The USA wants to control the internet because they like to control citizen money. The USA doesnt want any terrorists. They do that by controlling the flow of money.
QuestionAuthority, please question the authorities who make such. The whole terrorist financing bug-a-boo is a pretext, as is money laundering by
drug dealers. Compare the
Four Horsemen of the Infocalpyse, in the context of arguments to ban strong crypto or require key escrow.
Surely, terrorists and drug dealers and other bad people do use money. The smarter ones probably use strong crypto, too. I suspect that most of them probably use this newfangled contraption called the Internet. All of them also use automobiles, food, and air.
By definition, criminals break the law; and the powerful, organized ones are quite adept at so doing without ever getting caught. I should think that professional money-launderers
love AML/KYC/FinCEN stuff; such things make their services valuable to professional terrorists and drug dealers, and help lock out upstart competitors. Ultimately, in this and every other way,
when privacy is outlawed, only outlaws have privacy.The American obsession with money-control is only about mass social control: Control of everybody who
isnt a professional money-launderer, and lacks access to the services of one. Not even people-control:
Cattle-control. Like control of communications and transportation, total control of money is one critical part of an unlimited tyranny. When every move you make, every word you say, every book you read, every interpersonal association you have, and every dollar you spend are all
tapped, traced, tracked, and permanently databased, then each individual is left with only two choices: Either submit as part of the ovine herd, with a status lower than that of any slave in history; or go straight to the slaughterhouse.
Bitcoin is the money which nobody controls. It is imperfect; in this context, the linkability of transactions is a serious problem. But first and foremost, nobody controls it. Nobody can enforce a requirement that you meet KYC requirements to open a Bitcoin account. Nobody can freeze or seize your coinsnot by peremptory order, in general; and not by any means whatsoever, if nobody knows you have those coins. And nobody can stop you from protecting your privacy with whatever technical means may be available. Bitcoin is cypherpunk money; and its in the initial stages of taking over the world.
Thank you, Satoshi Nakamoto.(I have some replies in mind for earlier posts on this thread; perhaps another time.)QuestionAuthority, I think the issue is a standards setting country like the US having a few oligopolies of internet-providers working in lockstep in banning/limiting content in unison that would incredibly limit free access of information (and services around bitcoin?).
nullius, your post hits dead-on with what is happening in world's central bank-led financial system. Thank you (and will likely quote you from it).