accounts of donors. They also blacklisted cryptocurrency donation addresses.

5/

newsweek.com/banks-have-beg…

The Canadian Trucker protest and Gov actions that followed opened everyone’s eyes to the possibility of governments weaponizing financial instruments at their own discretion, while deciding what’s right or wrong at the same time.

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I can almost guarantee if China carried out actions similar to Canada, the West would condemn the Gov actions and shout ‘freedom’ from their keyboards.

What’s a solution to this issue? Use #Bitcoin to avert oppressive governments or organisations? Nope, not private.

7/

#Zcash? Unlikely, as while their tech is good it is barely used, and has been found to be traceable by blockchain analytics companies.

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news.bitcoin.com/not-so-private…

At the moment those risking their lives in fear of governments (for legal and illegal reasons) use #Monero, a private by default cryptocurrency and it is the only cryptocurrency that authorities cannot trace.

It is developed by a decentralised community of enthusiasts...

9/

... and is secured by a network of over 40k CPU miners from all around the world.

Monero’s privacy works so well the US gov has a $625k bounty for anyone who can trace it.

10/

cointelegraph.com/news/the-irs-o…

While I do not condone or support illegal activities, technology that works well is usually adopted by all members of society.

When mobile phones first came out, initial users were tech hobbyists and drug dealers.

The same happened with #Bitcoin.

10/

The same is currently happening with #Monero.

As the world goes cashless, central bank digital currencies gain adoption, and people lose their financial privacy, this becomes a problem for those desiring privacy.

This is obviously a problem for a suburban drug dealer.

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However, it's also a problem for Sally who is in an abusive relationship where her partner monitors her spending.

And it’s also a problem for David who is secretly buying a gift for his wife to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

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Financial privacy is not a crime.

It is a tool.

It is an extremely valuable tool, and for this reason I think #Monero is likely to see its price move up into the four figures over the next year or two.

13/

medium.com/the-capital/al…

Think twice about which cryptocurrency you trust with your privacy.

I trust #Monero.

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To learn more about #Monero head over to:

getmonero.org
reddit.com/r/monero

I also write a free weekly Monero newsletter called The Monero Moon. Feel free to check it out and subscribe:

themoneromoon.com

15/End of thread