Daniel J: Privacy Is Not a Feature - It's the Foundation of Digital Money

About Session

Description of talk:  Discussions involving transparent versus anonymous cryptocurrency blockchains generally revolve around personal preferences. Privacy advocates argue that they don't want to broadcast their personal financial data to the internet for the world to see. Advocates for transparency would say they aren't concerned with this. Both perspectives, however, miss the fundamental issue. Privacy is not optional; it is a prerequisite for any peer-to-peer digital asset to function as sound money and achieve widespread adoption as a true digital currency or a digital replacement for hard money like precious metals. Aside from the technocratic implications of widespread adoption of digital currencies with built-in surveillance, usability, fungibility, and censorship resistance are all dependent on the network and users having at least the same level of privacy they would get when transacting in traditional money like gold, silver, or cash.