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Fwd: Judge Shoots Down ‘Bitcoin Isn’t Money’ Argument in Silk Road Trial | Threat Level | WIRED

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Owen Densmore

Fwd: Judge Shoots Down ‘Bitcoin Isn’t Money’ Argument in Silk Road Trial | Threat Level | WIRED

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This should be fun. The judge in the Silk Road trial sez bitcoin is money:

http://www.wired.com/2014/07/silkroad-bitcoin-isnt-money/

That's all well and good, but what it really means is that the silk road owner is up for serious charges.

-- Owen

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Marcus G. Daniels

Re: Fwd: Judge Shoots Down ‘Bitcoin Isn’t Money’ Argument in Silk Road Trial | Threat Level | WIRED

“By allegedly designing the Silk Road to use tools like the anonymity software Tor and the potentially tough-to-trace bitcoin, she argues that he had invited drug dealers onto the property.”

“Projects like Darkcoin and Dark Wallet that seek to enable the anonymous use of cryptocurrency could also find themselves on thinner ice as that the limits of bitcoin’s legal anonymity have become clearer.”

Suppose a wealthy person in DC wanted to sponsor reformers in a country like Eritrea or North Korea. Such a potential contributor might not want any association with bad places, or the appearance/reality of meddling in the affairs of their State Department friends. As a recipient, your life is at risk if the government finds out you are fighting them, esp. if you have demonstrable financial help from the west. Now I admit that the current $31 million market cap on Darkcoin isn’t going to change the world, but there are reasons to want to keep financial transactions completely anonymous…

Marcus

Arlo Barnes

Re: Fwd: Judge Shoots Down ‘Bitcoin Isn’t Money’ Argument in Silk Road Trial | Threat Level | WIRED

It is interesting - I would agree on the principle that anonymity is a right - similar to the EU's recently introduced 'right to be forgotten', and the twin brother of free speech (that is, the right not to leak information). Of course, when you are talking about money, people's minds immediately go to another recently-discussed topic on the list, campaign finance reform and the related but separate institution of bribery. That is a pretty good example where transactions should not be private, but that is because it is concerning a public property - namely, political office. This does not clear up the issue any, because where the private citizen starts and their public role begins is unclear, and the question of whether money is speech is left open. Personally, I view the choice to give money (and to whom) speech, and the actual gift action...regulate the action.

Anyway, it always seems ridiculous when the government condemns TOR (The Onion Router) in these hacker/internet/electronic fraud/etc cases because the Navy invented it for reasons not dissimilar to what you were talking about, communicating across the borders of politically sensitive regimes.

-Arlo James Barnes

Marcus G. Daniels

Re: Fwd: Judge Shoots Down ‘Bitcoin Isn’t Money’ Argument in Silk Road Trial | Threat Level | WIRED

“Of course, when you are talking about money, people's minds immediately go to another recently-discussed topic on the list, campaign finance reform and the related but separate institution of bribery. That is a pretty good example where transactions should not be private, but that is because it is concerning a public property - namely, political office. “

Campaign contributions could be given in cash, which is relatively easy to make anonymous. (Hide a bundle of money under a park bench.) Whether the recipient is obligated to find out who gave it, and report that is a different matter.

Marcus

Steve Smith

Re: Fwd: Judge Shoots Down ‘Bitcoin Isn’t Money’ Argument in Silk Road Trial | Threat Level | WIRED

“Of course, when you are talking about money, people's minds immediately go to another recently-discussed topic on the list, campaign finance reform and the related but separate institution of bribery. That is a pretty good example where transactions should not be private, but that is because it is concerning a public property - namely, political office. “

Campaign contributions could be given in cash, which is relatively easy to make anonymous. (Hide a bundle of money under a park bench.) Whether the recipient is obligated to find out who gave it, and report that is a different matter.

Well, huge sums of cash are harder to deal with than is obvious... bitcoin, in principle, moves $1M as easily as $1

Everything I know about "large sums of cash" I learned from Breaking Bad... so take it for what it is worth!

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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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