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[Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox and Bitcoin (and the petition)



On Mon, 2012-11-12 at 10:28 -0800, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> 
> > From: Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.com.au>
> > To: freedombox list <freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org>
> > Cc: 
> > Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 3:32 AM
> > Subject: [Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox and Bitcoin (and the petition)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > I'm just wondering if anybody has done any analysis of the suitability
> > of Bitcoin for FreedomBox?
> > 
> > For example, Bitcoin provides a certain amount of anonymity, but not
> > complete privacy.  In other words, anybody can create an anonymous
> > Bitcoin account, but anyone else can trace the movements of Bitcoins
> > through that account.  Does this lack of 100% privacy make it awkward
> > for FreedomBox to include Bitcoin?
> 
> By your definition of anonymity, why even have a FBX?  You get the same
> "certain amount of privacy" by signing up with an ISP who gives you a
> dynamic IP address from a pool.  After all, you can request to release your
> connection and renew it with a new IP after each web page you view.
> 
> You might say the comparison isn't apt, because the ISP is a centralized
> entity.  But the ISP is one entity that can spy on you (possibly against the
> terms of service)-- with Bitcoin anyone anywhere on the internet can do the
> same thing, for very little cost. 



>  It's a 100% lack of privacy, by design.
> 

Your ISP knows your payment information, home address, full legal name,
and all your unencrypted/unanonymized traffic.

The Bitcoin transaction log records transactions between addresses. If
you never change your Bitcoin address, the transaction log will
accumulate records of your transactions. 

Without a very significant amount of work, it is not possible to link a
Bitcoin address (even in this sense) to a home address, full legal name,
payment information, etc.. 

With very little work (running Tor and using new addresses), you can
anonymize your Bitcoin participation to the same extent you could
anything.

Further, is the FBX going to tunnel all traffic through some TCP
mix-net? (I don't think it is.) All privacy is quantitative; there is no
concept of perfect anonymity. Nothing provides 100% privacy, and the FBX
isn't looking to do that anyway.




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