Just as a merchant will accept cash from a customer without demanding proof of identity, we also want our electronic money system to allow similar transactions to take place, without the identity of the people involved being revealed to each other, or even to someone who is monitoring the network.
— Hal Finney (Protecting privacy with electronic cash, 1993)
A great vision, and something difficult to carry out in these days, where there is so much mass surveillance.
Thanks to tools like Bitcoin, we have alternatives to escape constant espionage.