Have you ever given an “under-the-table” payment for utilities?
Of course not, because I don’t live in an area that manipulates its currency, nor have I needed that level of privacy. I have, however, lived in an area where that type of thing was commonplace. I paid for rent, utilities, and groceries with cash, and you’d have to be incredibly naïve to believe that everyone paid taxes on that money. If I wanted to “go dark” there, I could’ve, all I’d need is a stash of cash.
If you want to live off the grid, you operate in untraceable arrangements, and that protects both you and the service provider.
My point here is that whether you can easily liquate the medium of exchange isn’t nearly as important as the benefits that medium provides. If you need the protections that privacy coins provide, both sides of the transaction will find a way to make it work.
I won’t go into an in-depth discussion around how you would be tracked
I wish you would, because then we’d have something to discuss.
I assume you’re talking about the $5 wrench idea (i.e. this xkcd), as in get people to rat out the dissidents. Or maybe you’re talking about hacking users devices, or some other side-channel attack (i.e. packet snooping). None of that has nothing to do with the medium of exchange, and there are ways to mitigate that risk.
My point is that Monero has uses today, and it can be more useful if people actually start trying to use it. I see it as similar to Tor, the more people use it, the safer it is for the people who truly need it.
cooligula@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
That’s some pretty big (rude) talk for someone who isn’t willing to back their opinions with any sort of argument. Saying things like “Your idea is idiotic”, “You don’t understand what you’re talking about”, “You are just making shit up” but then proceeding to say “Because of what I mentioned, I won’t go into an in-depth discussion around how you would be tracked” is a pretty cowardly stance in my opinion. “I will discredit your arguments with ridicule and no counter points”.
I for one do see the value in privacy protecting crypto currencies. I concede that they are not a viable option for utilitarian and common practices since the use of crypto is not common and does require specific know-how. However, they do have their usecases. Whistleblowers, for example. Regarding the second point you made: I guess you are implying the main vulnerability is the humans involved in the transaction. If that is the case, the responsibility on handling the transactions anonymously falls onto the interested party i.e. the one who is interested in keeping the transaction anonymous will also need to devise a scenario that is compatible with anonymity.
On the other hand, if anonymity isn’t imperative and the users just want a more privacy friendly solution to payment transactions, I think it also makes sense. You can prefer the banks not monitoring everything you do but also not need to live in anonymity and accept the fact that, if interested, the governing entities will most likely have the means to track down your transactions. But that is most likely only going to affect criminals, not privacy conscious citizens.
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I was rude because I found the notion that monero is a great tool for “victims of domestic abuse” and “activists and political dissidents” distasteful.
Shilling some crypto coins (even if does have technical privacy features) under guise of concern about “victims of domestic abuse” if pretty fucking low. This is scumbag level of polemics.
Privacy is a social political issue. A social and political issue cannot be solved via technical means (even though this is a very common propaganda argument).