Cryptocurrencies and Financial Freedom
Can governments block and freeze crypto addresses?
As of now, most of you already know that the Canadian government invoked a special act called the "Emergencies act" to stop the "Freedom Convoy" protests against authoritarian vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions, such as lockdowns snd mask mandate.
The Canadian government proceeded to seize the bank accounts of the freedom protesters. The government further identified many cryptocurrency addresses and tried to blacklist them.
But, it is good news that the authoritarian government of Canada failed to blacklist or block the cryptocurrency addresses. The security design of the technology of cryptocurrency didn't allow them to access the decentralized computing infrastructure.
In the coming days, we may witness a contest between the global governmental tyrannies versus the strength of cryptographic data privacy of cryptocurrencies.
Governments are always after snatching financial freedom from the citizens.
Canadian government proceeded to seize/blacklist the financial accounts of the protesters
To stop the protesters' crowdfunding endeavors, the Canadian police quickly sent letters to the banks and the cryptocurrency exchanges to "cease facilitating any transactions" with thirty plus cryptocurrency addresses.
The cryptocurrency wallet software company informed the court about the nonavailability of any centralized control
The crypto wallet provider company Nunchuk replied to the Ontario court injunction order saying that cryptocurrency technology doesn't allow them to access and control any of the crypto wallets and associated cryptocurrency addresses.
Graphics: Screenshot of Nunchuk's Tweet of Feb 19, 2022.
Nunchuk wrote the court their inability to blacklist any crypto addresses. Nunchuk informed the court that decentralized security of cryptocurrency technology doesn't give any provision to blacklist any cryptocurrency addresses.
Decentralization remains as the power of the cryptocurrencies
The recent authoritarian governance of the Canadian government showed that governments could utilize their administrative and court powers to control cryptocurrencies.
Decentralized and distributed computing infrastructure has proved to be a power of privacy in the hands of the cryptocurrency domain.
The governments of several nations now may join hands to crack down on the players of cryptocurrencies.
Centralized exchanges may freeze crypto funds and give all crypto account information to the governments!
The centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have detailed client information, which the exchange administrators can access.
If the governments order the centralized cryptocurrency exchanges to provide all accounts information, they may have to provide the governments with all the information.
Jesse Powell, CEO of a centralized cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, "recommended not to use Kraken if they want the Canadian government not to have access to their cryptocurrencies."
Cryptocurrencies and financial freedom
Authoritarian governments or any other agencies may forcefully access centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, including all private data, clients' information and cryptocurrency addresses, crypto assets, etc.
If we have to make use of the full privacy and decentralized feature of cryptocurrencies, the users must not keep funds in the wallets of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
Cryptocurrency in personal custody wallets turns out to be the only way to avoid government control and freezing of crypto assets.
Cryptocurrencies may provide financial freedom if and only if it is correctly used.
The Canadian case of governmental authoritarianism towards cryptocurrency wallets raised a question for centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. People may have to think many times before keeping cryptocurrency assets in a wallet under a centralized exchange.
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I am also on Noise.Cash ... click the link if you are there.
February 22, 2022.
In practical terms, I don't think they can do much about cryptocurrencies. Blocking it, etc..