Privacy Coins: Wussamattayou?

I like privacy coins. I have a modest amount of Monero, a bit of ZCash, and ZCoin. A smattering of Dash. And while it's true that most of the market has been kind of tepid and trading sideways during the first half of 2018, privacy coins in general seem to be taking it on the chin a little worse. The Wall Street-ization of the cryptocurrency market seems to be devaluing privacy coins by creating a presumption of guilt around the ownership and use of these coins, and in the process we are witnessing a fading away one of the early hallmarks of of the cryptocurrency market -- privacy.

With the rise in influence of the US SEC on the crypto market, perhaps what has developed is an increase of some market makers who are squeamish about "too much privacy", and/or some formerly privacy-oriented investors who are simply changing with the times. Additionally, law enforcement agencies have made it clear that they are particularly suspicious of these coins because of their strong privacy features.

When it comes to the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution (the one that is supposed to protect the privacy rights of US citizens), whenever our government starts doing something that is questionable regarding these rights, there's always some people who will trot out the tired old, ignorant reaction like, "Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, you got nothing to worry about!" Right. But that really misses a much more important point for many of us. Constitutional rights aren't things that the government gives to us; they are inalienable rights that we refuse to allow the government to take away from us. If law abiding people who happen to like privacy coins sit back and allow the presumed criminalization of these coins to happen, because they are afraid of drawing suspicion and a presumption of guilt for being associated with them, we are thereby trading away those supposedly inalienable rights, for what? Comfort? I put a higher value on inalienable rights than that.

At the end of 2017, among my few, humble predictions for 2018, I stated my opinion that it would be a great year for privacy coins, because along with the popularization of the crypto market, and the emergence of the US SEC and/or the CFTC as an influential force on that market, there would be a significant sector of crypto enthusiasts -- especially the old schoolers-- who would grab up as many and as much of these privacy coins as possible, because the preservation of their privacy is central to the idea of decentralization of the money system. I thought that this would drive the price up -- so far I've been wrong. While the volume for these coins continues to be strong, the prices languish well below the highs of last year. Perhaps the second half of 2018 will provide better things for those of us who hold fast to our right to privacy; A right which applies to many aspects of our lives.

-THIS BLOG POST IS MY PERSONAL OPINION ONLY, AND IS NEITHER MEANT AS, NOR SHOULD IT BE TAKEN AS INVESTMENT ADVICE.-