Quote from: powdabam on November 14, 2013, 06:58:17 PM

Reality,

Boycotting won't stop them. We need to put our thinking caps on, as Adam said, and figure out a better solution. It seems the dark wallet and mixes is the best option. If we figure out now what will fix the problem, we can popularize it while the coin is still young.

All of these sorts of reactions only will make the situation worse. Darkwallet is not a solution, it's a patch.
We have a legitimate requirement for transparency and the ability to investigate the blockchain.

Whether it's journalists trying to uncover corruption, or law enforcement, or members of a community trying to determine whether or not to vote for certain politicians. If we do not focus on solving the problem of institutional corruption then Darkwallet will be used by the corrupt institutions to maintain their corruption.

The same technology you build for anonymity to be used by you could also be used by the people in power to control you through corrupting your community with bribes and other tactics. So no I don't think Darkwallet will fix anything. It does produce greater privacy but it also removes the ability to follow the money trail which enables and helps the corrupt individuals already in power.

If a law enforcement officer is corrupt and taking bribes behind the scenes I'm sure Darkwallet will be what they'd use. We need the ability to apply sousveillance to follow the money trail to the corrupt police officer so I'm on the side of transparency.

But I'm also on the side of privacy. I don't think every coin should be subject to scrutiny. I don't think every transaction should be carefully analyzed by law enforcement to determine whether or not a crime took place. The reason is that if you allow that then whoever has enough power to hire private investigators can simply watch their political enemies until they commit a crime and then the private investigator can pass the evidence to law enforcement.

So we must care about privacy to protect the community from fishing expeditions but we also have to care about transparency to protect the community from institutionalized corruption, hackers, scams, etc. We need a balanced approach which attempts to solve the problem while upholding both of these critical ideals.

Darkwallet is good for hackers, for corrupt politicians, cops, and perhaps some paranoid individuals, but it can also be abused if taken too far. Balance is necessary.