1 00:00:03,370 --> 00:00:14,428 [Music] 2 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,300 [Music] 3 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:28,058 [Music] 4 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:31,920 hi everyone 5 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:33,840 hello 6 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:35,040 welcome 7 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:38,239 so the last talk of the day for this 8 00:00:38,239 --> 00:00:39,680 theater 9 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,320 uh how everyone enjoying hope everyone 10 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:44,559 having a good time 11 00:00:44,559 --> 00:00:46,480 great 12 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:49,280 that's great i like the enthusiasm 13 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:50,320 so 14 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:52,320 welcome to this talk uh we're going to 15 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,239 talk about payments 16 00:00:54,239 --> 00:00:57,600 so you pay for that payment surveillance 17 00:00:57,600 --> 00:00:59,760 sorry payment systems surveillance and 18 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:00,960 dissent 19 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,358 so please welcome alex martius 20 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:08,080 [Applause] 21 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:10,080 hi everyone and thank you for sticking 22 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:12,880 it out through to almost the end of hope 23 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:15,520 and i am hoping to make you feel even 24 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:17,520 more hopeless by the end of this 25 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:20,720 so yay um i'm alex matthews i'm the 26 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:22,720 national chair of restore the fourth we 27 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:25,600 do um civil liberties work in the area 28 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:27,840 of privacy and surveillance 29 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:28,880 and 30 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:30,560 i've grown more and more interested in 31 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:32,240 the topic of 32 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,520 payment systems and government power 33 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:36,880 and 34 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:39,040 how that can be used to affect people's 35 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:41,920 ability to transact and dissociate and 36 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,720 therefore their ability to dissent from 37 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:46,320 whatever their government is pleased to 38 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:49,600 think is the right opinions and the 39 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:51,520 right practices 40 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:53,759 the immediate spur 41 00:01:53,759 --> 00:01:54,640 for 42 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,439 the for this kind of thinking for me 43 00:01:57,439 --> 00:02:00,960 came in 2019 and related to a fairground 44 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:02,000 ride 45 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:02,880 so 46 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,840 my family and i were traveling in china 47 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:06,799 and 48 00:02:06,799 --> 00:02:08,000 um 49 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,479 and i had three kids who were very 50 00:02:10,479 --> 00:02:12,879 interested in riding on the fairground 51 00:02:12,879 --> 00:02:15,920 rides and they could not 52 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:18,080 they could not because they could not 53 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:19,599 use cash 54 00:02:19,599 --> 00:02:22,640 and unlike at u.s fairgrounds there was 55 00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:24,800 not a system of tokens where you could 56 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,200 pay using a credit card or cash and then 57 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:29,040 be given to code tokens and then use 58 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:30,319 them on the right 59 00:02:30,319 --> 00:02:33,040 instead the only payment mechanism that 60 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:34,800 was viable for my kids to get on these 61 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:36,879 rides that they really wanted to get on 62 00:02:36,879 --> 00:02:39,599 was to use wepe 63 00:02:39,599 --> 00:02:42,480 we pay being a chinese system that 64 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,599 grew out of the social messaging app 65 00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:47,120 wechat 66 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:49,840 and you cannot get a wechat account 67 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,120 without having a chinese national id 68 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:54,879 with a matter that we thoroughly 69 00:02:54,879 --> 00:02:56,640 researched before going to china because 70 00:02:56,640 --> 00:02:58,080 we knew it would be kind of convenient 71 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:00,400 to be able to use wepe but there was 72 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:02,319 literally no well there was literally no 73 00:03:02,319 --> 00:03:05,680 legal way that we could get a wechat 74 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,480 account so our kids were fresh out of 75 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:09,840 luck 76 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:10,640 and 77 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:13,120 why is this convenient and and good for 78 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:14,800 the chinese government well frankly 79 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:17,200 there aren't that many tourists coming 80 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:18,400 to 81 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:21,120 china who have no access to anybody with 82 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:24,080 a chinese national id so the problem 83 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:25,599 from their perspective is relatively 84 00:03:25,599 --> 00:03:26,959 small 85 00:03:26,959 --> 00:03:27,840 and 86 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,799 the benefits to the chinese government 87 00:03:30,799 --> 00:03:33,360 of having a payment system that is 88 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:34,799 anchored to 89 00:03:34,799 --> 00:03:37,599 social messaging in an integrated 90 00:03:37,599 --> 00:03:39,680 collection of apps 91 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,799 is enormous from their perspective for 92 00:03:42,799 --> 00:03:44,239 all of the reasons from their 93 00:03:44,239 --> 00:03:46,080 perspective 94 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:46,959 that 95 00:03:46,959 --> 00:03:47,760 the 96 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:50,000 u.s government or other governments use 97 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,000 when they're considering what kind of 98 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,239 financial surveillance to conduct 99 00:03:54,239 --> 00:03:56,959 the suppression of terrorism the 100 00:03:56,959 --> 00:03:58,560 suppression of money laundering the 101 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,280 suppression of fraud the suppression of 102 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:02,480 theft 103 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:05,120 these are all the same sort of familiar 104 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:06,640 arguments 105 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:07,760 and 106 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:10,720 so unfortunately 107 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:12,840 my family were not terrorists 108 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,040 um and 109 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:20,000 the and a lot of the history of payment 110 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,960 system surveillance traces back to 111 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:25,520 efforts to suppress 112 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:27,280 terrorism funding 113 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:30,479 so here for for for many of you in the 114 00:04:30,479 --> 00:04:33,440 room you already know some of this but 115 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,120 we're going to just briefly canter 116 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:36,000 through 117 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,720 some notable elements in the history of 118 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:40,479 payments and surveillance 119 00:04:40,479 --> 00:04:41,360 so 120 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,000 the patriot act in 2001 121 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,560 establishes the new offense of material 122 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:48,639 support for terrorism 123 00:04:48,639 --> 00:04:51,840 it requires organizations that are 124 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:53,919 transmitting money to foreign countries 125 00:04:53,919 --> 00:04:56,400 to certify that 126 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:58,800 those they're sending money to are free 127 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:01,039 of links to terrorism 128 00:05:01,039 --> 00:05:02,160 um 129 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:03,039 and 130 00:05:03,039 --> 00:05:03,840 the 131 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:06,240 it strengthens know your customer 132 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:08,320 requirements and anti-money laundering 133 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,720 requirements or with the all with the 134 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:12,880 intent of trying to 135 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:14,560 prevent the financing of terrorist 136 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:16,960 attacks 137 00:05:17,199 --> 00:05:19,840 at the time i was running a non-profit 138 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:20,880 that 139 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:23,600 sent substantial amounts of money abroad 140 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,479 we wired money to schools in east africa 141 00:05:26,479 --> 00:05:29,039 for the sponsorship of girls 142 00:05:29,039 --> 00:05:32,719 for their secondary education 143 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:35,759 so if we had been following the letter 144 00:05:35,759 --> 00:05:38,560 of what the patriot act required 145 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,280 then what we would have needed to do in 146 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:43,120 each of the schools that we wired money 147 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:43,840 to 148 00:05:43,840 --> 00:05:46,320 was to sit down with every employee of 149 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:48,720 the school every teacher 150 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:52,000 every other staff member and to 151 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,560 interview them to ascertain that the 152 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,360 money that we were sending was not going 153 00:05:57,360 --> 00:05:58,400 to go 154 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,919 to fund terrorist related activities 155 00:06:01,919 --> 00:06:03,520 and frankly we were never going to do 156 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,720 that because i love sister salami she's 157 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:09,280 an awesome person and definitely not a 158 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:11,360 terrorist 159 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:12,880 and the and 160 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:14,639 just for completeness neither of the 161 00:06:14,639 --> 00:06:17,360 girls next to her are terrorists either 162 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:18,400 um 163 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:20,800 but you know we were not going to be 