e-gold privacy (or lack thereof)

Like TOR, e-gold is one of those Internet institutions which enjoys an aegis of libertarian-style privacy and freedom surrounding it. In that light, this Wired article is a fascinating read. On the one hand, E-gold is constantly getting harassed by the U.S. government for catering to international criminals, and on the other, e-gold is actively monitoring transactions and building associative guilt graphs (a term I made up just this moment) in order to track the bad guys who actually do use the service to launder and move money. Neat story, and it underlines the major problem with committing Internet crime while living in the U.S. It's pretty hard to get paid without a friend living outside the U.S.