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Comment by gasull | Hacker News Reader

Why is this a "fiction" and why do you need banks? Why do you dismiss Bitcoin? Please explain.

He's not dismissing Bitcoin, but the idea that through Bitcoin you can "remain a pair of anonymous public/private keys". This is explained here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Anonymity (and yes, I know that the technology can theoretically support this, it just doesn't in its current incarnation).

You can be anonymous if you use Tor with Bitcoin. The problem is that you need to buy bitcoins first, what usually isn't anonymous, but you might be able to buy them anonymously over the counter.

I'm not dismissing that either. I love Bitcoin, and I believe in its abilities. That's why it's really annoying when those with certain philosophies try to ascribe them to Bitcoin.

BTC can work without trusted 3rd parties, and transactions can be performed in a completely anonymous way. Not every transaction requires or even benefits from these qualities, however. For Joe User's grandma to use BTC, there are going to need to be trusted 3rd parties (e.g. banks) to manage the minutia of transacting. These 3rd parties will make things simple for grandma, and ensure that she doesn't get screwed.

Your anonymity is compromised if/when you use "trusted 3rd parties (e.g. banks)." In order to not get shut down by governments, they must comply with applicable laws, which include identifying your identity in some way. (At least as far as I know).

Ah, my bad. You were calling something a fiction and I assumed it was the "you can use bitcoins to accomplish this [in the context, performing transactions while remaining an anonymous pair of encryption keys, which you can't right now]", when you probably were referring to the "you don't even need banks" part.

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