Digital Currency and the Future of Privacy
Privacy on the internet is often an elaborate illusion. Government agencies, internet service providers, and software publishers all use various levels of active and passive monitoring of where we go on the internet. Netizens might feel compelled to use a combination of safe browsing habits and privacy software in an attempt to cover their online footprints. The reasons for this are many - some seek safety from prying eyes purely for the sake of privacy, while others intend to conceal more nefarious practices. Both can succeed with varying levels of effectiveness.
The 'Silk Road' of the internet age was known for the high level of anonymity it granted both purveyors and purchasers of illicit goods and services. It's highly evident that the internet and technology changed the way we do business, even business on the black market. Yet beyond this it becomes a topic of internet currency. Privacy and data are as equally a type of currency as the venerable bitcoin itself. What are you willing to trade in exchange for privacy and secure data? Moreover, what are the corporations you allow access to that data willing to trade it for?
When you entrust your personal information, be it search history or social security, safety isn't guaranteed. There are two primary groups in the debate of big data: the collectors and the subverters. Namely those who want to compile data from as many people as possible and use it to enhance their profitability, and those who will use any means possible to prevent this and maintain their privacy. Subverters value alternatives to centrally managed systems of currency and data storage to ensure information security. Collectors value data mining, and regularly employ the practice of selling that data. Subverters see their claims of "protecting privacy" as lip service only and prefer to protect themselves instead.
Nothing represents this distrust of centralized organizations more than digital currency like bitcoin. Bitcoin is global and can be seamless traded and transferred across states and nations. Without a centralized company acting as middleman and demanding his "fair dues," transaction costs are lower. In the case of bitcoin and the Silk Road, transactions were anonymous. There's no credit-card company to monitor your purchases and send you "customized" and intrusive advertisements. Digital currency protocols are often uncontrolled by governments and organizations, adding an extra level of freedom. Digital currencies are limited by a lack of worldwide acceptance, however. Examining the valuation of the bitcoin does also demonstrate a wide variability that isn't typically evident in a traditional analog currency.
This is simply the cost of dealing in an anonymous, unregulated currency. Bitcoin is anonymous but not private in the way we might traditionally think of it. When transacting using bitcoin, identities are nowhere identified. The amounts of the transactions themselves are visible via the public ledger called the blockchain. Bitcoin is less anonymous than cash, but provides a certain level of privacy if precautions are taken. When acquiring bitcoins, be aware that purchasing them using a debit or credit card in turn connects yourself with your bitcoin stash. To obtain truly anonymous bitcoins, they must be acquired independently of purchasing them outright - perhaps in exchange for services rendered. If the thought of private and public organizations monitoring where you visit, what you watch, and how you spend your money frightens you...extra privacy might be in order.
David Kirby is a writer and editor that enjoys writing about tech and security.
