Yeesh! Can We Get a Little Privacy, Please?

TL;DR

• Archblock’s ‘1USD’ is a privacy-focused stablecoin that is fully compliant with regulatory requirements (i.e. you won’t get sanctioned for using it).

Full Story

Before you say anything — we know…

Writing a feature article about a stablecoin under the heading ‘This is cool’ feels like a stretch.

So we’ll start with this:

How would you feel if tomorrow, anyone (and we mean anyone) that you transacted with via debit or credit card could then see and track your finances?

We’re talking: your barista, your landlord, that Nigerian Prince you kindly helped back in the early 2000’s…

They can all see how much money you have (have had), and where you’re spending it — all in real-time.

You’d be fuming right? (We’re all used to having a certain level of financial privacy, and we’re not about to give it up).

Well, in crypto — that waking nightmare is actually a harsh reality.

And it’s exactly what Archblock’s ‘1USD’ privacy-focused stablecoin is designed to combat.

1USD offers folks the stability of a US dollar pegged crypto asset, pairs it with the privacy they expect from cash — and this is the kicker:

It’s fully compliant with regulatory requirements.

That’s a weighty feature!

Cause there’s no way on God’s green Earth that governments are going to allow cryptocurrencies that are truly untraceable to exist (we’ve already seen heavy sanctions come down on crypto privacy tech, like Tornado Cash).

Cool! So how does it work?

The 1USD token has only just been announced, so the technicals on how these ‘private-but-not-so-private-that-you-end-up-on-a-government-watch-list’ features actually work, but…

Our guess would be this:

Transactions and account balances aren’t publicly viewable. But they have an ‘audit’ switch of some sort, where with the right permissions, outside entities (e.g. the IRS) can have a little look-see (the same way they can with banks).

Does this gel with the sexy-crypto-anarchist-bad-boy-lifestyle that some crypto users like to tout?

Absolutely not.

But it solves a big glaring problem (basic privacy) — without getting you sanctioned.

And not getting sanctioned is cool as hell!