164 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:23,039 targeted in the same way 165 00:06:23,039 --> 00:06:25,840 for doing that because the patriot acts 166 00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:28,160 um for financial surveillance 167 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:30,960 requirements were not really targeted at 168 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:34,000 girls scholarship programs 169 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:34,800 so 170 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:38,000 a well-known case during the 2000s was 171 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,479 the holy land foundation case 172 00:06:40,479 --> 00:06:43,039 the holy land foundation at the time of 173 00:06:43,039 --> 00:06:45,919 9 11 was the largest muslim charity in 174 00:06:45,919 --> 00:06:47,120 the u.s 175 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:50,350 and it funded um 176 00:06:50,350 --> 00:06:52,160 [Music] 177 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:56,240 education and support programs in the 178 00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:58,240 palestinian territories 179 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:00,880 at the time the gaza strip was ruled as 180 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,000 it is today by hamas 181 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:04,880 and 182 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,759 the u.s government rapidly after 183 00:07:07,759 --> 00:07:10,240 9 11 initiated a prosecution for 184 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:12,560 material support for terrorism 185 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:15,680 on the holy land foundation 186 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:17,840 there was a trial attended with a 187 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:19,440 mistrial with one of the jurors 188 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:22,240 declaring publicly that links between 189 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:24,080 the alleged links between the holy lamb 190 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:26,240 foundation and hamas had all the 191 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:28,720 strength of a wet noodle 192 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:30,960 but there was another trial 193 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:33,840 and the fbi got a conviction that they 194 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:36,319 celebrate on their website to this day 195 00:07:36,319 --> 00:07:38,400 um which included senior holy land 196 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:40,560 foundation figures being sentenced to 65 197 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:44,639 years in prison so yay fbi 198 00:07:44,639 --> 00:07:46,319 moving forward 199 00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:49,039 a few years we have 200 00:07:49,039 --> 00:07:51,039 yes 201 00:07:51,039 --> 00:07:54,400 moving beyond the sphere of islamic 202 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:56,800 terrorism to other activities 203 00:07:56,800 --> 00:07:58,639 by the us government 204 00:07:58,639 --> 00:08:01,520 and after the publication of over 200 205 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:03,680 000 us diplomatic cables 206 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,199 wikileaks was blockaded for donations by 207 00:08:07,199 --> 00:08:10,240 paypal mastercard and visa roughly 208 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:12,080 simultaneously 209 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:16,080 the c a senior executive of paypal on an 210 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,800 earnings call explained that this was 211 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:20,400 because the state department had told 212 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:21,680 them to do that 213 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:23,759 the state department weighed in very 214 00:08:23,759 --> 00:08:25,039 very rapidly and said that they had 215 00:08:25,039 --> 00:08:26,960 never asked them to do any such thing 216 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:28,400 and they maintained that position to 217 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:29,759 this day 218 00:08:29,759 --> 00:08:32,159 mastercard lifted their blockade in 219 00:08:32,159 --> 00:08:36,640 2012. i'm not sure when or whether um 220 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:40,320 paypal or visa lifted their blockade but 221 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:42,799 here we see the dynamics starting which 222 00:08:42,799 --> 00:08:44,560 we're going to see in other non-profit 223 00:08:44,560 --> 00:08:46,560 groups during this talk 224 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:47,920 of 225 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:51,200 um wikileaks turning to cryptocurrency 226 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:54,160 donations to sustain their operations 227 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:55,040 and 228 00:08:55,040 --> 00:08:56,480 that is something that they still do 229 00:08:56,480 --> 00:08:59,440 today in major parts to fund the defense 230 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,640 of julian assange 231 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,720 during the 2010s we also saw the 232 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:09,440 development of 233 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:11,600 crowdfunding sites 234 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,480 most famously gofundme 235 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:16,880 but also it's right-wing alternative 236 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:18,720 gifts and go 237 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:19,839 and 238 00:09:19,839 --> 00:09:20,640 um 239 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:23,120 there was and 240 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:24,000 and 241 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,800 the these these sites are 242 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:29,279 relatively easily subject to 243 00:09:29,279 --> 00:09:31,519 disruption by nation states because they 244 00:09:31,519 --> 00:09:33,600 use the regular banking system 245 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:34,720 um 246 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:37,279 and give send go ran into troll with the 247 00:09:37,279 --> 00:09:38,880 canadian government because it was a 248 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:41,839 major vehicle for donations to the 249 00:09:41,839 --> 00:09:44,399 canadian trucker protests against covid 250 00:09:44,399 --> 00:09:46,640 restrictions last year 251 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:48,160 um and 252 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:52,160 the canadian courts weighed in to block 253 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:54,080 the movement of the money and there were 254 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:58,000 also prosecutions of individual donors 255 00:09:58,000 --> 00:09:59,519 um 256 00:09:59,519 --> 00:10:00,800 you can see 257 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:03,279 for those who have a little familiarity 258 00:10:03,279 --> 00:10:05,040 with the fourth amendment 259 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:06,000 that 260 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,079 a lot of these 261 00:10:08,079 --> 00:10:10,480 third party fundraising sites 262 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:11,680 raise the 263 00:10:11,680 --> 00:10:14,640 issue of the third party doctrine 264 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:17,600 this is the doctrine whereby 265 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:21,040 the u.s government can approach 266 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:24,320 entities with whom you share your data 267 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:28,000 and can subpoena them or 268 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,240 or get a warrant for access to their 269 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:31,200 data 270 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:34,880 and you yourself do not necessarily 271 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:37,040 get informed and are not necessarily 272 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:39,440 part of the process it's all like you're 273 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:42,480 considered to have exposed your data to 274 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:44,880 the third party vendor's use and then 275 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:46,320 and then it's a matter between the third 276 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,440 party vendor and the government the 277 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:51,360 third party doctrine is a little bit 278 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:54,160 weaker now than it was ten years ago but 279 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:56,959 it's still a very live 280 00:10:56,959 --> 00:10:59,519 element facilitating the us government's 281 00:10:59,519 --> 00:11:02,480 collection of data 282 00:11:03,279 --> 00:11:04,880 we also have 283 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:07,920 during the latter part of the 2010s the 284 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:11,040 development of using blockchain to 285 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:13,680 develop peer-to-peer transactions 286 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:15,279 outside the regular banking system 287 00:11:15,279 --> 00:11:17,360 they're not necessarily anonymous by 288 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:18,480 design 289 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:20,480 but this whole 290 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:23,680 ecosystem with the with the fancy name 291 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:27,760 of d5 for decentralized finance evolving 292 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:28,399 to 293 00:11:28,399 --> 00:11:31,120 try to provide people with alternatives 294 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:32,640 that have 295 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:35,920 lower transaction fees that are faster 296 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:37,760 that enable people to move money around 297 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:40,079 internationally with more convenience 298 00:11:40,079 --> 00:11:42,720 and that then generates regulatory 299 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:45,440 issues that the u.s government is really 300 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:47,440 only beginning to grapple with 301 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:49,680 um 302 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:53,440 we also have evolution of the swift 303 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:55,440 system the swift system has been around 304 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:57,360 since 1973 305 00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:58,399 and 306 00:11:58,399 --> 00:12:01,519 originally it was set up by a consortium 307 00:12:01,519 --> 00:12:04,399 of six western banks um 308 00:12:04,399 --> 00:12:07,040 really just as a standardized messaging 309 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:08,720 system for the settlement of 310 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:10,399 international transactions 311 00:12:10,399 --> 00:12:11,440 so 312 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:12,720 um 313 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,279 so they have standardized codes for 314 00:12:15,279 --> 00:12:17,920 banks it makes it a lot easier to 315 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,839 transmit money a lot less burdensome 316 00:12:21,839 --> 00:12:24,480 and swift has become a dominant player 317 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:28,079 offering a variety of services and as it 318 00:12:28,079 --> 00:12:29,920 became dominant 319 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:33,440 it became more useful for governments to 320 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:35,360 use to accomplish their foreign policy 321 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:36,399 goals 322 00:12:36,399 --> 00:12:38,800 so in 2012 you see 323 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:40,000 the 324 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:41,760 uh