[LINK] Zcash launches tomorrow

[Jim Birch]

This is still basically wrong, philosophically and economically.

As a practical matter, any untraceable payment system becomes a conduit for
tax avoidance and illegal activities and will get clobbered by
governments.  The underlying idea of these systems seems to be that
government is the enemy and only idiots pay tax.  Seriously?

Economically, the best unit of currency is one that is managed by a
responsible government, not one that is privately owned and operates for
the psychological benefit of space cadets, and the financial benefit of
speculators and various kinds of crooks.  (All right, plus the odd internet
coffee shop.)

If you are a person with a legal job that doesn't provide significant
opportunities for tax evasion, what you want is a fully auditable,
frictionless transfer system denominated in Australian dollars and the
outlawing of payments above a low ceiling that aren't made within the
system.  Details to follow :)

Your tax bill would suddenly decrease.  Major crime would become a lot
harder, and incidentally be taxed.  Banks would have to return their old
useful practices - facilitating exchanges between lenders and borrowers -
rather than creaming a profits from every transactions you make.  Getting
such a system up would require overcoming an powerful alignment of
rent-seekers and criminals.

You don't want to be sucked in by libertarian fantasies.

Jim


On 27 October 2016 at 18:49, Stephen Loosley <stephenloosley at zoho.com>
wrote:

>
> Privacy technology for blockchains
>
>