Today's discussion between Ernie and Todd on Declare Your Independence revealed to me a serious flaw in thinking. (In my opinion, obviously.) Ernie expressed the need for secure knowledge of an individual's reputation while preventing this information from being collected/ accessed by "the man." He wants the reputational data to be immutable and accessible by anyone who needs to know for a certainty who an individual is.
The blockchain is an example of what I see the contradiction to be. There's a permanent and public record of EVERY transaction. Proof of the provenance of each and every "coin" in existence. And it's anonymous. Except that it isn't. Once a connection between any transaction and an individual is made there is a thread that, just like a sweater, can be pulled on unraveling the entire structure. And the seen can never be unseen.
Just like The Brain database on Tragedy and Hope the "seen" connections can (and if they can, they WILL) be used to compile vast interwoven connections from which the entire sweater can be unwound.
There is a small percentage of the human population who are psychopathic, who are incapable of any sense of empathy and respect for the individual privacy and integrity of others. These people think ONLY of what will give them s personal advantage, regardless of the harms and costs born by others. In addition to the psychopaths there are those who have a religious belief in some idea or other where "faith" trumps facts and logic, causing them to act in ways which reason would dissuade them from if they weren't blinded by their faith.
Combining these ideas, "seen can't be unseen," immutable databases, and psychopaths means that Ernie's proof- of - who - you - are can never be kept from "the man."
I'd love be shown to be wrong but this is what it looks like to at this moment.
-30-
