Location: Los Angeles
Date: Friday, 18th October
Project: 1000x
Role: CEO

Bitcoin is a public ledger, which allows anyone to view any transaction and address thus offer pseudonymity rather than anonymity. What this means is that Bitcoin can provide a certain level of privacy if your Bitcoin address is not attached to personal information, for example, exchange KYC data.

Bitcoiners wanting to protect their privacy must take careful steps, a lapse in concentration can identify you as the owner of a particular address. By accessing a block explorer without using Tor or a VPN, posting your public key online, utilizing a KYC compliant exchange are all examples of how chain analysts can identify you.

Because of this, Bitcoin may not seem like the perfect tool to facilitate transactions on dark markets, yet it currently accounts for the vast majority of them. So why is this?

Bitcoin, by design, as a censorship-resistant currency enables dark markets. If you want to purchase something that your government deems illegal, and If you are willing to take the necessary precautions (using a VPN or Tor, CoinJoin and not reusing addresses) you can maintain your privacy.

Since the Silk Road, Bitcoin has been the most used cryptocurrency used to buy drugs, firearms, identity documents and anything else from dark markets. By tracking the data in this space are we able to judge whether Bitcoin adoption is growing? And, is censorship resistance the only use-case that matters?

In this interview, I talk to Cedric Dahl from 1000x. 1000x is a private think tank focused on researching Bitcoin usage data. We discuss dark markets, sanctioned states using Bitcoin and censorship resistance.

NOTE: after initially posting this interview I received some direct messages questioning some of Cedric’s claims, company and track record. Wanting to avoid potentially promoting a scammer, I pulled the interview and discussed these items with Cedric.

I am allowing the interview to be public as I believe listeners can make their own decisions but with the following notes:
- I do not support or promote his business 1000x. I do not believe in tokens and the opportunity which Cedric and his team are targeting.
- I can’t validate his record of entering into Bitcoin.
- His dates regarding the Silk Road are wrong.
- I can’t validate any other of his statements.

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