eu 325 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:45,839 um enforcing sanctions on iran 326 00:12:45,839 --> 00:12:46,880 by 327 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:47,839 um 328 00:12:47,839 --> 00:12:51,519 by cutting off iranian access to swift 329 00:12:51,519 --> 00:12:55,519 and this year you see the u.s enforcing 330 00:12:55,519 --> 00:12:58,079 sanctions on russia by cutting off 331 00:12:58,079 --> 00:12:59,680 access to swift 332 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:00,399 there's 333 00:13:00,399 --> 00:13:02,320 clearly a little bit of institutional 334 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,399 anxiety on the part of those 335 00:13:04,399 --> 00:13:06,399 administering the swift system 336 00:13:06,399 --> 00:13:08,560 because there are pains to point out on 337 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:09,920 their website that they consider 338 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:11,680 themselves to be 339 00:13:11,680 --> 00:13:15,360 a neutral system and to be a utility 340 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:17,519 but they are also 341 00:13:17,519 --> 00:13:20,399 subject to these kinds of manipulation 342 00:13:20,399 --> 00:13:22,079 for foreign policy goals of nation 343 00:13:22,079 --> 00:13:24,479 states 344 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:27,440 so we can see 345 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:28,639 that 346 00:13:28,639 --> 00:13:32,160 in the context of digitization in the 347 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:35,279 context of vastly increased 348 00:13:35,279 --> 00:13:39,680 flows of international funds the 349 00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:42,639 government's greed for financial data is 350 00:13:42,639 --> 00:13:44,320 only growing 351 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:45,920 and the 352 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:49,120 and as part of that the neutrality of 353 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:52,959 payment systems is under threat 354 00:13:52,959 --> 00:13:54,639 governments want to 355 00:13:54,639 --> 00:13:55,680 control 356 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:58,079 the flow of payments and they want to 357 00:13:58,079 --> 00:14:00,480 understand the nature of payments 358 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:01,279 and 359 00:14:01,279 --> 00:14:04,320 in my view largely mistakenly we are 360 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:06,320 retreating from 361 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:09,279 the idea that these payment systems 362 00:14:09,279 --> 00:14:11,920 could be used neutrally for 363 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:13,680 anything that is not sort of massively 364 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:16,560 criminal um 365 00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:17,279 to 366 00:14:17,279 --> 00:14:20,480 um to a situation where payment systems 367 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:22,320 are more manipulable 368 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,760 as a response 369 00:14:25,839 --> 00:14:28,480 we can we can see the us government 370 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:32,240 becoming more aggressive in the area of 371 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:34,560 cryptocurrency 372 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:37,040 tracking and regulation 373 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:39,120 um 374 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,760 over the last few years i think it's 375 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:44,079 fair to say that the u.s government has 376 00:14:44,079 --> 00:14:46,560 become the most sophisticated actor in 377 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:47,519 the world 378 00:14:47,519 --> 00:14:51,040 in terms of tracking transactions 379 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:52,240 unraveling 380 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:53,360 mixers 381 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:55,040 um tracing 382 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,600 um cryptocurrency transactions obviously 383 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:00,560 more easily with bitcoin than with 384 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:02,880 more privacy oriented coins 385 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:04,000 um 386 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:05,839 and there's also been a lot more 387 00:15:05,839 --> 00:15:09,360 thinking about how to integrate 388 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:12,880 crypto currencies into the worldwide 389 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:15,040 financial system rather than having them 390 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:16,480 exist apart from them and there's 391 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:18,800 clearly a great deal of regulatory 392 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:22,959 discomfort with that separate existence 393 00:15:22,959 --> 00:15:24,959 to explain a little bit about mixers 394 00:15:24,959 --> 00:15:27,040 because not everyone here is going to be 395 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,920 terribly familiar with what they do but 396 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:31,839 if you take bitcoin as the default 397 00:15:31,839 --> 00:15:33,920 because it was the first cryptocurrency 398 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:37,519 then user a sends a bitcoin to user b 399 00:15:37,519 --> 00:15:40,399 that tracks transaction is recorded it's 400 00:15:40,399 --> 00:15:43,440 on the public blockchain it's visible 401 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:44,720 um 402 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,480 if you use a mixer service then that mix 403 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:50,160 mixes your cryptocurrency payment 404 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:52,639 payment with cryptocurrency from other 405 00:15:52,639 --> 00:15:53,759 users 406 00:15:53,759 --> 00:15:57,360 and sends that mix to one or more 407 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:00,560 addresses that are designated by user a 408 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:04,000 that mixing process breaks the on-chain 409 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:04,880 link 410 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:07,360 between wallet addresses and that 411 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,720 improves user privacy and autonomy 412 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:12,720 the mixer then gives back 413 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:16,079 to user a or onward to user b 414 00:16:16,079 --> 00:16:18,560 an equivalent value of the resulting mix 415 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:19,839 of coins 416 00:16:19,839 --> 00:16:22,079 so user a or user b they don't have to 417 00:16:22,079 --> 00:16:23,600 know the source 418 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:26,079 of their new assortment of coins 419 00:16:26,079 --> 00:16:28,720 just that it has the equivalent value of 420 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:30,399 what was put in 421 00:16:30,399 --> 00:16:31,680 subtracting 422 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:33,759 presumably some fee for the use of the 423 00:16:33,759 --> 00:16:35,759 mixing service 424 00:16:35,759 --> 00:16:38,240 so the us government has begun 425 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,199 prosecution of peer-to-peer 426 00:16:41,199 --> 00:16:43,360 cryptocurrency traders for 427 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:47,040 not fulfilling kyc requirements 428 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:49,040 not filing these suspicious activity 429 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:50,959 reports that you're supposed to file 430 00:16:50,959 --> 00:16:53,600 for transactions over 10 over value of 431 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:55,440 over ten thousand dollars 432 00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:57,199 the first prosecution for that was in 433 00:16:57,199 --> 00:16:59,040 2019 434 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:01,519 and they have also 435 00:17:01,519 --> 00:17:02,839 um 436 00:17:02,839 --> 00:17:06,000 started to contract 437 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:06,799 with 438 00:17:06,799 --> 00:17:09,679 third-party vendors who specialize 439 00:17:09,679 --> 00:17:13,520 in cryptocurrency training uh tracing 440 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:16,559 of which a big trade player is chain 441 00:17:16,559 --> 00:17:18,160 analysis 442 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:19,280 um 443 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:20,880 and the kinds of things that chain 444 00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:23,119 analysis do or this so 445 00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:25,439 when you have coins from two or more 446 00:17:25,439 --> 00:17:27,199 addresses that are spent in a single 447 00:17:27,199 --> 00:17:28,480 transaction 448 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,320 then it their software reveals that 449 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:34,559 whoever created that multi-input 450 00:17:34,559 --> 00:17:35,760 transaction 451 00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:37,760 must have control of both spender 452 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,480 addresses so that now allows chain 453 00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:41,520 analysis 454 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:43,120 to identify 455 00:17:43,120 --> 00:17:45,120 a single identity governing those 456 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:47,840 transactions and to identify that to 457 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:49,120 their client 458 00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:51,039 in other cases they can follow what's 459 00:17:51,039 --> 00:17:53,360 called appeal change so 460 00:17:53,360 --> 00:17:56,240 bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies get 461 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,280 moved out of one address a fraction is 462 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:01,520 paid to a recipient then the remainder 463 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,320 is returned to a spender at a different 464 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:06,640 address a change address 465 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:09,679 and chain analysis is software 466 00:18:09,679 --> 00:18:11,120 enables them to 467 00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:13,280 distinguish the chain out change 468 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:15,679 addresses and that allows investigators 469 00:18:15,679 --> 00:18:18,160 to follow a sum of money as it hops from 470 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,080 one address to the next 471 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:21,360 so 472 00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:24,000 fbi is developing significant expertise 473 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,880 in this so it's the irs and so is ice um 474 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,760 and they seem to have been starting to 475 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,320 have substantial contracts with chain 476 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:36,960 analysis and a developing relationship 477 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:38,640 with coinbase 478 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:40,880 to track trip cryptocurrency 479 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:43,840 transactions which i presume 480 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:46,000 are related to them 481 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,960 attempting to suppress cryptocurrency 482 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,039 payments to coyotes 483 00:18:51,039 --> 00:18:54,880 smuggling people over the border 484 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:58,480 so the biden administration attempted to 485 00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,360 introduce a rule last year that would 486 00:19:01,360 --> 00:19:02,799 not require reporting of all 487 00:19:02,799 --> 00:19:04,320 transactions over a value of ten 488 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,039 thousand dollars but over a value of six 489 00:19:07,039 --> 00:19:08,799 hundred dollars which would be a lot 490 00:19:08,799 --> 00:19:10,720 more intrusive and we were 491 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:11,840 working 492 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:12,799 on 493 00:19:12,799 --> 00:19:14,640 congressional advocacy to oppose that 494 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:16,799 move 495 00:19:16,799 --> 00:19:18,640 in the end the senate finance committee 496 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:20,960 nixed it 497 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:21,919 and 498 00:19:21,919 --> 00:19:24,400 what followed was an executive order 499 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:26,480 with some really interesting phraseology 500 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:28,960 for how they're thinking about 501 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:30,160 um 502 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:31,760 about 503 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:33,919 cryptocurrency and payment surveillance 504 00:19:33,919 --> 00:19:35,200 more broadly so i'm just going to be a 505 00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:36,880 little bit of that 506 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,760 they say the executive order says 507 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,080 digital assets may pose significant 508 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:44,799 illicit finance risks including money 509 00:19:44,799 --> 00:19:47,440 laundering cyber crime and ransomware 510 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,919 narcotics and human trafficking and 511 00:19:49,919 --> 00:19:52,720 terrorism and proliferation financing 512 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:55,520 assumedly nuclear proliferation 513 00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:57,840 digital assets may also be used as a 514 00:19:57,840 --> 00:19:58,640 tool 515 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,200 to circumvent united states and foreign 516 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:03,679 financial sanctions regimes 517 00:20:03,679 --> 00:20:05,440 and other tools and authorities and 518 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,159 we'll talk about sanctions in a moment 519 00:20:08,159 --> 00:20:10,480 growth in decentralized financial 520 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:13,120 ecosystems this is the d5 stuff 521 00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:15,440 peer-to-peer payment activity and 522 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:17,840 obscured blockchain ledgers without 523 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,480 controls to mitigate illicit finance 524 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:22,559 could also present additional market and 525 00:20:22,559 --> 00:20:26,080 national security risks in the future 526 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,080 and they're right opinions differ on how 527 00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:30,159 much of a problem that is but they are 528 00:20:30,159 --> 00:20:31,679 right 529 00:20:31,679 --> 00:20:34,880 they're now contemplating the urgent 530 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,280 adoption of a central bank digital 531 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:39,120 currency which is another way of 532 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:41,840 co-opting the cryptocurrency space 533 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:45,840 and bringing it into the mainstream 534 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:48,400 a lot of this comes i think from talking 535 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:50,000 with staffers 536 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,320 from the kind of impulse that i saw 537 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:53,760 commonly with people when i was at 538 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:55,520 public policy school 539 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:57,440 for public policy people 540 00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:58,559 they 541 00:20:58,559 --> 00:21:00,960 detest the idea of biased and prejudiced 542 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:04,000 decision making and 543 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,320 the conception at least when i was at 544 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:07,919 policy school was that the way that you 545 00:21:07,919 --> 00:21:10,000 avoided bias in decision making was to 546 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:11,919 collect more data 547 00:21:11,919 --> 00:21:14,720 and that therefore implicitly more 548 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:17,440 collection of data by the government by 549 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:20,240 improving decision making is by default 550 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:21,440 a good 551 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,960 and it's very hard for public policy 552 00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:28,000 people to wrap their minds often around 553 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,080 situations where the collection of less 554 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:33,840 data may be a good that's just not how 555 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:35,760 public public policy courses and 556 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:38,000 philosophy is structured 557 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,159 so we have data now flowing from 558 00:21:40,159 --> 00:21:43,039 cryptocurrency exchanges to fincen and 559 00:21:43,039 --> 00:21:45,919 from finzen fincen outward to ice and 560 00:21:45,919 --> 00:21:48,720 fbi and irs 561 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:49,919 and 562 00:21:49,919 --> 00:21:52,320 this i i want to emphasize this has 563 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,039 gotten a lot deeper and a lot more 564 00:21:55,039 --> 00:21:57,520 sophisticated in between say 2017 and 565 00:21:57,520 --> 00:21:58,640 now 566 00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:00,480 to the extent that even with the exp 567 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:02,400 impressive progress that there has been 568 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:05,760 on privacy coins like monero and zcash 569 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:08,320 in the context of this heightened 570 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,520 scrutiny relying only on the technology 571 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:13,440 of those privacy coins 572 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:14,880 feels unwise 573 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:16,600 especially for 574 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:18,720 implementations that the us government 575 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:20,720 may perceive as being against its 576 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:22,640 interests whether those implementations 577 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:26,559 are legal or illegal in a given country 578 00:22:26,559 --> 00:22:27,360 so 579 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:30,320 this raises an interesting question 580 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:32,159 for 581 00:22:32,159 --> 00:22:33,039 um 582 00:22:33,039 --> 00:22:35,840 of whether cryptocurrency 583 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:37,520 can in fact 584 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:39,600 blunt the impact 585 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:41,280 of sanctions 586 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:44,080 regimes and with that 587 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,960 how much can it blunt the 588 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:50,000 in the efforts of the u.s to advance its 589 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:51,360 national interests we're getting into 590 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:53,679 some very large questions here 591 00:22:53,679 --> 00:22:56,240 and you can see the anxiety 592 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:59,039 about that in the executive order so how 593 00:22:59,039 --> 00:23:03,360 far is that really true as we stand 594 00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:05,039 well 595 00:23:05,039 --> 00:23:08,559 what i see realistically right now 596 00:23:08,559 --> 00:23:09,520 is 597 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:10,480 that 598 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:12,159 implementations 599 00:23:12,159 --> 00:23:16,400 outside the us that are citizen focused 600 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:20,840 are blunting the impact of sanctions on 601 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:23,280 individuals that's not exactly where the 602 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,120 anxiety lies 603 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:25,840 but 604 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:28,320 that it but that is nevertheless the 605 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:29,280 case 606 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:30,000 so 607 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,400 there are some useful examples of this 608 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,159 um 609 00:23:34,159 --> 00:23:37,520 in venezuela for people who have been 610 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,640 looking to flee venezuela in the context 611 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:42,080 of the currency controls that the 612 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:44,760 venezuelan government imposed 613 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,679 cryptocurrency has been a useful store 614 00:23:47,679 --> 00:23:50,400 of value enabling them to flee the 615 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:52,559 country and still take something with 616 00:23:52,559 --> 00:23:54,240 them 617 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:55,200 in 618 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,600 afghanistan with the acute crisis that 619 00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:00,320 is going on there 620 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,679 there are educational charities that are 621 00:24:03,679 --> 00:24:06,960 reported to be turning to cryptocurrency 622 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,679 so that they can continue to provide 623 00:24:09,679 --> 00:24:12,480 some measure of girls education 624 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,480 without using 625 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:18,000 anything that is visible to the taliban 626 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,360 but also 627 00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:21,520 without having to raise funds in ways 628 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:23,760 that go through the mainstream banking 629 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:25,760 system which is operating under 630 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:27,440 sanctions 631 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:28,799 and also 632 00:24:28,799 --> 00:24:31,200 as things get more desperate there to 633 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:32,880 provide famine relief as well as 634 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:34,799 education 635 00:24:34,799 --> 00:24:36,559 i have seen reports 636 00:24:36,559 --> 00:24:38,159 that um 637 00:24:38,159 --> 00:24:39,840 iranian students are using 638 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:41,840 cryptocurrency to 639 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,640 be able to pay college tuition for 640 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:47,360 remote learning courses 641 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:49,039 which would otherwise come under 642 00:24:49,039 --> 00:24:51,279 sanctions 643 00:24:51,279 --> 00:24:54,960 a the feminist coalition in nigeria 644 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:57,279 got blocked from raising funds by the 645 00:24:57,279 --> 00:24:58,400 government 646 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,679 because it advocated too energetically 647 00:25:01,679 --> 00:25:05,120 against police brutality in nigeria 648 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:07,520 and they have been using cryptocurrency 649 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:09,360 to continue their work against police 650 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:15,120 