Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on April 05, 2022, 08:57:38 AM

The thing is, bitcoin is not going anyway. If the EU wants to be hostile towards it, then the EU will simply fall behind. And in another 20 years when other countries have huge cryptocurrency sectors built on personal freedom and non-stifling regulations, then the EU will have to play catch up. Their loss.

Unfortunately the global trends are leaning towards less financial freedom, it'll probably be the same in most of the world sooner or later. The EU being a huge market having an influence on other markets doesn't help here either.

Quote from: DooMAD on April 05, 2022, 11:36:31 AM

If you've used an exchange, you lost your privacy the moment you handed your money to someone else to hold for you. Total strangers you've never met, or even knew the names of, became acutely aware of you and your wealth because you literally gave it to them. When you withdraw your funds, they can follow the trail. And then some of you started attaching your real world identities to this wealth, because they asked you to and you were too indoctrinated to say no. You said goodbye to privacy a long damn time ago.

I've been working under the assumption that centralised exchanges have been on borrowed time for a few years now. Which is why I've been staying away from them. It was always reasonably likely that things were going to turn out this way. Ultimately, I think it'll be healthier in the long run if fewer people use custodial services like that. It was concerning to me that so few people actually saw a problem with the amount of trust required and the amount of privacy surrendered, so if people do suddenly feel disincentivised to rely on third parties, I'd say it's about damn time. It's kinda the whole point of what we're doing here.

Today those that aren't using exchanges or other places requiring the surrendering of privacy are a small shrinking minority, meaning there's less incentive for businesses to cater to them. With increasingly onerous regulations it'll be harder and harder to buy non-DNM related goods and services without self-doxing. At that point for most uses BTC will be no different than electronic fiat money, yes it can't be debased (although global macroeconomics in practice affects its price, too), and it can't be as easily frozen/confiscated, but if you know the HODLer's identity, you can often put pressure on them (from the authorities' point of view), but there will be less freedom to buy/sell/spend compared with cash or commodities such as gold or silver.

https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/014823.html

Quote

Yes, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.

Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.

Satoshi

emphasis mine

Even Satoshi didn't have too high a level of expectations, in that regard Bitcoin has been a massive success. The unknown person who replied to Satoshi with "You will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography." was partly right, I think. Unfortunately, we the wide Bitcoin community have failed to adequately react in time, especially those of us who have been around for longer. (Whether it would have made enough difference is another matter...)