I find these discussions about anonymous vs transparent blockchains a bit superfluous.
Authorities aren't going to give 2 flying sods whether a particular blockchain is anonymous or not. They're not going to "love one and ban another". As soon as one is untraceable they all will be as far as regulations are concerned. There are going to be millions of "cryptos" out there in a few years of every conceivable singing and dancing technical description.
Anonymity is important in any financial system to protect commercial interests and competitiveness. Nothing to do with criminality. How would everybody feel if all their bank statements were available down at the public library ? Or if I was a clothing retailer and could check up on all my competitors cash sales movements ?
But threat to the mainstream financial system is nothing to do with transaction anonymity (although that does make it commercially attractive). It's the fact that cryptocurrencies are unlevered BASE MONEY.
Base money has been kept out of the hands of the public since the days of before the Federal Reserve, because the general public having access to base money of any type or value basically amounts a run on the banking system. Base money is a definition. It doesn't imply value - the market gives it value - it implies that it's the end of the line in a chain of trust managed by counter parties (in this case, central and commercial banks).
The anonymity thing is a total distraction as far as regulations go. If cryptocurrencies ever gain a substantial foothold in the mainstream economy they will melt the debt based banking sector like lava to a waxwork. It's just simple arithmetic because of the massive leverage that has built up over base money during the last 50 years. Why do you think the Chinese are so desperately trying to plug the holes in their system ? They've not been able to touch cryptos - they have had to do it by regulating fiat. But if people actually start using cryptos for goods and services then they're screwed because you can't stop them passing strings of letters and numbers around or block every single Port 8333 on every PC in the world.
Regulators are basically clueless about cryptocurrencies and will probably never have a chance to catch up with them before it's too late. You only have to watch those videos on the New York hearing to see that.
The idea that they "like" cryptos because the blockchain's transparent is ridiculous. All you have to do to launder money is to pass it through an exchange and maybe through another crypto and back.
Darkcoin is getting valuable because it has the ONE thing that cryptos are missing which the fiat system does have - commercial privacy. That's why it's out-growing everything and IMO will probably end up as the first alt ever to rival Bitcoin's valuation. I know thare's other stuff out there that can do the technology - it doesn't matter. What matters is which one the market picks and that's where DRK now has a home straight in sight.
I just wanted to remind everyone of this excellent post that's gotten buried in a 1600+ page thread. When you're having any doubts about why you are here, come back and re-read ^ this^.
To me it's a reminder that we are all involved in a movement whose importance cannot be understated.