brutality and against impunity from rape 651 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:17,840 and another interesting example i found 652 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:18,799 was 653 00:25:18,799 --> 00:25:21,679 the belarus solidarity foundation which 654 00:25:21,679 --> 00:25:24,960 is an association of dissidents against 655 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,880 the belarusian dictator lukashenko 656 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:30,880 again blocked from raising funds by 657 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:32,080 their government 658 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:33,919 they've used cryptocurrency and 659 00:25:33,919 --> 00:25:36,400 continued to use cryptocurrency to fund 660 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,679 that dissent and also now to fund 661 00:25:39,679 --> 00:25:41,600 volunteers and medical supplies and 662 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:42,799 equipments 663 00:25:42,799 --> 00:25:44,960 and in the form of arms to resist the 664 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:45,919 russian 665 00:25:45,919 --> 00:25:49,039 invasion of ukraine 666 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:50,559 so 667 00:25:50,559 --> 00:25:52,640 let's think about the larger anxiety in 668 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,000 this executive order 669 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,039 why is it that we have not seen 670 00:25:59,039 --> 00:26:00,880 as a consequence of the russian invasion 671 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:02,000 of ukraine 672 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,480 a substantial turn by the russian 673 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:05,440 government 674 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,840 to using either cryptocurrency more 675 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:11,360 broadly or privacy coins in particular 676 00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:15,279 to evade sanction regimes 677 00:26:15,679 --> 00:26:19,120 there are a few reasons why that might 678 00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:21,360 be so 679 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:23,039 so 680 00:26:23,039 --> 00:26:24,799 one is 681 00:26:24,799 --> 00:26:26,559 probably that 682 00:26:26,559 --> 00:26:29,440 this whole ukrainian invasion was 683 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,799 envisioned as being a short-term over by 684 00:26:32,799 --> 00:26:34,960 christmas kind of thing 685 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,000 it was indeed i think envisioned as an 686 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:39,600 easy security 687 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,240 operation and that the conquest of 688 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,000 ukraine would be brief 689 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:44,880 and 690 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:46,799 that logically means that they would not 691 00:26:46,799 --> 00:26:49,120 necessarily have been thinking 692 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:50,720 about 693 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,200 long-term financial retooling of the 694 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,080 tools that they were using 695 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,039 there's obviously issues of expertise i 696 00:26:59,039 --> 00:27:01,919 would be surprised if 697 00:27:01,919 --> 00:27:04,320 a substantial portion of russian 698 00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:06,960 leadership were familiar 699 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:11,039 with the use of privacy coins 700 00:27:11,039 --> 00:27:14,159 but there are also issues of scale 701 00:27:14,159 --> 00:27:17,200 wars are massively expensive and the 702 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,679 daily transaction volume on monero which 703 00:27:19,679 --> 00:27:21,760 is the largest of the privacy coins by 704 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:23,520 some way 705 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,000 is a tiny fraction of the expenses of a 706 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:27,120 war 707 00:27:27,120 --> 00:27:28,159 so 708 00:27:28,159 --> 00:27:31,039 we would be able to see 709 00:27:31,039 --> 00:27:34,000 a russian caused expansion in the use of 710 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,720 privacy coins that just is not there 711 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,120 and that issue of 712 00:27:39,120 --> 00:27:40,240 volume 713 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:43,520 suggests that the anxiety 714 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,440 in the executive order 715 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,399 that nation states would use privacy 716 00:27:48,399 --> 00:27:50,399 coins and cryptocurrency to blunt the 717 00:27:50,399 --> 00:27:52,080 impact of sanctions 718 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,720 that really is not happening yet 719 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,360 and is not going to happen until 720 00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:00,399 adoption of privacy coins is a lot 721 00:28:00,399 --> 00:28:03,919 broader than it is today 722 00:28:03,919 --> 00:28:05,200 um 723 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:07,440 so 724 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:10,080 there you go there is good and bad 725 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:11,120 so 726 00:28:11,120 --> 00:28:14,320 now come see the part of the talk where 727 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:16,000 i get to be a little bit of a 728 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:17,360 nostradamus 729 00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:20,399 and to give a plausible scenario for 730 00:28:20,399 --> 00:28:21,760 near-term 731 00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,559 the near-term future for payment system 732 00:28:24,559 --> 00:28:26,720 surveillance and there are some things 733 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,679 that are reasonably foreseeable 734 00:28:29,679 --> 00:28:31,440 some of which are already in part 735 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:32,960 happening 736 00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:33,760 so 737 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:36,559 in the context of privacy coins 738 00:28:36,559 --> 00:28:38,080 um 739 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:40,559 d some degree of d platforming from 740 00:28:40,559 --> 00:28:43,440 exchanging exchanges has already 741 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:44,720 happened 742 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,440 and in some countries there will be 743 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:49,039 attempts to 744 00:28:49,039 --> 00:28:52,159 criminalize the use of privacy coin 745 00:28:52,159 --> 00:28:54,080 related software 746 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:55,440 um 747 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,520 we can expect to see more countries 748 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,520 experimenting like india has done and 749 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,760 like china has done and like sweden has 750 00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:04,559 done 751 00:29:04,559 --> 00:29:08,320 with discouraging the use of cash 752 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,919 cash is too flexible and too anonymous 753 00:29:11,919 --> 00:29:13,840 for the default assumptions of 754 00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,159 governments these days 755 00:29:16,159 --> 00:29:17,919 an enormous 756 00:29:17,919 --> 00:29:20,240 amount of the world's 757 00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:21,679 payments transactions are still 758 00:29:21,679 --> 00:29:24,000 conducted in cash even in the us it's 759 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,039 still around 50 percent 760 00:29:27,039 --> 00:29:29,760 and we can expect to see that continue 761 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:31,360 to decrease 762 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:33,200 in an environment of government 763 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,000 discouragement of cash 764 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:38,080 one thing that 765 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:39,760 gives 766 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,559 privacy and surveillance activists hives 767 00:29:42,559 --> 00:29:43,760 is the 768 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,960 prospect of increased mergers between 769 00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:50,320 credit rating agencies and data brokers 770 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:53,760 and open source intelligence 771 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:56,720 a vastly increased volume of data going 772 00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:57,600 into 773 00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:59,679 credit rating decisions whether that 774 00:29:59,679 --> 00:30:02,960 data is of high quality or low quality 775 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:04,480 and 776 00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:06,720 forming what you might call credit 777 00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,600 broker entities 778 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:10,559 that 779 00:30:10,559 --> 00:30:13,200 pose a significant threat to people's 780 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,880 privacy in the payments context 781 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,200 on another axis 782 00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:20,480 we can 783 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,159 see that facebook already spent 784 00:30:24,159 --> 00:30:26,799 a couple of years trying to create its 785 00:30:26,799 --> 00:30:29,760 own cryptocurrency lumen 786 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:31,039 um 787 00:30:31,039 --> 00:30:34,320 and was clearly prompted in that by the 788 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:37,279 success of the wechat we pay 789 00:30:37,279 --> 00:30:40,559 at um access in china 790 00:30:40,559 --> 00:30:41,760 and we can 791 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,640 we can expect to see continued efforts 792 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:46,799 along those lines and 793 00:30:46,799 --> 00:30:49,520 in and in the west it may be that that 794 00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:50,880 eventually those efforts will be 795 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,120 successful 796 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:56,640 so if those consolidations occur 797 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:58,880 then we can reasonably foresee 798 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,039 that governments will have an enormously 799 00:31:01,039 --> 00:31:03,360 strong incentive to coordinate with 800 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,080 credit brokers and wechat analogues 801 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,320 to do all the things that they already 802 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,600 do with other types of surveillance data 803 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,000 heat mapping of where the risky entities 804 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,080 are flagging those entities harassing 805 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,000 those entities prosecuting those 806 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,799 entities and some of those prosecutions 807 00:31:20,799 --> 00:31:23,519 will be completely legitimate 808 00:31:23,519 --> 00:31:25,679 some of the concerns relating to payment 809 00:31:25,679 --> 00:31:28,159 surveillance are completely legitimate 810 00:31:28,159 --> 00:31:30,960 but there's also going to be 811 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:34,320 a lot of fallout for individuals 812 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:35,519 privacy 813 00:31:35,519 --> 00:31:38,080 um that comes along with that 814 00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:39,440 um 815 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:40,320 and 816 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,840 it is hard to see what institutional or 817 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:45,440 legal barriers 818 