He did mention Cardano at the very end - YES! Now it has been unleashed into the hearts and minds of probably thousands of BBC viewers, some of whom will look us up!

This balance between privacy and transparency/accountability/integrity continues to baffle me. There is the privacy I expect, meaning, my transactions and all of the tx’ metadata, my balances, etc should be prevented from general public viewing.

Then there is privacy being used to shield illegal transactions, e.g. laundering crime proceeds, supporting terrorism, tax evasion, etc.

My question is, is it possible for Cardano to offer both, law abiding citizens and criminals to have their way with cash?

Is this a ‘having your cake and eating it too’ type of situation, either/or, where both cannot be had, or is there a middle ground? I would hate for the governments of the world to gain a perception of Ada as being used exclusively by criminals. I would also hate it if Cardano, or something attached to it (e. g. Monero) , can’t be used as intended even if it means cash-like use of the type criminals engage in, or maybe not even criminals, but people who just choose to be paranoid about their monetary dealings.

Is Cardano going to be the agnostic glue of various currencies that permits both good and evil to co-exist on its network by ultimately pushing the responsibility of such choices to the individual (a.k.a. the libertarian pipe dream) or will it be biased to “the other” side, meaning, making it easier for governments to pry?

I don’t think this is a false dichotomy. There are no such things as ‘value free’ facts, regardless of how much we think they might exist (e.g. water is wet, rocks are hard). The mere mention of currency/money, necessarily invokes judgment.

Ultimately, we must make a choice. And we make that choice even by (allegedly) abstaining from making it.

How this current dilemma of Cardano’s value systems - or should I say the value systems of Cardano’s stakeholders who will necessarily reflect this in their github repository - plays out is, in my short sighted opinion, going to ultimately decide its fate.Maybe it has already played out and we’re waiting for the results? Ok, I’m not really a fatalist… just something to think about.