Q&A/Written Interview — The Answers — Part 4
I shall continue answering in order.
The original questions are posted here.
And, you may see responses in part 1.
And post for part 2.
And the last one, part 3.
Business
40. I read a few tweets, how you mentioned that the SEC and other regulatory bodies will slowly come out and start to clamp down on ICOs and use their legal powers and various altcoins will also die. Could you provide and add to that by a quick and brief summary on the following:
- What will happen to future ICOs
- Numerous altcoins
- The overall Crypto market, in the short term e.g 1–2 years and the long term 5–10 years.
- Decentralised exchanges
ICOs are a waste of electrons. They are not crowdfunding, they are not digital IPOs. Basically, they are a means to add old frauds in new bottles.
Blockchain is a winner-takes-all system, and there is only one solution that works — that is Bitcoin as it was originally designed. Alts are waste. They are a gamble to make money in a zero-sum game taking from others before they take from you. They are negative value.
I do not do short term.
Long term, the market is simple. It is Bitcoin, and that is cash (BCH).
As for decentralised exchanges — these are just a way to have an exchange gain resilience. There are no market makers, no large order books and low liquidity. Basically, this idea, making it decentralised for the sake of it being decentralised, it is a joke.
This is a means to take a highly efficient system (and finance needs efficiency) and make it fail badly. Bitcoin is not and never was about making decentralised apps, though it can help with a few issues in distributed oracles (though this is a separate thing, and it is the problem of making these function that Bitcoin helps with), rather, it is cash.
When people stop thinking that decentralised is the end in itself, then they may start to make progress.
41. Do you see Bitcoin playing a role in the future of IoT devices, with micropayments?
Yes, I have multiple patents filed on this.
I have over 100 papers on this field, and more are coming.
42. What are you views on future AI, as more and more news is comming out, recently OpenAI was used to create and perfect Human dexterity hand movements, which traditionally was extremely challenging and in time I think there will be more and more robots, with human like physical attributes in the long term future. Are there any other new technological breakthroughs, you see in next 25–50 years
Yes, but this is not my prime focus, and I am not the best to talk about this past payments and systems that use payments to “evolve” economically.
43. Would you care to explain what the fine line between privacy and anonymity is? Would you say there’s ever a legitimate need for anonymity, such as in exposing government (particularly tyrannical) abuse where leakers’ and their loved ones’ lives may be at stake?
No, there is no reason for anonymity to ever exist. There is no place where anonymity is not corrupted.
Privacy and anonymity are chalk and cheese.
Banking privacy has become nearly non-existent. This is why we need cash, but, some think this needs to become anonymity. They are sadly mistaken.
On top of this, confidentiality is different again, take data collected for a census, this is far from private, but it is supposed to remain confidential.
Unfortunately, the words “privacy”, “confidentiality”, and “anonymity” are used loosely and interchangeably. These however represent very distinct and different things. The different meaning of these words in law and in contract are important for a start.
Each of these terms represents significantly different outcomes. These differences matter when it comes to data ownership, rights, responsibilities, and protections.
In HIPAA, privacy is defined as “the right of an individual to keep his/her individual health information from being disclosed,” see University of Miami. This applies in many aspects of life, and it is a right to not have information disclosed.
Confidentiality is implied with privacy.
Data is anonymous when the individual described is not known and cannot be identified.
That is something that matters for money. Bitcoin is a contracting system. This means the exchange is contractual. The signed transaction can be used as evidence in law. This is not the case with an anonymous system. As much as some call for the abolishment of the state, that is not an outcome that will occur, and if it was to be, then it would be a world without Bitcoin in any event.
In order to contract, you need to be able to maintain confidentiality, but also demonstrate the agreement, and this cannot be done in any anonymous system.
44. Are there plans to further improve privacy?
Bitcoin is private. The issue is the implementation. BIP32 is a joke and terribly thought out. The issue is a combination of user and wallet.
When people start to understand privacy is not close to anonymity, then we make headway.
45. Is anonymity a myth or can it be possible to have true anonymity?
Anonymity is not something that a currency can ever have nor is it desirable. Fools with an objective to think of some glorious romanticised ideal and are utterly clueless will tell you otherwise.
They are wrong.
Do you think there is a future for pure anonymity coins such as Monero and will they continue to exist and operate and can you have true anonymity?
Monero is a bad joke waiting for a punchline. It is not even close to being anonymous. If it was, it would have been stopped weeks before it started.
Can you share your views on anonymity, add/comment on my views and add/comment on other users
Read the Republic and in particular, the Ring of Gyges.
