Bitcoin Forum

I see more and more Alt coins and also Blockchain based technologies being developed, where privacy is destroyed to make room for

better features { Faster confirmation for transactions & user-friendly GUI } We need to consider if we value privacy {pseudo anonymity}

over better features in the future.

The attack angle from these competing technologies seem to be speed and ease of use. Will you dump Bitcoin for improved features in

other technologies and in the process sacrifice the financial privacy you have with Bitcoin?

Just curious how you see this, and what you will do, when these technologies hit the scene. They are currently a bit behind, but they are

catching up VERY fast.  ???

Depends a lot on what level privacy is sacrificed.

If it is tracable to me personally and to my details on the public blockhain I would never do it. I would also rather not have my data connected to a database of the company that may get compromised, leaking all my data for everybody to find.

If it is somehow certain that my personal data cannot be directly linked to publically available data (blockchain) I might consider it.

it matters to a bunch of people on here. in the wider world no one seems to care about a single thing when it comes to privacy. they actively give it away while people on the fringes are shouting out warnings.

I would rather have privacy over ease of use, I think privacy is really undervalued by a lot of people.
Not because I'd have something illegal in mind, well nothing too illegal  8)

Just to clear up some confusion... I am not talking about public blockchain technologies, but rather these private blockchains being

developed by the banks, where they will have full control and also 100% access to all your transactions. That said, some public Alt coins,

also bend over to the pressure by governments to link personal information with users wallets. The clouds are forming, and we should

prepare to educate people about the difference and the threats that these technologies are posing towards their financial privacy.  :o

The people that are willing to sacrifice personal data for smoothness/speed are the same people that are short term hanger on folks.
They do not see the bigger picture and could care a less how and what they give up to make a quicker buck.
More of the older members are able to still feel what bitcoin should be in changing the world,rather than bowing to government.

If Alt coins want to go the speed route I have no issues with that and believe there is room for all kinds of coins or systems in the crypto world. But I feel to alter bitcoin is to exploit the true essence of world changing power into pretty much nothing special at all.

Banks control us hand in hand with the government,bitcoin is giving us that chance to get away from manipulative systems.

banks are already looking at utilising some cryptocurrency features. but not all (mainly just blockchain which by itself has flaws)
research RGTS blockchain.

but from a human prospective.
it does not matter what network/database/management system a bank has, banks will still have their issues.
EG
"managed funds" - you need banks consent to move funds, but unequally they can move funds without your consent
"seizing funds" - government laws allowing them to take funds as they please and hand it to governments
"guarantee" - funds are not technically yours. but if they go bankrupt and take funds with them, someone else will compensate you to a certain limit

like i said it does not matter what technology they use, even if banks were bartering guns, bread and gold. or used a blockchain network. banks will still screw people over under the pretence that their "service" has more positives than negatives.

even if they measured their bankcoin where 1bank coin would ALWAYS be valued at lets say 10,000 bitcoin bits(like returning to the gold reserve days). banks will still screw you over.

i cannot see anyone who truly understands bitcoin and receives a wage in bitcoin and spends bitcoin to live on would drop bitcoin to go 100% back to fiat(bankcoin), due to not only the 3 examples i gave, but other reasons too

as a side note:
there have been over 1000 altcoins all with different features. lets take litecoin, it has so far existed for 5 years and has a faster confirmation time. yet if you ask 250,000 merchants accepting bitcoin "what is litecoin" they couldnt tell you. if you asked banks wanting blockchain technology "what is litecoin" they will not know enough to explain the differences and wont be mentioning it in any extra benefit than bitcoin.
so for 5 years of making other currencies all with different features, abilities and benefits.. bitcoin is still top.
this can easily be proven by asking. does any other cryptocurrency have 250,000 merchants

its human nature . we always demand for more and more wealth which is being used for our comfortable ( easy of use )
today we have in this modern technology era using bitcoin and if people find domething else which saves their time then i think they will go there and use that think only users which really care about btc will try to avoid it and i am one of them

I certainly would not abandon Bitcoin for these "private blockchains being developed by the banks". Mainly because I have no intention of going back to where I don't even have full control of my own funds. I don't want to have to go through them for every little thing I want to do with my own money.