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,240 there may be within the u.s context 819 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:50,080 that would prevent the u.s government 820 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,519 from going down that particular path 821 00:31:53,519 --> 00:31:54,799 so 822 00:31:54,799 --> 00:31:57,440 then we can then i can switch because it 823 00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,840 is my talk and i get to do this kind of 824 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:01,679 thing from being nostradamus to being 825 00:32:01,679 --> 00:32:02,960 moses 826 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,120 and making not the commandments but some 827 00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,200 suggestions of things that we can do 828 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:08,159 that 829 00:32:08,159 --> 00:32:08,960 may 830 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,679 help a little bit i'm not sure really 831 00:32:11,679 --> 00:32:13,919 what will help very much these are 832 00:32:13,919 --> 00:32:17,519 powerful forces that are involved here 833 00:32:17,519 --> 00:32:18,960 but 834 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,399 one element of this can be that 835 00:32:22,399 --> 00:32:24,799 the the smaller banks and the credit 836 00:32:24,799 --> 00:32:28,640 unions in the us are not geared up with 837 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:30,399 the swift system 838 00:32:30,399 --> 00:32:31,760 and so 839 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:33,600 for folks who are privacy conscious 840 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:35,600 there can be small banks and credit 841 00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:37,360 unions that may be preferable to large 842 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,679 ones we use one called digital federal 843 00:32:39,679 --> 00:32:41,120 credit union 844 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:42,559 um 845 00:32:42,559 --> 00:32:46,559 the privacy coin adoption and volume 846 00:32:46,559 --> 00:32:47,919 problem 847 00:32:47,919 --> 00:32:50,240 solving that would solve 848 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,559 a large number of other problems it 849 00:32:52,559 --> 00:32:54,320 would solve problems of volatility it 850 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:58,000 would solve problems of how you get ca 851 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,720 resources out of the privacy coin 852 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,039 context and into context where normal 853 00:33:03,039 --> 00:33:05,600 people transact 854 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,399 in ways that may be less transparent 855 00:33:08,399 --> 00:33:09,360 to 856 00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,399 the to governments than the regular 857 00:33:12,399 --> 00:33:14,799 banking system is 858 00:33:14,799 --> 00:33:16,399 there's been a great deal of research 859 00:33:16,399 --> 00:33:19,279 that there isn't really time to get into 860 00:33:19,279 --> 00:33:21,600 in the cryptocurrency space 861 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:22,559 over 862 00:33:22,559 --> 00:33:23,840 um 863 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:27,519 identity solutions and and what is 864 00:33:27,519 --> 00:33:30,240 sometimes called sovereign identity but 865 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:31,679 um 866 00:33:31,679 --> 00:33:35,039 having instead of a unified 867 00:33:35,039 --> 00:33:38,799 digital identity um 868 00:33:38,799 --> 00:33:41,440 separate identity claims in separate 869 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,240 contexts that by balkanizing your 870 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,440 digital identity enhance your privacy 871 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,519 vis-a-vis the government 872 00:33:49,519 --> 00:33:51,840 there have been long-running experiments 873 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,080 with autonomous currencies there's one 874 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,320 near me in massachusetts which is burke 875 00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:58,320 shares which has been 876 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,399 um popular for a long time in a 877 00:34:00,399 --> 00:34:03,039 particular county in massachusetts and 878 00:34:03,039 --> 00:34:05,519 that's a local physical currency 879 00:34:05,519 --> 00:34:06,799 um 880 00:34:06,799 --> 00:34:08,560 for for 881 00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:09,520 um 882 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:11,679 anarchist groups 883 00:34:11,679 --> 00:34:13,359 um there have been 884 00:34:13,359 --> 00:34:15,199 interesting experiments on a smaller 885 00:34:15,199 --> 00:34:17,599 scale with you know black market work 886 00:34:17,599 --> 00:34:20,320 and barter economies and free cycling 887 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:23,520 and mutual aid that exists existed and 888 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:25,520 have always existed 889 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,560 outside of the regular banking system 890 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:30,800 and one thing that might be useful and 891 00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,280 interesting for you for you folks as a 892 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:34,879 takeaway from this 893 00:34:34,879 --> 00:34:37,520 is to practice setting up an unhosted 894 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:39,760 privacy coin wallet while it's legal to 895 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:40,879 do so 896 00:34:40,879 --> 00:34:44,320 and to try transacting with it and see 897 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:45,280 see 898 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,000 where it takes you and what kind of 899 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:50,719 implications that generates in your mind 900 00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:51,520 for 901 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,520 this kind of problem and how it may be 902 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:54,719 solved 903 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:55,679 so 904 00:34:55,679 --> 00:34:58,320 those are the preliminary thoughts that 905 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,280 i have for you on the topic of payment 906 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:02,640 surveillance i think it's a really 907 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:03,920 fascinating 908 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,119 area and that it's going to 909 00:35:07,119 --> 00:35:10,320 become something that as activists we 910 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,800 have to think about more and devote more 911 00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:14,320 time and thought to 912 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:16,400 but i'm going to open it up at this 913 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,200 point for q a and thank you for being 914 00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:22,160 patient and for listening 915 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:27,839 [Applause] 916 00:35:27,839 --> 00:35:31,200 so if you want to come to the mic over 917 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:32,960 in that direction 918 00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:34,640 then i'd welcome any thoughts that you 919 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:36,879 have 920 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,200 this is this is you're first you're up 921 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:42,320 thank you for an awesome super 922 00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:44,240 informative talk um i had a question 923 00:35:44,240 --> 00:35:47,599 about the slide you put up about uh 924 00:35:47,599 --> 00:35:50,960 the contracts with uh 925 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:52,560 with with ice and with the government 926 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,640 right so coinbase and coinalysis and a 927 00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:56,560 few other folks 928 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:58,400 yes is that dollars or is that thousands 929 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:00,000 of dollars because those numbers look 930 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,480 smaller than i would have expected 931 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:06,320 um and my understanding is that those 932 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:08,880 are thousands of dollars so i sure i 933 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:10,480 should have made that clear okay so 934 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:11,680 these are billions 935 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:12,800 okay yeah yeah that makes sense i'm 936 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:14,800 sorry 937 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:16,960 i can feel my math teacher cringing at 938 00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:20,079 me for not labeling axes properly but 939 00:36:20,079 --> 00:36:24,200 there you go thank you very much 940 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:30,160 yes please how you doing i met you 941 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:32,400 yesterday at your booth um so what 942 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,400 you're saying is uh if the governments 943 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:36,400 start uh banning the privacy coins of 944 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,480 course they're gonna force the exchanges 945 00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,359 to remove the coins from their 946 00:36:41,359 --> 00:36:43,359 from their systems right the so what 947 00:36:43,359 --> 00:36:44,400 what happens what do you think is going 948 00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:45,680 to happen is it's just going to go to 949 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:47,680 like decentralize exchanges at that 950 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:49,040 point or 951 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:50,880 i mean they could continue going on it's 952 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:52,560 just going to get harder for probably 953 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:54,560 regular people to understand how to 954 00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:57,280 trade yeah i mean it's it's not a 955 00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:58,960 process i think where governments are 956 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,000 expecting that there is going to be 957 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:05,680 zero percent usage of privacy coins in 958 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:07,520 the future but i think it's something 959 00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:09,359 that they want to discourage and 960 00:37:09,359 --> 00:37:12,720 denormalize and drive out of 961 00:37:12,720 --> 00:37:15,520 anything that is at all analogous to 962 00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:17,119 something that is usable 963 00:37:17,119 --> 00:37:17,920 um 964 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:20,480 and so 965 00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:22,720 it's an awkward discussion and i've been 966 00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:25,200 in some of these discussions and 967 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:27,440 you have folks who 968 00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:29,280 understand the potential of privacy 969 00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:30,880 coins who are saying you know look you 970 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:32,480 don't understand it's not about trying 971 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:34,960 to regulate this particular kind of coin 972 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:36,720 or this particular kind of software 973 00:37:36,720 --> 00:37:38,400 because it is designed to make you 974 00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:40,000 irrelevant 975 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:41,040 um 976 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:41,839 and 977 00:37:41,839 --> 00:37:44,240 on and on the other side you have a lot 978 00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:46,960 of interest