Quote from: Welsh on May 14, 2021, 05:49:32 PM

It's disgusting that the state are that desperate to know everyone's worth that they stoop down to such low levels to find it. Attempting to crack wallets without permission, is something a "normal" person would likely go to prison for.

This doesn't only just apply to closed sourced software, though. Open source hardware wallets now need to be monitored more frequently for changes in code, since they could try, and sneak something in without anyone noticing. We shouldn't be complacent, and trust something just because its open source.

Quote from: vapourminer on May 02, 2021, 01:01:05 PM

the irs doesnt need private keys or the seed to achieve their main objective; all the need is a list of addy you control. at that point they have all the info they need as they can then monitor those addys.

Yeah, I don't believe that they intend to take anything, unless they can lawfully take it by coming to the conclusion that someone hasn't declared the correct amount of tax.

Quote from: bL4nkcode on May 01, 2021, 07:05:45 PM

Cracking seed phrases? Are they insane, simple word, it's robbery.

I guess it's only robbery if they actually take anything. Their intentions might be to try, and break in, and determine whether someone has been paying the correct amount of tax or just general surveillance, because as we know from the Snowden leaks they love to monitor pretty much everything that they can, and they don't mind breaking some laws to do that.

Quote from: Kittygalore on May 14, 2021, 01:21:29 PM

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point because if you think about it, the government probably has all the information needed to control and spy on you already, even before your introduction to cryptocurrency so no point worrying, they won't probably go rogue suddenly if you are living in a first world country.

Absolutely, if someone has evaded the government completely then I would be extremely impressed. Since, our world revolves around using mega companies such as Google, Facebook, and other Monopolies its just easy for them to gain access. I believe there was several USA phone service providers who were sharing data with the government, and that was also exposed by Snowden.

You will probably have a hard time finding a single company whose business is data driven in any conceivable way in the US that is not closely cooperating with the government. There is so much information out there who is cooperating with the government, I don't believe there is a single one resisting the pressure government puts onto them should they not cooperate.

You are also right with the open source software not being safe necessarily just because it is open source. Same for the TOR network where they spy a lot by setting up infected exit nodes or, put differently, their own exit nodes. You have to pay tremendous attention to effectively protect your privacy.