Then there's the "tracking", they can practically trace everything to you do and look through every single thing you buy, where your money goes and where you get it from.

Though I must say, with most of the exchanges asking for Identity verification and all sorts of personal info for "AML/KYC" compliance is really annoying. sigh.

How about the other way around? I'd be happy if BTC would get a bit more difficult to use to get more privacy.
Besides, BTC's very easy to use. I don't know how it could be made easier.

I personally wouldn't be interested in sacrificing privacy for ease of use, Bitcoin is easy enough to use already and it isn't in need of any modifications. The only issue I have with Bitcoin right now are the confirmation times, and even those aren't that bad. It's not worth sacrificing the security and anonymity for that.

Wait what ? The main reason why I deal with bitcoins is because of its privacy/anonymity .

So, NO ! I wouldn't sacrifice that.

PLUS bitcoins is already easy and GUI-supported. There is nearly nothing wrong with it except for the time for the transactions to be confirmed but that isn't that painful either.

explicitly, enough to say, as some of the use(s) of bitcoin must be used anonymously as in the darknet. there are no way for them to sacrifice their identity. one of why bitcoin was created was not to allow arbitrary limits

Not really, as that might turn into another can of worms that will lead to sacrificing more and more things until eventually we end up with central banking again.   

Don't sacrifice anything like privacy or security or decentralization.

Rise of PC did not kill mainframe. Rise of blockchain wont kill bitcoin either. Bitcoin will make its place as digital gold.

I won't sacrifice privacy for ease of use and better features. For me, bitcoin is okay of what it is now. If transaction information will be shared just like banks, then the result will be the same. It will lead to financial identity theft or maybe even stalking, and that's not good. If it happens, as of now I don't have an idea on what will I do.

I wholeheartedly agree here, no way in hell would I sacrifice privacy to make it easier, but I would trade ease of use to enable more privacy in such a way that it makes legislation by states and financial institutions, (which bitcoin was intended to thwart anyway,) even harder to enforce.

I might invest into the altcoins banks are creating and will make as long they offer something usefull to earn a fee with them otherwise i wont expose and stay with bitcoin, usually i dont like nothing that some entity has plenty control over it but lets see what the banks has to offer to crypto world.

For which features ? If the features can make bitcoin more better and make more people to use bitcoin, i okay for that. But i hope bitcoin is still easy of use even the new features come.

Like most people said, it depends on what privacy issues am I giving up. You definitely dont want to pay for something while people being able to see who bought it, and where he lives etc.

thats true, though in my opinion it wouldnt be worth it, privacy is the thing that people should have

I already use a variety of cryptocurrencies for different functions. And that provides the answer to this question: When I want anonymity, I'll be willing to make a tradeoff in ease of use and other things for it. When I don't need it, I'll go for convenience and other characteristics. A lot of people seem to hate that bitcoin has competition from altcoins, but in the diversity of cryptocurrency we can find optimized solutions to a wide range of needs. One size does not, and never will, fit all.

how much of my privacy.

i think many of users here don't care too much about privacy of bitcoin, we all care some about privacy but some of us a lot more than others

so if the level of privacy is not that low i won't care.

I love bitcoin because i can used it without revealing my identity, so i won't exchange my decision eventhough it provides better speed or any better feature because for me the most important reason I used bitcoin is the anonymity

As the people is searching bitcoin for securing their privacy and they need for sacrifice it? that's very reversible with the first intention of using bitcoin.

If we are not concerned regarding financial privacy than using alts that doesn't provide anonymity for faster transaction and better GUI feature will be just like using traditional electronic payment systems banks have. Bitcoin will always remain superior to other alts even other alts provide more features and ease in use.

for me privacy is number one
i will not sacrifice with ease of use

i think with increase of the privacy of use in Bitcoin is a small other problem created . here with blockchain privacy technology in updated wallet version there is problem of using a particular adress . so i think there should not be like this privacy option which didn't make bitcoin user definite .