from governments in the 979 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:49,200 potential that cryptocurrency poses as 980 00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:51,119 long as it can be adequately taxed and 981 00:37:51,119 --> 00:37:52,400 monitored 982 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:53,599 um 983 00:37:53,599 --> 00:37:54,720 the 984 00:37:54,720 --> 00:37:57,040 um 985 00:37:57,440 --> 00:37:58,720 and 986 00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:01,520 i think both elements of of of these 987 00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:03,520 folks are right in the in a way but you 988 00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:05,599 can have very innovative software that 989 00:38:05,599 --> 00:38:07,599 is very privacy friendly that still 990 00:38:07,599 --> 00:38:09,680 nobody with will use 991 00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:11,040 if 992 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:13,680 governments decide to just make it 993 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:15,599 illegal within their 994 00:38:15,599 --> 00:38:17,280 spaces of government then that will 995 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,400 discourage people if it is perceived as 996 00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,040 being something that is 997 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,280 that only criminals will use then it 998 00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:27,680 will discourage people from using it 999 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,520 um and so 1000 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:30,560 there 1001 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:32,240 there are a lot of things that 1002 00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:34,000 governments i think will be willing to 1003 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,560 do to maintain their grip 1004 00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:38,960 over how people transact and to make 1005 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,440 that continually more transparent to 1006 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,079 them this is a very important thing to 1007 00:38:44,079 --> 00:38:47,839 governments to do thank you 1008 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,119 i think most of us here believe in the 1009 00:38:51,119 --> 00:38:53,280 individual's right to privacy but the 1010 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,520 sad truth of a lot of 1011 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:58,240 anonymous currencies you know i don't 1012 00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:00,599 want to name any is that they are used 1013 00:39:00,599 --> 00:39:03,119 disproportionately by bad actors 1014 00:39:03,119 --> 00:39:05,200 so i wonder you know in your various 1015 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,359 positions how how do you counter this 1016 00:39:07,359 --> 00:39:09,040 argument 1017 00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:10,720 well 1018 00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:12,640 so 1019 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:14,880 i think that 1020 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:16,960 speaking a little bit to the dynamic i 1021 00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,200 was just describing 1022 00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,359 um 1023 00:39:21,359 --> 00:39:22,240 the 1024 00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:23,599 more that 1025 00:39:23,599 --> 00:39:24,480 um 1026 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:28,320 that governments try to repress and 1027 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,040 discipline a particular technology the 1028 00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:32,160 more it 1029 00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:35,359 will be likely to be used 1030 00:39:35,359 --> 00:39:37,760 only by people who have let's say a 1031 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,240 really strong financial incentive 1032 00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:42,000 to keep their 1033 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,400 affairs out of government eyes 1034 00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:45,599 um 1035 00:39:45,599 --> 00:39:47,920 i've given some 1036 00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:52,320 very favorable examples of people who 1037 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:56,240 might have good reason to use privacy 1038 00:39:56,240 --> 00:39:57,440 coins 1039 00:39:57,440 --> 00:39:58,560 um 1040 00:39:58,560 --> 00:39:59,680 but 1041 00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:02,240 it is nonetheless true 1042 00:40:02,240 --> 00:40:03,200 that 1043 00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:04,000 there 1044 00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:04,960 are 1045 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:06,480 um 1046 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,720 child sexual abuse materials that are 1047 00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:11,599 circulated using these payments 1048 00:40:11,599 --> 00:40:14,000 there is money laundering that happens 1049 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:16,640 there is tax evasion that happens using 1050 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:18,000 these tools 1051 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,400 but at present 1052 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,480 i would have to say 1053 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,440 that at least as regards tax evasion and 1054 00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:27,760 money laundering an enormous volume of 1055 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:29,839 that occurs through the regular banking 1056 00:40:29,839 --> 00:40:31,200 system 1057 00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:34,160 and it occurs because you have corrupt 1058 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,359 individuals who are working within banks 1059 00:40:37,359 --> 00:40:39,920 who enable it to happen on behalf of 1060 00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:41,760 wealthy clients 1061 00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:43,280 and 1062 00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:45,280 so 1063 00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,319 i i understand 1064 00:40:48,319 --> 00:40:49,599 the need 1065 00:40:49,599 --> 00:40:52,560 for there to be some notion of knowing 1066 00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:54,000 your customer 1067 00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:57,119 i understand the impulse behind it 1068 00:40:57,119 --> 00:40:59,200 but i also see 1069 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,319 a much more ardent desire by governments 1070 00:41:02,319 --> 00:41:05,680 to squash these particular technologies 1071 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,000 than to clean house in the established 1072 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:10,640 banking system they're easy targets now 1073 00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:11,440 yes 1074 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:13,839 you know it's nascent and i think they 1075 00:41:13,839 --> 00:41:15,440 feel like they've done all they can in 1076 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:18,319 the fiat side of things 1077 00:41:18,319 --> 00:41:21,440 i'm sure they do feel that or at least 1078 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,520 they feel they have done all that that 1079 00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:27,280 they are willing to do thank you 1080 00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:30,319 thanks for the talk um i'll keep myself 1081 00:41:30,319 --> 00:41:32,240 to one question um the 1082 00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:33,040 so 1083 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,160 we do have nowadays a lot of um people a 1084 00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,640 lot of consumers who have moved away 1085 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,040 from cash um and 1086 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:42,960 the um even though 1087 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:45,280 cash has a lot of benefits for personal 1088 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:46,400 freedom they 1089 00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:47,280 they 1090 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:50,880 adopt the corporate run system payment 1091 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:52,880 systems that are um 1092 00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:56,160 and sometimes credit cards sometimes um 1093 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:58,160 yeah right so a lot of people use them 1094 00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:01,280 um and um data brokers and so on have a 1095 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:03,359 lot of visibility to what happens in 1096 00:42:03,359 --> 00:42:04,640 them 1097 00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:07,359 so i'd um 1098 00:42:07,359 --> 00:42:10,319 you'd expect that to result in costs to 1099 00:42:10,319 --> 00:42:12,160 consumers although consumers are usually 1100 00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:14,400 not aware of the costs 1101 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:16,319 it seems to me that we are seeing those 1102 00:42:16,319 --> 00:42:19,280 costs um but it's being attributed to 1103 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:23,040 anything but um the recent adoption of 1104 00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:25,119 these corporate surveillance payment 1105 00:42:25,119 --> 00:42:27,520 systems um so 1106 00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:28,960 i mean everybody's suffering with 1107 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:31,280 inflation nobody connects that to the 1108 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:33,599 rise of corporate run 1109 00:42:33,599 --> 00:42:35,680 corporate surveillance payment systems 1110 00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:39,680 um i wonder if you see any link there 1111 00:42:39,839 --> 00:42:41,839 so 1112 00:42:41,839 --> 00:42:45,839 i do not feel qualified to speak on the 1113 00:42:45,839 --> 00:42:49,680 link between inflation and these 1114 00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:54,640 phenomena i am not a trained economist 1115 00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:55,680 but 1116 00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:56,560 i 1117 00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:59,119 was i would say 1118 00:42:59,119 --> 00:43:01,280 that 1119 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:05,680 it is true that it is hard to see the 1120 00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:08,240 damage from um 1121 00:43:08,240 --> 00:43:10,880 from poor privacy practices and poor 1122 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,359 information security practices 1123 00:43:13,359 --> 00:43:15,839 and that it can be shocking for people 1124 00:43:15,839 --> 00:43:18,400 to come from other countries to the us 1125 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:20,319 and see just the regular process of 1126 00:43:20,319 --> 00:43:23,280 credit card transactions and go like 1127 00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:26,079 this is crazy you're not entering a pin 1128 00:43:26,079 --> 00:43:27,599 you're not there 1129 00:43:27,599 --> 00:43:30,800 nobody's checking your signature 1130 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:32,640 nobody is checking that the person who 1131 00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:34,960 has the card is actually that person 1132 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:39,280 this is an apparatus that is designed 1133 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:41,680 absolutely for the convenience of the 1134 00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:45,280 merchants and very little 1135 00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:47,520 to do with protecting the consumer 1136 00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,079 against credit card fraud 1137 00:43:50,079 --> 00:43:52,240 so people have 1138 00:43:52,240 --> 00:43:54,400 great reasons to be skeptical of the 1139 00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:58,000 current ways that we handle things 1140 00:44:03,839 --> 00:44:05,119 um 1141 00:44:05,119 --> 00:44:07,680 you lied out very nicely that 