Quote from: Akka on May 23, 2013, 12:35:15 PM

... The points where anonymity or pseudonymity are legitimately needed in financial transaction are maybe not very many but they are so important ...

What are they, or rather can you offer some examples? I'd be interested to see if there is consensus.

As I try to think of some, all I can imagine are situations where one entity might gain an (unfair?) advantage over another, or save itself some (deserved?) embarrassment.

If I put myself in the shoes of the entity that might gain, say "the authorities" catching "bad guys" through a sting operation or "the bad guys" dodging "the authorities" through secrecy, then I'd be tempted to support anonymity in the service of the goal. However, I'm very wary of ends-justifying-means arguments and if I try to step back from a particular viewpoint and take a big-picture neutral view then I rather like the notion of "all cards on the table" for everyone, all the time. Just a thought experiment.