- I think privacy is 100% needed and better and more privacy will need to be developed, but I do not think anonymity can be done and I personally don’t think it is feasible and it may be due to my limited knowledge in IT and media propaganda.
100%, no, some things yes. Some less. See Q43.
There is a vast distinction between the anonymous, the confidential and the private.
- Given the amount amount of current data, location, tracking, access logs, websites visited, biometrics, mac address recorded etc across all devices is already happening. This will continue and increase going forward for the foreseeable future. If a government agency wishes to suspect and investigate X person for tax evasion, they can and will.
If you are investigated for tax evasion, then, it is whether due process has been followed. This in itself is not a requirement, it is valid. Tax is a fact of life, if you do not like it, move to a place where it (tax) does not exist.
- If 2 parties want to transact and want to ensure, there is absolutely no public record or track, in order to avoid taxes, how do they do this?
They don’t and they should not. Bitcoin is not designed to help tax avoidance. Nothing based on a blockchain can be. No form of money that works in trade and commerce can be created that avoids tax.
Bitcoin is not anti-state. No blockchain (nor derivative technology) is designed for this. Bitcoin is designed to maintain records.
No public record — that is different, the parties do not need to share public information.
- If someone was to send a transaction from X to Y person on Monero, while it cannot appear live publicly blockchain, surely if there was a person B was standing behind X when s/he was sending the transaction, it would not be anonymous…- doesn’t the NSA/or a government have the ability to deploy remote administration tools, which is essentially doing the same action of person B, but remotely?
Monero is slightly less private than a fully naked flasher with a gun on Times Square at 8.30am on a Monday morning following the announcement of a large IPO.
Lots of idiots think otherwise… and I am insulting idiots here.
- Furthermore to move from county to country requires full ID passports, now starting to have biometirect checks and one day this may be cross checked to location history, financial data etc and in the future it seems to be inevitable all cash will be digital and all payments would be linked biometrics and or there would be IoT direct transactions, in the long term distant future.
The world is not a Phillip Dik novella.
Whereas other users in summary commented on there should be a on and off option:
Anonymity is that, only the sender and receiver know that there was a transaction between them, and that there is no record from the transaction, and we don’t need to know each other’s identity.
That is privacy and confidentiality. This is achievable in Bitcoin today.
Crypto customers, most of the time, use crypto, because of the improved anonymity. And when other coins focus than more and more on the anonymity, BCH will be no option for people who like anonymity.
No, they do not. If no anarchist who thinks anonymity used BCH — it would mean close to zero.
But sometimes, I like that there is a record from the transaction, or that we know each other’s identity. In a perfect coin, I like to have the option to choose what I wish to do. You can either send a transaction on the public blockchain or have no record on the blockchain at all
There is no system with no record. Full stop.
It is a pipe dream and is not even about being technically infeasible, it is not even in the realms of what money is.
Something that BTC and the combination from Lightning Routing.
Lightning is a failure. It was before they started.
If I use my Lightning wallet:
- For a record on the block chain, I use the standard bitcoin transaction.
- For anonymity, I use LN routing.
Then you are a fool.
LN is not private.
- They can use BTC in combination with Lightning Routing. Here they can choose, standard bitcoin transaction, if they like a record on the blockchain, or complete anonymity when they use Lightning routing.
Again, is this a joke?
Lightning is as private as the front page of the New York Times on the day of the US election. Why do you even listen to these idiots who shill these lies?
What are the advantages of BCH compared to, in combination with BTC Lightning routing, or Monero, or Dash? — (assuming hypothetically these actually work)?
BCH is Bitcoin, and the rest have no idea what this means.
There is no hypothetical. I do not play if unicorns exist. They do not, and these are myths and fables told to the feeble-minded.
46. Finally what do you see and think will be next after global adoption?
My retirement.
I get to do the PhD I have always wanted to start — on the effects of Quantum Time on Singularities.
I have time to enjoy my money and maybe, by then to watch my grandchildren grow up — and our youngest is 14 now). There are many parts of my family’s life I have missed on the path I started way back, and one day, I would love to see the conclusion.
I do not think that this will be before 2035 and more likely 2045. So, one can hope and dream.
Technical
47. Can you provide some info on the new mining pool SVPool and how the plans to compete against the existing more established pools?
Capitalism.
You seem to assume that there is not a lot of dead weight that has grown fat through a lack of competition and this idiotic idea that we “all just get along”.
48. Can you explain and share more details on why the BMG node were the best in the scaling test?
BMG is nChain’s mining pool. It is a private pool and we run it professionally. We do not care about some anarchist bullshit about home nodes and solidartity. We compete.
