Bitcoin, Privacy, and Human Rights with Janine

December 7, 2020 Keegan Francis

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Bitcoin, Privacy, and Human Rights with Janine Brad Mills

Bitcoin arose from the ruins of the 2008 financial crisis and handed back economic power to the people. Bitcoin also subscribes to the cypherpunk movement, which is all about the right to privacy. Cypherpunks believe privacy is a fundamental right - and that includes privacy from governments. Brad Mills teams with cypherpunk Janine Roem to discuss the beautiful intersection between Bitcoin and cypherpunk values.

Also, Covid 19. What's the deal with Bitcoiners against masks? And did you ever think your smartphone is an excellent tracking device that could trap you? (Cue the chilling example of someone stealthily hacking your camera). Janine shares the tips to avoid such weird occurrences. This, among other topics like Coinbase's Hacking Team faux pas, the Ledger wallet hack, and Julian Assange.

Here are some of the takeaways from the conversation.

#1. Coinbase's Open Financial System Irony

Janine and Brad wade into the issue of Coinbase requiring KYC info like state identification. This flies in the face of the exchange's much-trumpeted 'mission' of open, decentralized finance. People who have no identification end up excluded from the system.

The exchange has also ruffled feathers by acquiring analytics company Neutrino. The problem is that Neutrino was linked to Hacking Team - a spyware entity known for assisting governments known for human rights abuses. Coinbase's "welcome to the family" to Neutrino was "spooky," notes Janine, since repressive regimes are the antithesis of what Bitcoin is about. See here how that finally played out.

#2. India's War on Cash and Crypto Ban

Brad thinks citizens of countries like India have a different relationship with money than people from, let's say, Western countries. That arises from the country's flip-flopping approach to managing the finance system. In India, people own gold more than anywhere else. In 2016, the government announced a dramatic 'demonetization' of the two largest denomination bills to curtail 'black money.' (That didn't nearly work out as expected). Now, reports indicate India is planning to introduce a law to ban crypto. This is after the Central Bank's 2018's similar action that the Supreme Court struck down. All this is a bit confusing. India, make up your mind.

#3. Privacy Is Like Health

Most of us, especially people in Western countries, don't give much attention to privacy. But per Janine, privacy is like health. If you ignore it, it will pile up and cause more problems in the future. As such, you need to put out there "as little information as possible" about yourself. Even if you don't have a public profile right now, you don't know if that could change in the future. Janine illustrates the example of Coinbase. She was one of the leading voices against its misadvised involvement with Neutrino/Hacking Team. If she was a customer on Coinbase, who's to say they/Hacking Team couldn't have used her identity info against her?