I am extremely frustrated by this crypto stuff. -I think a crypto economy is unavoidable at this point, but the population being so eager to adopt it isn't encouraging.
For starters, I don't have a cell phone.
As a result, I've been finding it difficult to obtain any of these digital currencies without there being a very obvious spying and tracking device involved.
The new wave of crypto enthusiasts are talking about things like trade actions. -About "Buying low, selling high", and finding safe harbors for wealth. By contrast, the privacy movement which originally launched this whole thing is relatively small by comparison to the army of Joe and Jane Average who are linking their smart phones up to crypto exchanges, using 'digital wallets', etc.
Without a cell phone I can't (and don't want) to receive a 'text' or have photo-ID ready for scanning to get my $10 free dollars on Swan or whatever site I am unable to get into otherwise. These very first steps of identification authentication makes the whole game broken and moot in my opinion. Once they have you tagged, everything thereafter is under somebody else's control. I never needed ID and a trackable device and a monthly plan to use cash.
Is this not an obvious flaw in the system? Your money can now be turned off with more ease than ever before. You think your super-secret private key you never ever share with anybody isn't being collected instantly by your phone? "But it's encrypted!"
No it's not! You type it in, right? You think those keystrokes aren't being captured and broadcast to somebody? Do you have Tik Tok on your phone? Grrrr.
So.., as an experiment, I set up a bitcoin paper wallet, and simply followed the logical steps required to create a private and public key. "Logical" meaning, at every step I asked, "Is what I am doing visible to somebody using a minimum of sniffing tech?"
It's not so simple!
I created the keys on an old Win XP laptop with no wifi or internet, copied the results to paper, wiped the memory, all with no cameras around. Great!
However, the big question, I realized, was: "How do I use that key to get at my digital money?"
At some point you need to enter that key into a live system, which means it's instantly visible to the black hat world if they want to see it. -Especially if you're doing any part of it on a smart phone, (which is almost certainly why it's so difficult to do any of this crypto stuff without a smartphone. A desktop computer is better; you can do some of your transactions anonymously from any computer, without your phone carrier knowing everything about you, but your private key, in order to use it, is instantly not private for most users not using some kind encrypted keyboard hardware or something. For the general public, that means you can collect money, but you can't spend it or move it around without your actions being visible. Without them knowing everything down to your GPS coordinates at the time of your activity!
Tracking and tracing people's wealth, suspending access to it.., looks like it will be easier than ever!
So far, the only way I can see to stay somewhat beyond bank/government and big-tech control is to pay somebody already wired into the system in cash for crypto, and then keep it in a paper wallet. -Then do it in reverse if I need real currency again for food or whatever. That's clearly not a sustainable method, and it's not how people are going to use it.
We've been warned about the dangers of a cashless society, but just look: people are tumbling over each other to jump into it! Eyes wide open!
Am I missing something here? Smart people I respect seem to think this is The Way, but in terms of First Principles, the whole thing looks completely compromised from the get-go.
How is crypto better than having a sock full of cash, a closet full of food and hard commodities?
Already we're seeing built-in commission costs emerge, so-called "Gas Fees" -which means the new banking elite already have their fingers in the pie.
Whatever. You can't fight the tide. The sheer fact that everybody will be using it means it's going to be useful to a degree, but the control aspect looks astonishingly complete.
It's not like my every transaction today in regular dollars isn't totally under the thumb of the banks. But at least I have a cash option. For now.