I always prefer privacy over anything as that is one of the main reasons I am in Bitcoin in the first place.

Easiness and "better" features is just to attract average Joe people to come on board.

Whatever is happening, I am and will always be on Bitcoin's side. I really believe in the potential that this technology has.

Bitcoin is the only thing I need and use. If I was even a tiny bit interested in other coin projects, then I would spend a good bit of my time there, but to me the features they are offering are mostly nothing more than gimmicks. So no, I will not sacrifice anything for easy and use.

it really depends, i can't give a general yes/no answer to this because it depends on a lot of things.

for example how much difference in lack of privacy are we talking about. and what are those new features. i know you mentioned some in your comments but in my opinion it can only be answered on a case by case basis.

No, i won`t dump bitcoin for that.

The good thing about cryptocurrencies is that you have choice.

You can choose a more anonymous altcoin or an altcoin with less privacy but other good features. 

Ok, we have now determined that most of us would not sacrifice privacy for better features and Ease of use, but why do we then still

make use of centralized services, like for example Coinbase , BitPay etc.. where they force you to "verify" your identity to use their more

convenient systems, with their nice GUI interfaces? Try to buy something directly without 3rd party payment processors { eg. Steam

content } and you will run into these services. Merchants wants to deal with "verified" users to adhere to all these KYC/AML regulations,

and if you do not bend the knee to these services, they will not accept your Bitcoin. So is financial privacy still important to you, if you use

these services to make transactions in Bitcoin?

i like the level of privacy and anonymity that bitcoin is offering me. and i am not looking for much else. many of users want a lot more privacy and a lot others don't even care about privacy and use coinbase and similar services. but me, i want the middle ground, the pseudo anonymity is enough for me.
and as for newer features i have to really test them to see if they are really useful to me or just an interesting feature without any real world application.

I will never sacrifice privacy for ease of use. Better to learn a bit on how to use the wallet rather than compromise the privacy. I want to watch porn without showing my details. I want to gamble without showing my details. I want to trade without showing my details.

It is a lot that I lose if I sacrifice privacy for ease of use, so this a NO NO option.

this is very strange and new to me.
because wherever i look especially these days i see everyone is talking about more privacy and increasing it. with coins like Monero going to the moon and litecoin implementing anonymous transactions!!!


i don't know what technologies you have in mind, it would have been great if you could give us some examples (names).
but i wouldn't just abandon bitcoin for another feature because bitcoin is satisfying my needs.

If i am satisfied by their service then it can maybe let me think twice. Another one is that i know this one bitcoin exchange service in our place which is i think have registered and has a legal permit to operate.

Easiest way to do financial transaction will be using bank payments or check payments which we are doing for centuries because people will always find new types of tech always harder to understand and same goes for bitcoin. Bitcoin provide far better security as well as privacy than usual ways and for people to understand all this will require few more years and be used to it. I will definately choose bitcoin for privacy rather than using other crypto for easiness and better GUI.

well you are right, but in my opinion bitcoins is really good as it is at the moment and nothing needs to be changed

It always depend what privacy someone needed.  And if it really helps people around the world then it is such a big yes.  Everyone wanted to have a friendly use things.  One is the system which allows anyone from everywhere to pay your bills using your bitcoin wallet.

Bitcoin is fine and I personally have absolutely zero ease-of-use issues with it. As such, I personally don't believe that there is any reason to sacrifice the privacy of Bitcoin in favor of making it "easier" to use.

It really isn't that hard and I don't see why people have an issue with it.

You have not seen some of the offerings from the banks lately, have you? We are seeing banking being combined with the Ease of use of

Social media. You can now transfer small amounts of money within a chat session with someone as payment. They are making it very

easy for people to transfer value within Social media platforms, like we doing with tipping in Bitcoin. So they are not sitting on the side,

waiting for Bitcoin to disrupt them, they adapt and improve... something they have not been doing for years.  :o