Two Sides of the Same Coin: Transacting Privately with Cryptocurrency

When cryptocurrency was first popularized by the emergence of Bitcoin, it made promises to ordinary folks to disintermediate economic transactions from entrenched middlemen like central banks or credit card companies who have long been pushing for a “cashless” future. Instead, consumer services like Venmo and CashApp have come to fill this desire, but using them comes with the same risks as relying on the big players: a lack of privacy and a dependence on centralized actors that might betray and de-bank you, punish you for chargebacks.
As both a buyer and a seller, the ideal would be a way to transact remotely the way debit or credit cards work, but with the privacy, reliability, and simplicity of physical cash. In this cryptocurrency primer, we’ll get straight at the heart of the issue: learning how to acquire, swap, and spend digital currencies that cannot be traced and that no one can prevent you from using in the future.
You’ll be introduced to a special class of cryptocurrency options called privacy coins—specifically Zcash and Monero—whose opaque ledger systems differ from Bitcoin’s transparent ledger to protect your financial data, and why that is the key distinction allowing you to transact privately and discreetly. You’ll also learn the lay of the land when it comes to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, including methods for storing your funds safely, evaluating custodial and self-custody “wallet apps,” getting a feel for Know-Your-Customer (KYC) techniques, and becoming familiar with which cryptocurrency exchanges you can use more privately than others, preparing you for navigating the world of “crypto” better than HODL gang Bitcoin bros.
Who is this for?

Anyone with an interest in cryptocurrency and a proclivity for financial freedom and independence.

Your instructors:
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school for radical organizers founded in New York City that provides a security-first IT infrastructure curriculum to otherwise underserved communities and organizations advancing social justice causes. We train politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice.
Founded and operated exclusively by radical queer and femme technologists, we offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies).
Our students are primarily people of marginalized groups and other individuals who are politically engaged.
This is a masks optional event.

As with all NYC Resistor events, this class is 18+ and governed by our Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct, as well as accessibility information, can be found at www.nycresistor.com/participate/.

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