It's pleasant to be snarky or even in denial about the existence of those four archetypes. The sad truth is not only that they exist, but that they benefit from cryptocurrencies in general.
I spent 2012 and 2013 vigorously parrying journalists who only wanted to write about Bitcoin and the four horsemen. I was wrong to do that. Most Bitcoin transactions of substance in 2012 were related to one of the four.
While I'm pissed off that I spent time taking shots in the public limelight on behalf of asshole drug dealers, that was not actually the point I was raising above. I presume that the zcash folks are aware their inventions will be used for bad things, and have weighed the moral calculus, and are fine with the outcome. And, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that calculus.
What I was saying is that a clear-headed individual needs to go into launching a cryptocurrency like this with the certain knowledge that their tool will be used, very rapidly, and perhaps very aggressively, to forward the agendas of the four horsemen. In fact, those will likely be the earliest adopters, or the earliest adopters with real money.
That has some implications for how you design your own responsibility / rights / powers in a cryptocurrency. To think otherwise is terribly avoidant behavior.
I spent 2012 and 2013 vigorously parrying journalists who only wanted to write about Bitcoin and the four horsemen. I was wrong to do that. Most Bitcoin transactions of substance in 2012 were related to one of the four.
While I'm pissed off that I spent time taking shots in the public limelight on behalf of asshole drug dealers, that was not actually the point I was raising above. I presume that the zcash folks are aware their inventions will be used for bad things, and have weighed the moral calculus, and are fine with the outcome. And, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that calculus.
What I was saying is that a clear-headed individual needs to go into launching a cryptocurrency like this with the certain knowledge that their tool will be used, very rapidly, and perhaps very aggressively, to forward the agendas of the four horsemen. In fact, those will likely be the earliest adopters, or the earliest adopters with real money.
That has some implications for how you design your own responsibility / rights / powers in a cryptocurrency. To think otherwise is terribly avoidant behavior.