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salawat parent
Congratulations. You've proposed something dead on arrival in our current regulatory regime. You can't have financial transfers like that. Only criminals want/need that. What are you, some sort of money launderer?

No electronic funds transfer without that transparency of origin, says the man in Washington.


tobr
I guess you’re being sarcastic, but I think it’s perfectly fine that only the middleman handling the transaction and skimming off the top knows who the customer is. Plenty of systems like that around.
ruined
too bad the middleman sells that too
salawat OP
>I guess you’re being sarcastic, but I think it’s perfectly fine that only the middleman handling the transaction and skimming off the top knows who the customer is.

It isn't fine. Third Party Doctrine. You don't have expectation of privacy or protections from search and seizure. You waived them by using the middleman.

Yes. There is some surface sarcasm, but also complete, genuine, resigned sincerity. You have to take in and appreciate a lot of non-statutory law, which no one tends to explain to the populace in a general and succinct way to inform them of how the world (in this case, the U.S. financial system) is architected.

It has been hewn, unambiguously, into a tool that functions primarily to make law enforcement tractable by plugging into the end objective of the vast majority of criminal activity: financial gain. This means arbitrary middlemen, lack of KYC, non-presence of AML precludes the existence of low friction, anonymous finance.

I didn't want the status quo, I don't believe it's right. I've dug into how it works, and I stepped away from what had hitherto been a productive and lucrative career because I can't support it through positive action anymore. It isn't right. Don't know what's more right, but I damn well know we shouldn't have the financial system acting as a surveillance device.

prognu
https://taler-ops.ch/ is live in Switzerland and allows exactly this: anonymous microtransactions. What law exactly would prevent someone from doing the same in the US?
slaw
KYC is mandatory in the US. You can't send money without knowing your recipient.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer

socalgal2
Can I send money to someone else and then have them pay? Example: etsy knows who I am but maybe every individual store does not? Similarly patreon knows who I am but each person I'm supporting does not? How about only fans?
slaw
It's not you transferring money, it is Etsy, Patreon,.. they have to know recipient.
PopAlongKid
Unless you are allowing 6-digit fraudulent payments, as documented in this other thread currently on page 2.

https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=44377104

BobaFloutist
In this hypothetical scenario, we know the recipient, just not the sender.
kjkjadksj
Funny how all these rules and privacy violations fall apart when you start paying cash.
salawat OP
They don't. Start doing a lot of activity in cash, and the banks file a report on that too. It's called a Currency Transaction Report. They may not be able to find you as easily, but they can create a link between you and being an individual with an unusual predilection toward doing economic activity in cash.
kjkjadksj
Let them have that then. Better than seeing my merchant history.
sneak
The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) as amended under USA-PATRIOT.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act

greyface-
That's why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.
robocat
The present system seems perfectly capable of destroying itself without our help.
greyface-
I was (somewhat obliquely) quoting Arthur C. Clarke from 1969. It's been 56 years, and in that time the present system has yet to come close to destroying itself.
robocat
You can not say it hasn't come close yet: that is not measurable. How many brinks have there been in the last 56 years, is surely undefinable because we don't know the effects of quantum butterflies in the counterfactual timeline.

We might be able to say it hasn't destroyed itself yet?

And what is meant by the "present system" is unclear. Plus the present system cannot be the past system so your choice of words is kinda weird!

Sorry, pedantic nitpicking can be a hobby. I don't like this comment.

dyauspitr
There’s plenty of destruction going on and it doesn’t look like a brighter future.
darqis
sarcasm is too complicated for the average HN viewer, obviously smh
AnthonyMouse
Sarcasm is cheap and parses as defeatism. Everybody knows the system is doing financial mass surveillance. How do we get it to stop?

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