1142 00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:09,599 cryptocurrencies don't play a role in 1143 00:44:09,599 --> 00:44:12,319 sanctioned bustings for let's say russia 1144 00:44:12,319 --> 00:44:15,280 or for china or for iran as a state 1145 00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,040 actor 1146 00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,200 why is it then and the cryptocurrencies 1147 00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:20,880 have used as you showed with great 1148 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,000 success for people subverting 1149 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:25,520 other states 1150 00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:27,760 why is it then that the u.s has such a 1151 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:29,280 hard on let's say 1152 00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:31,440 to actually regulate cryptocurrencies 1153 00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:33,520 when they're actually being used very 1154 00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:34,640 successful 1155 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:35,680 for 1156 00:44:35,680 --> 00:44:37,200 let's say 1157 00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:39,920 liberal uses instead of suppressive 1158 00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:42,240 users 1159 00:44:44,319 --> 00:44:48,720 i think i think that there is a 1160 00:44:48,720 --> 00:44:52,800 a real tension of world views 1161 00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:57,119 that i can encounter in these spaces 1162 00:44:57,119 --> 00:44:58,560 and 1163 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:00,800 when you're talking to like staffers on 1164 00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:02,960 the finance committee in congress or or 1165 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,440 or folks like this 1166 00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:06,319 then 1167 00:45:06,319 --> 00:45:07,760 it is about 1168 00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:09,680 there be there being data that is out 1169 00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:12,160 there that they are can gather that they 1170 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:14,560 are not gathering it is about there 1171 00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:15,839 being problems that they could 1172 00:45:15,839 --> 00:45:18,400 potentially solve if they if they allow 1173 00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:20,319 the government to gather this 1174 00:45:20,319 --> 00:45:22,800 information that they are feeling like 1175 00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:25,200 they cannot solve adequately without 1176 00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,560 that um and so is a worry about their 1177 00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:30,400 scope of authority 1178 00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:31,520 um 1179 00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:35,440 that i think is is so such a powerful 1180 00:45:35,440 --> 00:45:38,160 and fundamental thing for folks who have 1181 00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:39,760 this kind of training that they might 1182 00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:41,839 not even articulate and i don't even if 1183 00:45:41,839 --> 00:45:44,079 i would have come to articulate it if i 1184 00:45:44,079 --> 00:45:46,079 hadn't wended my way over into the 1185 00:45:46,079 --> 00:45:49,599 privacy and surveillance space 1186 00:45:50,079 --> 00:45:51,520 so 1187 00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:52,319 um 1188 00:45:52,319 --> 00:45:55,680 i don't think that there is much that 1189 00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:58,160 will stop 1190 00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,960 governmental employees from feeling that 1191 00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:03,520 there is a problem here in the 1192 00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:06,960 development of the cryptocurrency space 1193 00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:08,560 it's often the case 1194 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:10,640 honestly the government departments are 1195 00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:13,599 victims of ransomware attacks that are 1196 00:46:13,599 --> 00:46:15,040 executed 1197 00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:17,520 with the aid of cryptocurrency 1198 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:19,680 technology 1199 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:21,839 and that often is because government 1200 00:46:21,839 --> 00:46:24,160 departments are poorly protected and 1201 00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:26,880 have visible information security 1202 00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,200 practices um 1203 00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:30,160 and 1204 00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:32,800 and so they they are ripe 1205 00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:34,240 for the plucking 1206 00:46:34,240 --> 00:46:36,720 um but that doesn't mean they like the 1207 00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:40,000 sensation of being plucked 1208 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,800 i think to your question is i'm sorry to 1209 00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,280 interrupt but in the u.s i think the 1210 00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:46,720 government have a lot of pressure from 1211 00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:48,079 the banks 1212 00:46:48,079 --> 00:46:48,880 which 1213 00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:50,880 is controlled by federal reserve to 1214 00:46:50,880 --> 00:46:52,880 crack down on this stuff because 1215 00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:54,560 in the long run cryptocurrencies are a 1216 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:56,880 threat to the us dollar that's why i 1217 00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:57,680 think 1218 00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:00,079 personally i think there's pressure not 1219 00:47:00,079 --> 00:47:02,160 too much 1220 00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:04,079 yeah on your moses slide you mentioned 1221 00:47:04,079 --> 00:47:05,839 sovereign identity 1222 00:47:05,839 --> 00:47:08,400 are there any concrete examples of that 1223 00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:12,480 uh well there is um you can look up um 1224 00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,640 the one that i looked into most closely 1225 00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:16,560 are some folks called the sovereign 1226 00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:18,760 foundation 1227 00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:20,559 s-o-v-r-i-n 1228 00:47:20,559 --> 00:47:21,440 and 1229 00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:22,640 they they've been doing a lot of 1230 00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:25,520 thinking about the 1231 00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:27,839 how you deal with what are characterized 1232 00:47:27,839 --> 00:47:30,000 as the problem of blockchain and 1233 00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:32,480 identity persistence 1234 00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:34,640 because 1235 00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:37,119 in a sense 1236 00:47:37,119 --> 00:47:39,520 we we all benefit from a certain 1237 00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:43,200 plasticity in our identities 1238 00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,319 being able to shift our self-conceptions 1239 00:47:46,319 --> 00:47:47,599 over time 1240 00:47:47,599 --> 00:47:50,000 being able to shift 1241 00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:52,880 ways that we name ourselves and describe 1242 00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:54,880 ourselves to the world 1243 00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:55,680 and 1244 00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:58,079 not having a fully accurate digital 1245 00:47:58,079 --> 00:48:00,160 record of the decisions that we have 1246 00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,480 made 1247 00:48:02,720 --> 00:48:05,440 the one of the 1248 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:08,800 risks in the blockchain space is because 1249 00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:11,680 of the indelible nature of transactions 1250 00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:14,640 on the blockchain if there are solutions 1251 00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:16,079 adopted 1252 00:48:16,079 --> 00:48:18,079 unwisely 1253 00:48:18,079 --> 00:48:21,359 that are blockchain solutions that 1254 00:48:21,359 --> 00:48:22,640 um 1255 00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,160 that 1256 00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:27,200 fix a particular digital identity at a 1257 00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,079 particular point in time for a person 1258 00:48:30,079 --> 00:48:32,400 then that person will be accountable to 1259 00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:34,640 that identity for as long as that 1260 00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:35,760 blockchain 1261 00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:36,720 is 1262 00:48:36,720 --> 00:48:37,920 accessible 1263 00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:39,520 i've seen some absolutely cracked 1264 00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:41,040 suggestions 1265 00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:43,839 of applying blockchain solutions in the 1266 00:48:43,839 --> 00:48:46,000 criminal justice space 1267 00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:48,720 in the us and i'm like for christ's sake 1268 00:48:48,720 --> 00:48:50,880 don't touch the one with the other they 1269 00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:52,880 should stay very very far away from one 1270 00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:54,319 another 1271 00:48:54,319 --> 00:48:55,520 um 1272 00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:56,960 so 1273 00:48:56,960 --> 00:48:59,040 my hope is that 1274 00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:01,280 if there are 1275 00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:04,480 methods evolved for as i put it 1276 00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:06,880 balkanizing your digital identity and 1277 00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:09,280 having it break up into particular 1278 00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:11,920 claims in particular contexts 1279 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:13,760 then it will decrease 1280 00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:16,880 the risk to people's 1281 00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:19,520 self-characterization 1282 00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,520 of the existence of blockchain 1283 00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:23,680 technology 1284 00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:25,280 and i'm sorry if that got a little 1285 00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:27,920 abstruse and hypothetical but that's 1286 00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:31,400 been on my mind 1287 00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:33,680 okay 1288 00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:35,320 looks like we're done 1289 00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:41,760 [Applause] 1290 00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:00,400 hello hi guys so just to let you know uh 1291 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:02,880 closing ceremonies will happen on 416 1292 00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:04,720 but also there will be broadcasts here 1293 00:50:04,720 --> 00:50:06,480 as far as i know correct 1294 00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:07,280 no 1295 00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:10,280 okay 1296 00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:14,240 yeah 1297 00:50:14,240 --> 00:50:18,319 okay so yeah 206 i think 206 or 416 1298 00:50:18,319 --> 00:50:20,240 those are the places to go to watch the 1299 00:50:20,240 --> 00:50:22,000 closing ceremonies 1300 00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,160 thank you 1301 00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:52,960 you