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Comment by JoachimSchipper | Hacker News Reader

Anything that allows drugs dealers, terrorists and pedophiles to run wild is going to get regulated. Anything that doesn't isn't anonymous, untraceable, etc. That's the fundamental problem; even if you were to out-lawyer the people making the laws, that would only stop them until they could make a new law. (Optimistically.)

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What about real currency isn't anonymous? If (god forbid) someone took $100 in cash to a pedophile and bought pornography, how is this traceable in the existing system?

Drugs dealers do work mostly with cash, but it has significant downsides - actually meeting your dealer/customers is much more dangerous and much more likely to get you caught than Silk Road ever was. Also, note that people are using less and less cash. At least where I live, this is significantly because of the untraceability of cash: shops reduce the risk of robberies by taking payments in electronic forms as much as possible, so they offer discounts and convenience - and customers respond.

I think our world views may differ. For example I believe that corruption / illegal activities don't stop because you're using a traceable monetary system.

And we probably also will disagree that non-traceable monetary systems are difficult or impossible to monitor illegal activities from. Simply the fact that the transactions happen over the web likely makes it easier for law enforcement to get a hold on what types of transactions are happening within something like Silk Road.

Media makes us think Silk Road was not monitored or that it was somehow immune to law enforcement. I disagree whole heartedly.

FWIW, we disagree less than you think. ;-)

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