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Here’s how web3 transactional privacy impacts you

Posted on August 15, 2022

Ppl don’t really get how relevant transactional privacy is to them.

The usual examples (political donations) seem a bit unusual.

Let’s have some concrete examples everyone can understand, why YOU, personally, will want sth like TornadoCash to anonymise ALL your transactions.

Many of these scenarios are just a few years in the future imho. Some are relevant today already.

They are all natural consequences of operating on a decentralised public ledger blockchain without any TornadoCash-style privacy measures.

1. In the not so distant future, when you withdraw cash from your crypto debit card from an ATM, you do not want the ATM operator to instantly know your entire transactional history and sell it on to anyone they want.

2. Similarly, when you pay for your groceries or some clothes in a shop with your crypto debit card, you may also not wish them to immediately know every transaction you’ve made at other shops since you set up this wallet and any connected wallets.

3. If you’re getting paid by your employer, you do not want your employer to instantly know everything you’ve spent your money on since getting into crypto. Without TornadoCash, they can easily link your wallets and figure it all out.

4. If you pay someone for some work they do for you (e.g. a logo design), you do not want them to instantly know your whole transaction history, including everyone else you’ve worked with in the past, basically your entire supplier list. They might collude to raise prices on you.

5. If you receive payment as a contractor, you do not wish your client to be able to instantly figure out your entire client list from your address. They might talk, find out about discounts you’ve given, demand similar discounts, find alternative suppliers…

6. If you send donations to a political cause (yes, this has been mentioned before, but does bear repeating), including to a legit political party, and you are in a polarised or dangerous country (US? Russia? China?) you do not want that to be public knowledge to everyone.

7. If you order a butt plug from a website that specialises in unique butt plug designs, you don’t want every single person you interact with financially, including your mom you repaid for that train ticket, to know about it.

8. If you pay for healthcare of a sensitive nature at a specialised centre (cancer; rehab; reproductive healthcare incl. fertility treatment; problems that might impair your work) you do not want everyone who interacts with you financially to know about it.

9. If you share a meal with someone who later turns out to be problematic (e.g. they were a criminal but you didn’t know about it), you do not want the fact that you split the bill with them using your crypto debit card to link the two of you forever.

10. When you travel to a non-free country for a holiday, you do not want that government to be able to request or demand access to your entire financial history as a cost of entry (or, more ominously, exit). That should just not be possible for them to take.

How you spend your money reveals a lot about your identity, as much as websites you browse, who you meet, etc, perhaps even more. This shouldn’t be available to every single person and corporation and government you interact with financially, or who can coerce you into giving it.

If this information is gathered in one place – e.g. in your singular wallet – then it can ultimately be taken from you, either subtly by anyone who finds out your wallet address, or by force by a hostile government, corporation, or simple criminal.

Therefore it is of FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE that we develop and popularise and use the infrastructure that enables public ledgers to nevertheless offer complete and effortless privacy of transactions, on a per-transaction basis.

No information should leak without your approval.

EVERYONE has an interest in this, no matter where they live.

This is as important a right as free speech.

EVERYONE is impacted by the scenarios I described above.

You

Should

Care

The TornadoCash fight is about YOU and YOUR PRIVACY in web3 and the metaverse.

Addressing some possible counterpoints:

Won’t everyone be able to hide taxable income?

Ppl already can and do that and govts have ways to enforce taxes – like getting employers to deduct it, and investigating lifestyle/income mismatches.

That’ll continue.

Isn’t more transparency good for accountability?

As an influencer, I believe in transparency and integrity. But it has to be a deliberate choice. I publish https://swombat.io/transparency.html because I want to. And I wouldn’t publish my private transactions there.

Let’s not drag this out. I hope I’ve made a clear case why everyone should care about crypto transaction privacy, and why, therefore, the TornadoCash situation is relevant to everyone who is building the future of web3, which I believe is the future of of the world.

So what can you do about this, anon?

Well, as far as I can tell, the best thing to do at the moment is to make a donation to the EFF, and let them know you care about this issue. They have a long track record of working on this stuff.

Hack the Future—Support EFF!
We can shape the future of digital privacy and free speech. Join EFF or renew your support this week and get a mystery-filled DEF CON t-shirt.
Electronic Frontier Foundation

They helped win the first crypto wars, when the US govt wanted to outlaw exporting of all cryptography under weapons regulations. I hope they will help us win this round too.

And they take crypto too! Here’s my donation.

gm & gl

Original Thread:

Ppl don't really get how relevant transactional privacy is to them.

The usual examples (political donations) seem a bit unusual.

Let's have some concrete examples everyone can understand, why YOU, personally, will want sth like TornadoCash to anonymise ALL your transactions.
👇 pic.twitter.com/5WOHE7L6Jc

— Daniel Tenner (@swombat) August 15, 2022

Author: Founder Freedom. Founder of Investibles, GrantTree, Woobius and others. Speaker, writer, investor, DJ, painter, and mostly, happy entrepreneur.

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