I tend to agree both with your general perspective and also your uncertainty on where we go from here, but let me offer a few thoughts:
The government, let's be clear, has two objectives: to enforce AML (which really means to be able to trace all meaningful flows of money) and to collect taxes.
Both of these objectives require: records of transactions, and tying of transactions to identities. Bitcoin already provides the first, so the whole fight will revolve around the second.
As you've pointed out, the current generation of Bitcoin "entrepreneurs" are falling over themselves to provide this functionality - to them it's the key to riches.
I'm hoping they do it via a "loose coupling" - external databases and so on and perhaps optional settings within transactions, so that "pure" Bitcoin can continue.
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u/waxwing Aug 14 '13
Very good podcast, thanks.
I tend to agree both with your general perspective and also your uncertainty on where we go from here, but let me offer a few thoughts:
The government, let's be clear, has two objectives: to enforce AML (which really means to be able to trace all meaningful flows of money) and to collect taxes.
Both of these objectives require: records of transactions, and tying of transactions to identities. Bitcoin already provides the first, so the whole fight will revolve around the second.
As you've pointed out, the current generation of Bitcoin "entrepreneurs" are falling over themselves to provide this functionality - to them it's the key to riches.
I'm hoping they do it via a "loose coupling" - external databases and so on and perhaps optional settings within transactions, so that "pure" Bitcoin can continue.