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Comment by simgt | Hacker News Reader

> this is also worrying to know that the government now knows exactly what you bought, where, when, and for how much

As a citizen of a still kind-of-functioning democracy, I'd happily make the trade if that means Apple, Google, Visa or Mastercard don't have the information anymore.

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Then I would prefer to do transactions with crypto. I don't want neither a government nor corporation to peek on all my transactions.

.. so you put them on a globally visible blockchain?

As long as the blockchain provides anonimity, sure.

Tornado cash has been delisted from OFAC, and there is also something like monero / privacy coin.

I don't think you've thought that through - fascists and communists both have more control over the institutions of democracy than they do over those companies. The banking companies generally don't want to be involved in anything ideological except moneymaking.

Correct. Moreover, when you are trapped by the government, few things work better than raising international awareness. Even if the companies ultimately comply, that is typically done loud and clear, and eventually snowball until it's unsustainable.

So there's this thing called a gag order.

What "institutions of democracy" would that be, if the state is fascist or communist? And I think you severly underestimate the reach a totalitarian state has. Hint: it is total.

People don't change because a state is democratic. There are still authoritarians getting voted into power and present in the government; they just get voted out if the damage they are doing gets too visible.

People change a lot when the environment changes, this has been shown over and over again. You actually only have to look around. Yet it's the people who make the state not vice versa. Quite a conundrum.

Banking companies are more than happy to fold like a cardboard box if either government threatens their money-making.

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