This is what Bitcoin is about.
In time, as we have lifted the game, others will also start to improve. This is why competition is good, it makes us work harder.
49. Most people would like to know what will happen in November in regards to this uncertainty fork/split and who will keep BCH ticker symbol. Can you provide a update for the following:
- What do you want to happen in November?
- What do you think will happen in November?
- Why do you think and what are the reasons why other’s are opposing the changes?
- Do you have any fear about the delay or possible decline/destroy of merchant adoption because of the current drama and a possible chain split/ABC drama?
There is no split.
Bitmain may find themselves bankrupt and Jihan, well I expect charges.
There will be Bitcoin, and this is and always was cash.
Come November, we scale more, and more and more, and then when it has no cap, lock the protocol and make it business friendly.
50. To what extent is BCH a field within which different groups compete and to what extent must we focus on presenting a relatively unified front in our competition with other cryptos and payment methods?
- Where do you draws the line between healthy “competition” and “dirty tricks” like “proof of social media” or DoS attacks. Related, is it not possible for too much “competition” within the community working on a single coin if the result is loss of investor confidence?
Everything is competition.
There is no reason to care about PoSM — it is a failed joke and we will show how much waste it involves.
There is Bitcoin. There is NO united crypto.
IF all other cryptos do not fail leaving just one, Bitcoin (BCH), then everything fails. It is that simple. This is a protocol, a platform, there cannot be multiples. The other coins, from BTC (and the deceptive means of trying to say this is Bitcoin) to all the shit coins — these end.
There is no scenario where there is Bitcoin and something else. There is no possible means to have this. One wins. That simple. More, if BCH does not win, then they all lose. This is a BCH-(Bitcoin)-is-successful-or-nothing-wins battle.
51. Can you provide update and reassurance on:
- Why you are reintroducing the opcodes and why the implementation computes a different function than in the original Satoshi client?
We are returning Bitcoin to what it is and was always to be.
It doesn’t. Stop looking top the bull you are told and try seeing what the original was. It was simple, it allowed a great deal, and it was not an over-complicated crap show full of complexity.
Bitcoin is designed to be a global cash system. The nodes that run it are miners.
These are capitalist and commercial — they are supposed to be in data centres.
It is not socialist. It does not have all people verifying everything and nor should it and nor was it designed to.
52. Do you think there any any possible potential attack vectors on BCH? If so what do you think these may be? and how vulnerable does you think all the other Bitcoin forks are to a 51% attack?
It is all about economics and money.
It always was.
53. Is the reorg, orphan, 51 %attack threats a marketing stunt or something he honestly want to do, if the situation were to arise?
There is no split.
The lies and deception Jihan Wu used to commit a form of market manipulation and fraud are over. There will not be another split as he engineered to divide BTC and BCH. In time, there will be global cash.
54. In regards to the Nakamoto Consensus, and if SV failed to get majority hash (Which I don’t personally see happening) rate in November, would you then capitulate and join the longest POW chain, or split off, as you mentioned there will be no split. Also what if a Proof of Social Media attack were successful and the economic players in the system rejected Nakamoto Consensus, or they all wore NoCraig hats and successfully were able to do a proof of troll (as Ryan X Charles calls it) takeover of BCH. Would you consider Bitcoin broken if that scenario were able to succeed?
We fight. There is Bitcoin or there is nothing.
There is no PoSM. Time to learn this. Grow some balls.
55. You mentioned how mining will be more business focused with independent companies in the long term, how many miners do you see in the short term and long term in?
I do not do the short term. I have never had plans of less than 20 years that I can remember other than as components of long term plans.
Whatever the equilibrium leads to.
Distributed means 3 or more. That is it. The reality, with banks and others, likely 2,000 or so in a confederated group of 20 main players.
56. What you have considered a year ago to engage in a hash battle that would have seizes BTC from Blockstream and if so what prevented it?
I talked with Jihan about a plan to build hash power and a pool. He released ABC to stop that plan and undermine scaling BTC. He wanted a hard fork version of SegWit and a maleability fix — the Core guys did not do as he expected.
That is how we ended with a split. Not a fork, a split. The BTC/BCH split was engineered and I was not expecting this from Jihan at the time. I talked to Jihan about a pool I was developing to block SegWit in early 2017.
WHC is a 2-year-old project.
It turns out, this would have also stopped WHC and other things Bitmain wants to do. It is a shame that there is no scenario where this works. We have a few patents that block them.
57. Do you think there is a specific group hidden in the background who control BTC??
No, just a bunch of idiots with no idea what Bitcoin is.
To be continued…