Tuesday, October 28, 2014

My Open Letter to Bitcoin businesses: Why I'm closing my accounts

(The following letter was sent today by me to a number of bitcoin businesses. I posted my Bitcoin Foundation forum post to Reddit to check on the reaction, and it seems to have gone straight to the top.  I'll be increasing my advocacy for anonymity as well as learning much more about code than I presently do, so that I can do better in the future at helping build the solutions I'm advocating for.  As an aside, if you've read my blog before, you'll note that I used to have a Coinbase button which you could click on to donate bitcoin to me ~ that's been removed.  Additionally, I've removed the script in this blog that prompted people to donate with BitPay.  This is simply a part of my dis-intermediation process, as my accounts with Coinbase and BitPay (and other similar web-based services) will soon be closed.)

~
Dear innovators in the bitcoinisphere,
I hope you'll take a moment to read my recent post at the Bitcoin Foundation forum, titled "Open Letter to Bitcoin Businesses:  Why I'm closing my accounts."

You can also see some of the comments from some leaders in the Bitcoin business field regarding my letter here on reddit.
Some of you may observe that I'm sending you this message from a gmail account.  I hope that the same principles that I'm advocating for in the bitcoin business community, will also be adopted by providers of e-mail and other primarily web-based services. 
So, I've copied Google and PayPal (and some others) on this email as well.

My exit strategy post-account closure will primarily involve use of fully decentralized exchanges or brokerages such as OpenBazaar and BitXBay, wallets where the software and the keys reside on the users' computers such as Electrum or Armory, use of alternative currency systems that preserve or enhance anonymity such as BCN and Zerocash, and as well, my ongoing advocacy favoring anonymity as an option that I hope more companies will come to adopt.

"I believe there is another world waiting for us... a better world."
"And I'll be waiting for you there."
Respect,
Colin