Thread by @lunar_mining

The struggle for privacy is moral and political. There is a growing movement to bring crypto back to its cypherpunk and agorist roots.

Regulators, who worked in collusion with @SBF_FTX, will use privacy as a scapegoat.

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This is intended to distract from the true cause of the #FTX crisis. The very problem crypto was invented to solve.

An authoritarian financial system that is accountable to nobody.

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The basic message is this:

FTX was evil because it was opaque. Blockchains are good in so far as they are transparent.

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The attitude this conceals is:

People are inherently evil. If you give them freedom, they will do bad things. Therefore they must be constantly monitored and tracked.

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Implicitly, users are blamed for the fraud of a predatory clique propped up by TradFi. Just like in 2008.

Crypto has derailed from its mission and become a caricature of the legacy financial system. It has inherited its corruption.

The game is rigged.

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Many are pointing to fully-transparent #DeFi as the way forward from the FTX crisis. On DeFi, criminals like @SBF_FTX can't hide.

This is a dangerous narrative. A call for full on-chain transparency is a call for total surveillance.

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On centralized exchanges:

We the people see nothing.
They the institution see everything.

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On-chain transparency removes privacy completely, so:

We the people see everything.
They the institution see everything.
Regulators see everything.
The state sees everything.
Everyone sees everything.

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This is a future of ubiquitous surveillance. A decentralized panopticon. A desert with no forest coverage.

If code is law, transparent blockchains are a prison. No one can act because everyone is monitored.

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#Lunarpunk calls out this false narrative. Free people are good. Only when their morals and politics are suppressed do they turn evil.

Freedom is transformative. Privacy liberates communities. It gives them agency and sovereignty.

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This is what #lunarpunks call The Dark Forest: an encrypted world where communities are free to define their own destinies.

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OFAC sanctions have proved that privacy can't exist on transparent systems. Transparent blockchains are a desert where users are endangered and exposed.

But transparency *can exist* on anonymous systems.

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Zero-knowledge allows for optionality: privacy by default, transparency by choice, not by force.

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Using zero-knowledge, we can build environments that are anonymous by default. You can selectively reveal information in a way that is verifiable and trustless.

@DarkFiSquad is doing this.

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The FTX crisis vindicates the #DarkFi thesis. To defend against abuse, people must have control over the tech and financial systems they use.

Strawman arguments will not stop the force that lunarpunk has unleashed.

Our fight is just beginning.

#LetThereBeDarkDeFi

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