[Cryptography] In the latest unexpected ransomware twist ...

[Jerry Leichter]

> > I distinguish government regulation of end-to-end encryption
> > from regulation of 'crypto-currencies' by pointing out that
> > the first is words and the second is a deed.
> 
> That is like the distinction between speech and "hate speech".
> If the state allows end to end encryption, we can and will
> run crypto currency over it....
In the early crypto wars, if you looked closely at what the governments were doing, it was clear at some point that they realized that the technology had escaped, so what they aimed for instead was to control the points where information crossed from the (assumed encrypted and inaccessible) wild world to the "real," controlled world.  Hence the Clipper chip, among other examples:  If they could establish standards that gave them an "in" for enough of the "real world," it wouldn't matter that they couldn't read the stuff out in the ether.  Rant all you like, plan all the nasty stuff you like in the dark, but the moment you book a room or rent a car or buy anything ... we've got you.  As, indeed, happened to the January 6th idiots, even the few who actually managed to keep their communications secure.

That approach didn't actually work out quite as well as planned.  But the same approach is being applied to cryptocurrency - and will have much more of a chance of success.  The "all cryptocurrency" economy is minuscule - and all the governments in the world are working hard to keep it that way, not that it would likely grow much anyway.  So, OK, play your games transferring coins around - but if you want to actually *spend* it, you're going to have to go through choke points to convert it into money that can buy most of the stuff you want.

This is *exactly* what anti-money-laundering efforts have been doing for decades.  Remove the politics and cash was once as anonymous and untraceable as any crypto coin.  Though there are holes - there are *always* going to holes - in general cash today has the curious property that it's actual value drops as you hold more and more of it.  You can easily spend $10 in cash on anything you like; but spending $1,000,000 dollars in cash ... not so easy.

Expect to see cryptocurrencies controlled in the same way.

                                                        -- Jerry