{"id":754,"date":"2013-12-04T17:41:48","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T17:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=754"},"modified":"2020-08-06T10:46:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T10:46:00","slug":"bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of banks, bitcoin comes with its own set of problems. With bitcoin, money flows are more traceable than ever before.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two interesting things happened today that are an indication of things to come, and both involve public discussions about how an individual transferred money.<\/p>\n

The first was a follow-up to a student holding a \u201chello mom!\u201d sign in the background on television, but instead of just a hello, the huge sign contained a QR code calling for bitcoin donations<\/a>. A lot of people other than the person\u2019s mother decided to donate because they thought it was a cool stunt \u2013 so many and so much, in fact, that the poor student received over $25,000 overnight, as people used the donation instructions embedded in the QR code that flashed by in an instant on television.<\/p>\n

Where this becomes really interesting is that somebody traced how the donations were used, and today, there was a followup story<\/a> noting that the student had donated 11 bitcoin \u2013 about $13,000 \u2013 to Sean\u2019s Outpost<\/em>, a shelter for homeless people. This is noteworthy for generosity, but in this context, it is noteworthy because everybody could audit how the individual chose to spend his donations. Private money is no longer private.<\/em><\/p>\n

The second story revolves around a heist against a bitcoin-only deep-web contraband shop, Sheep Marketplace<\/em>, where 96,000 bitcoin was stolen (well over 100 million US dollars \u2013 not small potatoes by any measure; to put that amount in context, it\u2019s more than the GDP of several countries<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Where that goes interesting is that skilled detectives in the bitcoin community are able to follow the money. Literally. In real time. Laundering the loot becomes impossible. As the bitcoin ledger is public, there\u2019s no hiding that kind of large amount (remember again, we\u2019re talking about the GDP of a small country).<\/p>\n

So for all bitcoin\u2019s promises of liberty, we need to remember that every technology can be used for good and for bad.<\/p>\n

Never before in history has every single monetary transaction been entered into a public searchable database, transparent to everybody, friends and adversaries alike.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that we\u2019re entering an era where a government cannot forcibly collect taxes (but still has the ability to make you sorry for not paying them). However, we\u2019re also entering an era where the government can ask you why you donated a miniscule sum \u2013 say, a cup of coffee \u2013 to the Banned Opposition Party from the funds you received as last month\u2019s paycheck.<\/p>\n

All that glitters is not bitcoin, and privacy remains your own responsiblity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of banks, bitcoin comes with its own set of problems. With bitcoin, money flows are more traceable than ever before. Two interesting things happened today that are an indication of things to … Continue reading “Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1,1941],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","category-news","category-surveillance"],"yoast_head":"\nBitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-04T17:41:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-06T10:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@buyvpnservice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\"},\"headline\":\"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-04T17:41:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-06T10:46:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Cryptocurrency\",\"General Privacy News\",\"Surveillance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/\",\"name\":\"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-04T17:41:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-06T10:46:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"PIA\",\"description\":\"Online privacy news from around the world.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Private Internet Access\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"Private Internet Access\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\",\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Falkvinge\"},\"description\":\"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia","description":"Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia","og_description":"Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/","og_site_name":"PIA","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","article_published_time":"2013-12-04T17:41:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-06T10:46:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rick Falkvinge","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge","twitter_site":"@buyvpnservice","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rick Falkvinge","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/"},"author":{"name":"Rick Falkvinge","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4"},"headline":"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia","datePublished":"2013-12-04T17:41:48+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-06T10:46:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/"},"wordCount":456,"commentCount":6,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Cryptocurrency","General Privacy News","Surveillance"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/","name":"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-04T17:41:48+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-06T10:46:00+00:00","description":"Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/bitcoin-could-lead-to-liberty-paradise-but-also-to-surveillance-dystopia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","name":"PIA","description":"Online privacy news from around the world.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Private Internet Access","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","width":1200,"height":1200,"caption":"Private Internet Access"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4","name":"Rick Falkvinge","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rick Falkvinge"},"description":"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.","sameAs":["https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge"],"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29237,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions\/29237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}