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Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

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Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#81

Post by SahAssar »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #65
SahAssar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it isn't, if a service is properly secured and does not sell it's data then there is no reason to think this. Please stop spreading FUD like this, it only makes people think that privacy is impossible. Even if you are talking about dragnet collection and you assume that for example NSA can store all traffic on the internet (which is basically impossible) in Utah (or wherever) for future decryption with post-quant…

It's not privacy fatalism. I'm referring to the public internet, which is now mined and stored as input for AIs, if nothing else. We can only speculate that data breaches will be used for such purposes eventually too. The best you can get is E2EE communications. I find it ironic someone commenting on a text based public forum would argue this.

We may be talking about different things, but to me "all of the internet" means much, much more than the public internet.

> The best you can get is E2EE communications.

There are quite a lot of steps between public data and E2EE.

> I find it ironic someone commenting on a text based public forum would argue this.

I don't have any expectation of privacy here and know what I'm saying is public. On other sites/services I have privacy and know that what I'm saying isn't public.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#82

Post by kodah »

SahAssar wrote: post #80
kodah wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's privacy fatalism? Did you know that Reddit's entire graph has been cached on some dudes servers and up until fairly recently allowed search by username? That includes deleted posts and edits. Reddit is not unique. People do this with Twitter too. I forget the name but there's an entire service for caching changes to your Twitter bio. > No, it isn't, if a service is properly secured and does not s…

You're talking about public info, that people posted on public forums. Is anyone surprised that that info would be public? We may be talking about different things, but to me "all of the internet" means much more than public data and public forums.

I think it's reasonable for the average internet user to expect that some creep isn't archiving the whole internet. Public or not. We are indeed talking about the same thing, you are just denying that it's a problem.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#83

Post by SahAssar »

kodah wrote: post #82
SahAssar wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're talking about public info, that people posted on public forums. Is anyone surprised that that info would be public? We may be talking about different things, but to me "all of the internet" means much more than public data and public forums.

I think it's reasonable for the average internet user to expect that some creep isn't archiving the whole internet. Public or not. We are indeed talking about the same thing, you are just denying that it's a problem.

I'm saying that "all of the internet" is more than the public internet. You seem to be saying the opposite, especially since you said "archiving the whole internet" which implies that any one entity has that sort of access. You say "Public or not" as if that does not make a difference, but there is a huge chasm between the privacy you can (and reasonably should) expect depending on it.

I think privacy is something we should strive for, but I think that when something is said publically on a globally broadcasted medium people cannot reasonably have an expectation of privacy. The problem with privacy in my mind is when there can reasonably be an expectation of privacy but that isn't met.

If I tweet something it's clear that's public. If I DM someone that should be private.

Why is it reasonable to not expect that there would be someone saving public data?

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#85

Post by kodah »

SahAssar wrote: post #83
kodah wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's reasonable for the average internet user to expect that some creep isn't archiving the whole internet. Public or not. We are indeed talking about the same thing, you are just denying that it's a problem.

I'm saying that "all of the internet" is more than the public internet. You seem to be saying the opposite, especially since you said "archiving the whole internet" which implies that any one entity has that sort of access. You say "Public or not" as if that does not make a difference, but there is a huge chasm between the privacy you can (and reasonably should) expect depending on it. I think privacy is something we…

archive.org accepted dumps of Parler, in recent memory, which is clearly stolen information. Do you think that's the first time they've accepted information that is meant to be private?

Facebook had created puppet profiles from people's contact information and made them public, notoriously.

Like, at what point would you like to accept that GPs statement is not hyperbole? Would all information that was private need to go public? By then I'd say it is too late.

This is a rather silly argument where you try to draw some line in online services that has been willfully greyed by the people who create these platforms for their own benefit.

If you want to call GP a privacy fatalist, then I'll just call you a privacy denialist and leave it there.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#86

Post by jokethrowaway »

otterley wrote: post #67
xgulfie wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question, I thought BTC's only usefulness came from its usefulness in laundering money. Is this not true?

I wouldn't say laundering money is its only utility, but the value of BTC is quite likely a reflection of the economic value of illicit activity (or black-market savings, if you prefer). Given how relatively difficult BTC is to use for the average person, it's the simplest explanation (per Occam's razor) for why it's worth so much in aggregate. Think about it: If you were a criminal, would you rather keep your cash u…

I disagree: criminals mostly use it as a mean to transfer money.

The main reason behind the rise in price is purely speculation and fomo.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#87

Post by SahAssar »

kodah wrote: post #85
SahAssar wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying that "all of the internet" is more than the public internet. You seem to be saying the opposite, especially since you said "archiving the whole internet" which implies that any one entity has that sort of access. You say "Public or not" as if that does not make a difference, but there is a huge chasm between the privacy you can (and reasonably should) expect depending on it. I think privacy is something we…

archive.org accepted dumps of Parler, in recent memory, which is clearly stolen information. Do you think that's the first time they've accepted information that is meant to be private? Facebook had created puppet profiles from people's contact information and made them public, notoriously. Like, at what point would you like to accept that GPs statement is not hyperbole? Would all information that was private need to…

I strongly believe that privacy is important, but I also think that it is important for people to have clear expectations of when they can expect it.

Is it so absurd to say that if I post stuff publically I cannot expect it to be private and if I post stuff privately I should absolutely be able to depend on it to be private?

I think your example of parler is an example of a service that was not adequately secured to protect it's private communications and the facebook example is clearly unethical and just one of the reasons I don't use the service.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#88

Post by hackinthebochs »

xgulfie wrote: post #41
hackinthebochs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin's usefulness comes from being able to transact value without a centralized authority. There are no gatekeepers to determine who can transact with whom, to assign value to a medium, or to take that value away. It is democratization of financial power.

I mean pragmatically not abstractly. Bitcoin transaction fees were >$50 recently, so it's useless as a form of payment, and nothing is keeping it from being worthless tomorrow so it's a poor parking spot for money.

Pragmatically, I can buy things online without having to give up my name and address. That's a win for me.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#89

Post by unwoundmouse »

jstanley wrote: post #59
theshadowknows wrote: post #56

I am morbidly curious how much being a hit man pays. I don't want to look it up for fear of finding myself 'on a list' :) but it's such a high risk occupation that one assumes it's pretty profitable. In the US, anyway. This brings me to bitcoin. Would it be smarter as a murderer-for-hire to ask to be paid in a less-expensive (for now) but growing currency such as Etherium or Litecoin? I mean, ask the 'client' for X d…

> Would it be smarter as a murderer-for-hire to ask to be paid in a less-expensive (for now) but growing currency such as Etherium or Litecoin? No, because the efficient market hypothesis. If you know that some asset is definitely going to significantly appreciate in value why don't you just buy it and skip out the hitman thing? The answer is that almost noone has any better idea of what the correct price should be t…

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