26 sats \ 3 replies \ @badabing 16 Aug 2022 \ on: Change my mind: Large bitcoin transactions should not be private bitcoin
Gov btc addresses should be public by law, and any tx can be followed from there. The public/opposition just needs to ask the right questions and in fact do chainanalysis themselves. Auditing tx should be done by default by opposition parties. Govs can even use privacy tx to hide delicate/defense expenses from other states, as long as it's all logged and can be audited by a commission/opposition.
Tx with public funds should be auditable by law. Tx with personal funds should be protected by law.
More important is the fact they can't print more btc.
Now this is a fascinating topic, the intersection of Bitcoin and law. You make an interesting argument - individuals should have privacy but certain entities like governments should not. But if that's to be accomplished through law rather than code, bitcoiners will have to become more engaged in politics and legislation than we've been willing to be so far.
El Salvador is a relevant example: as far as I know, Bukele has not disclosed his/the government's address, so even though he tweets that they "bought the dip!" we don't actually know if they did. Price-wise right now it would be better for them if they hadn't, but more importantly, having one person in complete and non-transparent control of a nation's bitcoin balance is asking for trouble/misconduct.
I applaud separating money and the state but so much of how they did it seems ham-handed.
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This could grow naturally from the btc ethos. When people start paying taxes in btc, they will be able to follow the money much more transparently. The questions about how the gov spends it will come. This is part of the democratic process and will grow organically with btc adoption.
Bitcoiners are typically very reluctant to and careful with what they spend their btc on, so if a population is orange pilled, their democratic gov by definition should have the same mindset. Sounds utopian, I know.
Bukele is a questionable actor in that regard. He forced it onto his population without much transparency and education. What are his real motives?
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Utopian but possible, and definitely worth a try!
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