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Comment by alcover | Hacker News Reader

  ATMs might already be recording serial numbers

I've been wondering about this forever.

Say John gets bills from the ATM then pays dealer Dylan for weed. Dylan then buys a beer at a bar.

If Dylan gets convicted, and banks collaborate with the police, then John gets subjected to - at least - parallel reconstruction.

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Plausible deniability wrecks that entire thesis (someone existing between John and Dylan such as a gas station)

Gas station isn't someone. It's an endpoint, as the bar in my story. If the gas station cashier takes from the register to get a bier, you're right. If not, my thesis still holds I think.

What if I pay with 100 Euro bank note and get back "tainted" 50 Euro note and then pay in bar? Bank notes are not just collected and sent back to bank.

You're right but the higher the denomination, the smaller the chance it'll serve as change.

Doesn’t matter, plausible deniability means a reasonable person might spend it. Without knowing who’s next, you may have circumstantial evidence but that’s not enough to hold up in court.

You don’t punish someone based on chance.

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