David Chaum, of Elixxir and DigiCash: Governments Can Break into Cryptocurrency Easily, Despite Security Protocols

Conspiracy theorists are a dime a dozen, and the argument that “the government is watching” has been around for many years before the public found out about what the NSA is doing.

Considering how new the cryptocurrency industry is, it should be shocking that there are already rumors about the government having their hands in it as well. However, the founder of DigiCash and inventor of Bitcoin’s precursor digital cash spoke publicly about the idea that the government has complete access to the cryptocurrencies of the masses.

Speaking at the Paris Blockchain Week Summit, David Chaum spoke about the future that he hopes for with the crypto industry, including private payments and the technology to engage in messaging. These concepts will soon be deemed necessary, says Chaum, but the most notable part of his speech came when he claimed that governments would have no problem with getting through elliptic curve technology, which is essential to the Bitcoin network’s security.

David Chaum commented that he would personally “work in government and high stakes industrial security,” which is why he sees the elliptic curves as no barrier between the government and any given account. The government has the power to take down the market, he claims, and he added that these governments will act when they want to.

The speech went on, as Chaum said that:

“The growing popularity of mobile payments will result in a higher demand for privacy while online. It is clear that this demand has already started, considering the protests against Facebook for their mishandling of data of millions of users.”

As Chaum sees it, there are two possible fates for cryptocurrency and privacy. The first option is to gain better control over personal data, while the second is to succumb to governments and businesses and let them control it.

The latter puts this data at risk for being integrated into artificial intelligence efforts. Chaum stated:

“This is very serious, probably the biggest question of our time.”

The only way to at least delay or even stop these things from happening is to act quickly and act now, according to Chaum. However, this would not be the first time that the head of a project has encouraged and spread FUD in an effort to make a sale, which is especially common in the crypto world.

Along with Chaum’s work with the original digital cash, he also founded a blockchain platform that is quantum resistant and privacy-focused called Elixxir. Based on the data of this platform, it allegedly can handle over 100,000 transactions in a single second, while Bitcoin can only handle seven transactions.