E-Money (That’s What I Want)

Consider a world where all money is electronic and traceable, and you have the most potent crime-fighting weapon in history.

If we have no privacy in our transaction systems, I can see every payment – every cup of coffee you drink, every Mars bar you get, every glass of Coke you drink, every door you open, every telephone call – you make. If I can see those, I don’t need a private investigator. I can just sit behind my terminal and follow you around all day.

E-Money (That’s What I Want)

I was concerned about some of the effects electronic cash could have on criminal activity. It could make it very easy for people to undertake kidnappings and extortion. It might be possible for a person to do a kidnapping and ask for money to be exchanged in a way in which there was no physical exchange – you would have no idea what country the person was in. There was also the potential that new types of criminal activity would emerge.

E-Money (That’s What I Want)

It would be dangerous and unsound public policy to allow fully untraceable, unlimited value digital currency to be produced. It opens up opportunities for abuse that aren’t available to criminals now … Fully anonymous cash might allow opportunities for counterfeiting and fraud.

E-Money (That’s What I Want)

There’s a lot of concern for privacy today. But I do worry about the idea of saving people from themselves. Just because I sign up for a traceable form of money doesn’t mean I want my next-door neighbor to see my transactions.

E-Money (That’s What I Want)

We imagine this as expanding what you do with credit cards. We do not think the electronic purse is appropriate for people buying jewelry or automobiles.

E-Money (That’s What I Want)

Will dollar bills be replaced by Bill dollars? “Today we have a zillion different ways of doing financial transactions. There’s cash, checks, credit cards, debit cards, wiring money, traveler’s checks … each of these has a particular point. We’re going to see that much diversity in digital money.”

Crypto Rebels

Americans have two dichotomous views held exactly at the same time. One view is, “None of your damn business, a man’s home is his castle. What I do is my business.” And the other is, “What have you got to hide? If you didn’t have anything to hide, you wouldn’t be using cryptography.” There’s a deep suspicion of people who want to keep things secret … [Cryptoanarchy] will be done technologically. It’s already happening.

Crypto Rebels

The ultimate Crypto Anarchy tool would be anonymous digital money … Ultimately, the lessons taught by the Cypherpunks, as well as the tools they produce, are designed to help shape a world where cryptography runs free – a Pac-Man-like societal maneuver in which the digital technology that previously snatched our privacy is used, via cryptography, to snatch it back.

Crypto Rebels

The magic of public-key crypto can be extended far beyond the exchange of messages with secrecy. Ultimately, its value will be to provide anonymity, the right most threatened by a fully digitized society.