It is true, as of right now the government is spying on you! You may not realize it until it’s too late (Uncle Sam is planning to tax you). Nations and governments around the world aren't as stupid as they seem and in fact, they’re usually one step ahead of us.
Even disruptive technology such as Blockchain will become a victim of the ongoing war between privacy & control.
Popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, or Ethereum are not going to be taken over by the government any time soon (there is always the possibility, though) but let’s not focus on digital assets but rather on avenues that they (the big brother that is watching you) been targeting the most; Exchanges, the most common marketplaces where these digital assets get traded on.
Currency can't entirely be disrupted, but it's implications toward control, governance, and freedom is utterly empowering. Our economic storage of value.. Money, is restricted, controlled, and exploited in the name of GLOBALIZATION should be a downright sin. It's got terrible, drastic implications towards many, especially 3rd world nations.
Where are we now today?
Today we have digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that have proven themselves to have tangible use cases in both programmable money and contracts.
Tackling scaling and adoption is the next stage, however, there is the ongoing concerns and questions we should be asking ourselves; Because what may seem to appear as decentralize at first could end up to be the complete opposite. Just remember, that not everything should be on the blockchain.
If you consider yourself an avid investor of Cryptocurrencies, than you should be concerned about the government because they’ve got multiple tricks up their sleeves to track you, more-so on an immutable ledger where they audit the books - we're getting closer to a very dark future.
A Question to ask yourself now:
How many of you already, cover your webcam and think twice about posting something online as it could come back to hunt later on life?
For those of you, especially the ones living in China where the government is known to spy and monitor on its citizens, it is has become a social norm to give up your rights to privacy. It's a very concerning society they have because as profound as it seems, the people are very supportive of the government. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a massive community that's being outcasted and oppressed because of the state of surveillance and control a single central authority has over it's people. Millions of citizens have already been restricted from using Public transports and lack access to public services due to the ongoing surveillance in China.
Before you interact with a Blockchain, there is a need to actually have to think twice about any application you plan on installing (Applications are centralized). Everything you do online can be easily tracked and this applies to blockchain technology, especially when you trade digital assets through a broker, exchange or marketplace (digital traces can be linked back to you)
We should look at projects which provide redemption from this nasty, dark world.
The rise of Privacy Tokens is the result of us trying to escape government surveillance and essentially control, as crypto enthusiasts around the world are trying to shield and protect themselves from the big brother and the retarded intermediary fees.
The development for these privacy-centric have had lots of challenges in the beginning(eg) the bug in ZCash Token Creation (though updates are soothing), to the versatility and limitations in using Monero and the uproar from the ASIIC issues (Zencash) and the POW update. Regardless of that, Cryptocurrencies that promise greater anonymity are becoming more popular over time as people are slowly waking up to the bleak reality that virtual money is getting much easier to track
If you’re new to blockchain technology by now you must heard about Decentralized Exchanges that were designed in such a way that would it challenge & oppose centralized exchanges.
However despite posing a novel solution in providing trust-less decentralization and utility, there have been cases where decentralized Exchanges have made a complete U-turn on their promises.
From the SEC requesting KYC requirements from IDEX, to shenanigans with EtherDelta. Centralized ones aren't perfect and Mt Gox is just the tip of the iceberg. The reality is that DEX's need liquidity. They need market makers. They need volume. They need legal protection.
What does the World need right now?
We believe that we need reliable Decentralized Exchanges that emphasize on PRIVACY, but it must be investors & traders who need to support the developments of DEX’s.
We deserve our rights to own assets that we ourselves go head over heels, through blood, sweat and tears to earn. The government should be more transparent with today’s society especially when they plan to go after exchanges , forcing them to comply with ridiculous data sharing policies and admit that they’re secretly using Surveillance and intelligence as tools of control
You & I should believe in freedom, that’s why every one of us should be supporting projects that are planning to disrupt Blockchain technology. Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Z-cash & Monero, claim to allow its users to have a firm command over the privacy of their data by keeping transaction information completely anonymous within the blockchain.
For the time being our focus should be on Decentralized Exchanges, projects such as Komodo's BarterDex & Resistance (ResDEX) are trying to revolutionize the current marketplace of DEX’s
Komodo’s DEX is a decentralized cryptocurrency shuffler that allows for stealth transactions and protects them from being traced through a time or knapsack attack. It is by far the most popular DEX in the making
Resistance (ResDEX) which I've seen a V1.4 Whitepaper on CryptoDiffer utilizes technologies such as zk-SNARKS, similar to which z-cash uses to shield transactions and combine it with a DEX where one can immediately trade on with decentralized market makers to ensure liquidity is sufficient, atomic swap technology for speed to circumvent centralized trading, and keep private key ownership with on-chain solutions.
These DEX's are still somewhat work in progress but through the help of the community and with more user adoption, we can expect to see more projects that focus on solely on privacy to gain more traction over time, now that traders are more aware of the whole ordeal surrounding surveillance.
While we are hyping Cryptocurrencies all the time, we are here to share some of the frustrations we've had with our current system, what we have, what isn't working, and to share our frustrations on seeing such sentiment during market turbulence.
Let’s move forward in a regulatory rigid environment because we're only witnessing the start of a very big snowball. We hope to shed some positivity in my sentiment on what's going on. Do share your thoughts on Privacy, DEX's, Governments, and Regulation!