“It’s seriously a matter of life and death. Humanity cannot survive under tyranny, it just dwindles away and dies. It’s a really important fight, if we lose this one, we’re screwed - the future is going to be substantially different, substantially different, and not in a good way at all.”
— Max Hillebrand

Max Hillebrand is an economist and open-source entrepreneur who runs Agora Towards Liberty. In this interview, we discuss the release of Wasabi Wallet 2.0 that he has been contributing to, the importance of CoinJoin, providing easy privacy for everyone, and why the personal risks of facilitating privacy are worth it.

- - - -

Every year increasing volumes of personal digital data are being leaked. As the general public doesn’t perceive the impacts to be immediately damaging, there is insufficient consideration for the risks posed by this creeping encroachment on privacy. But, it is the replacement of cash by digital currencies that is causing privacy advocates real cause for concern.

Removing people’s ability to transact is perhaps the most potent means of control outside of internment. Monitoring and censoring personal transactions by both private institutions and the state is becoming increasingly common. As we saw in Canada, the temptation to use such draconian measures can be too much for governments of all persuasions to resist.

Bitcoin’s censorship resistance is therefore the right tool at the right time. However, maximising the privacy utility of Bitcoin requires certain practices to be adopted by the user, and the application of the right tools. CoinJoin is one such practice, which re-establishes Bitcoin’s fungibility by breaking the traceability of UTXOs. The issue to date has been that such a technique requires reasonably advanced technical skills.

This is where Wasabi Wallet 2.0 seeks to help. It comes with CoinJoin as an automatic built-in function. Privacy as standard. This is a potential game-changer: privacy is obviously easier to maintain when more people are able to remain private.

- - - -

This episode’s sponsors:
Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantly
Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlers
Bitcasino - The Future of Gaming is here
Pacific Bitcoin - Bitcoin‑only event, Nov 10 & 11, 2022
Ledger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware wallet
Wasabi Wallet - Privacy by default
Texas Blockchain Summit - Nov 17-18, 2022 | Austin, Texas
BCB Group - Global digital financial Services

-----

WBD548 - Show Notes

-----

If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:

Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contribute

Make a tip:
Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2S
QR Codes: Bitcoin
If you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank you

Subscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS Feed

Leave a review on iTunes

Share the show and episodes with your friends and family

Subscribe to the newsletter on my website

Follow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTube

If you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.