I do struggle with the "you coppers will never track me with my new cryptocoin!" mentality I see around (and on this thread).
I do not subscribe that the view that "innocent have nothing to fear". If our transactions are visible for all to see then huge amounts of privacy issues become salient.
It's just that I don't believe secrecy is the solution.
Firstly, there is no digital secrecy. But mean maybe you have years long perfect opssec, but each of your partner transactions now need to be perfect. It's just not gonna work.
Secondly, why don't live in a secret world - the people I interact with know what I am doing each day - it's just either not worth their while to exploit me, or they are too polite, or exploiting their knowledge of me is kind of the point (my regular cafe just sees me sit down and the order is in). Yes the digital world made the marginal cost of exploitation much lower so third parties have got in on the act.
Anyway, the point is that it's either not feasible, likely or even desirable to move like a ghost through the world.
Technology will not magically fix our political problems - haters gonna hate, totalitarian governments gonna totalitarian. Our politics need to be solved with politics. I remember when we thought email and the web would create peaceful communities, when facebook would free the Arab world. And realpolitik always came back.
Please - let's not hope that some clever coding will fix deep seated political problems - especially with, of all things, money.
Let's get back to the brass tacks - informed, organised mass democracy. It's hard and dirty and means talking to other human beings. Not HN ideal :-)
Edit: TLDR
Do I want the director of the FBI to track my online spending? No!
Do I want the director of the FBI to track the money laundering by international cartels and criminals? Yes!
What's the difference? Democracy, individual rights, the rule of law, transparent law enforcement, strong institutions and so on.