<story><title>Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha</title><url>http://www.wired.com/2016/01/zcash-an-untraceable-bitcoin-alternative-launches-in-alpha/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ctoth</author><text>Of course, once these techniques were in place, they conclusively destroyed the ability of governments to control the flow of electronic funds, anywhere, anytime, for any purpose. As it happened, this process had pretty much destroyed any human control at all over the modern electronic economy. By the time people figured out that raging nonlinear anarchy was not exactly to the advantage of anyone concerned, the process was simply too far gone to stop. All workable standards of wealth had vaporized, digitized, and vanished into a nonstop hurricane of electronic thin air. Even physically tearing up the fiber optics couldn&amp;#x27;t stop it; governments that tried to just found that the whole encryption mess oozed swiftly into voice mail and even fax machines.&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;Alex did not find it surprising that people like the Chinese Triads and the Corsican Black Hand were electronically minting their own cash. He simply accepted it: electronic, private cash, unbacked by any government, untraceable, completely anonymous, global in reach, lightninglike in speed, ubiquitous, fungible, and usually highly volatile. Of course, such funds didn&amp;#x27;t boldly say &amp;quot;Sicilian Mafia&amp;quot; right on the transaction screen; they usually had some stuffy official-sounding alias such as &amp;quot;Banco Ambrosiano ATM Euro-DigiLira,&amp;quot; but the private currency speculators would usually have a pretty good guess as to the solvency of the issuers.&lt;p&gt;- Heavy Weather</text></comment>
<story><title>Zcash, an untraceable Bitcoin alternative, launches in alpha</title><url>http://www.wired.com/2016/01/zcash-an-untraceable-bitcoin-alternative-launches-in-alpha/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>kleer001</author><text>I love the idea, but...&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Zcash is launching as a for-profit company.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s their downfall right there. With someone visible to track they&amp;#x27;ve given up the game before they started. Real people running real companies are really vulnerable. The real test of a security system is its weakest link. And that link is almost always a person. Right?&lt;p&gt;IMHO the subtle political reason Bitcoin has gotten as far as it has is because it&amp;#x27;s creator has remained anonymous, and not tried to visibly profit from it.&lt;p&gt;Why do I think that? Because governments are very territorial about their money. Banks too. The regulations for banks are pretty tough, as you may know, Know-Your-Customer edicts and such.</text></comment>