Op Ed: Bitcoin Is Turning Left vs. Right Into Big Data vs. Privacy

The political spectrum is usually divided into four main categories: libertarian left, authoritarian left, libertarian right and authoritarian right. Those on the left prefer a more controlled economy, while those on the right have a preference for free markets. Libertarians tend to promote more liberal social policies, while authoritarians want to control what people do in the privacy of their own homes.This is generally how political leanings are defined today, but technologies like Bitcoin and end-to-end encryption are changing that as our digital lives become, in some ways, more important than what we do in the real, physical world.As technologists have explained to lawmakers around the world over and over again, encryption is either secure or it isn’t. Backdoors for law enforcement do not work because they create security holes. Either the encrypted messages you send over the internet are private or they aren’t.This leads to a dichotomy where governments can either gain access to their citizen’s private messages, finances and other personal data or they can’t. The situation is black and white: People are either able to use encryption or they live in a surveillance state. @MarcHochstein @BlueMeanie4 @ErikVoorhees @EFF this is the choice forced onto people by bitcoin: freedom vs tyranny. No inbetween.— Kyle 'Hodlonaut' Torpey (@kyletorpey) October 18, 2014 Authoritarians may want access to your personal data...