Bitcoin Forum

as it says in the title.

Wrong question imho. Can Bitcoin take a higher level of Privacy? Does Bitcoin want that? And also, would Bitcoin be able to do it that quickly? I think it can technically improve the level of privacy, but it does not want to and also that (having the blocksize problem in mind) Bitcoin could not agree on a course of action in time to prevent any kind of market taking by any other altcoin, whether Monero or an other altcoin. BTW Monero is there quite a long time, but is it considered as the non plus ultra regarding privacy or are there new coins that can do it better?

I should put it this way::

[1] Even if something better than monero comes along, technically can it unseat it due to market share
[2] Exactly given the blocksize debate /experience, can any increase in privacy be implemented
[3] More Privacy also ~ More fungible, which is inmho essential to success

This might sound strange, but i think it [3] would be to big of an change for all. There might be solutions for the user to voluntarily improves his own privacy, but to make such changes for all would be hard. The [2] blocksize debacle proves this. And almost all agree on a improvement of blocksize. I imagine not all would want an improvement of privacy. The pseudonymous nature of Bitcoin is a feature for some that is better then anonymous. It probably helps with regulation (which is wanted by many) and also possibility to follow the money flow is something many would not want to give up. Just like with smart contacts are not wanted in Bitcoin directly, but the possibility to utilize the benefits of smart contracts like rootstock tries is welcome.

Bitcoin can't and won't be changed. As soon as it was released, it's going to remain this way, unless the Bitcoin team decides to create a new version. There will always be new and better ideas than Bitcoin is, but Bitcoin will always remain the best, the most popular, and will have the best price.

i don't think anything in level of privacy is going to change for bitcoin, it is offering what it is offering and that is all. and besides people are satisfied with it. the privacy it offers is good enough for majority of people. and for any higher levels they can always use a mixer or even do some simpler things.

but this doesn't mean an anon coin such as monero that are offering some higher level of privacy can not take the market. i do believe that Monero is one of those coins that is going to grow in the future a lot.

I personally think that bitcoin have a decent level of security and usually , people who are looking for a higher level are mostly doing money laundering or drugs,weapons and the kind of stuff and that's why Monero is taking place on the darknet actually.

I mean governments won't take time tracing everyone unless you did something really illegal, not to mention that mixers could be an alternative solution for the moment. We have more things to think about such as the SegWit and LN at the moment , then we have TumbleBit which should provide the maximum privacy for bitcoin users, It could take sometime till we get there though.

Indeed no one could able to edit or made changes on bitcoin now and as you said bitcoin would remain on this way and yet even though privacy of monero is superior bitcoin would still remain and people will surely use bitcoin rather than on monero.

part of blockstreams plan with the whole 1mb base 4mb weight
is that with the 'spare' 1.9mb excess weight allowed after the maximum projected expectation of tx growth if 100% of people utilise segwit keys(2.1), this 'spare' 1.9mb can allow room to bloat a tx by adding confidential payment codes onto the tailend of a tx (outside the base block)

making a standard 450byte tx in REAL data terms be upto1.5kb to become 'confidential'. but twisted to not count all them extra bytes within the base block.

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many are laughing that with segwits failures to actually fix malleability and sigops, due to malicious users simply not even going to use segwit keys after an activation and sticking to native keys.(thus making the segwits promise broken/ half baked)

we must come to the realisation that the 1mb base block concept of segwit. is not about keeping 'data'/bandwidth down. because real data still exists beyond the base block.(upto 4mb)

so knowing blockstream will allow bloated transactions, and happy with upto 4mb 'bloat' but not caring about real transaction count increases, their best expectation is where we could end up with 4500tx max for 4mb(with confidential payment codes included)

however
....instead we could do a proper onchain scaling to allow more REAL transactions(native too).. not just a few segwit transactions to scale

we could go back to basics of simply having 4mb real block space(or even dynamic blocks which adjust by what nod consensus agrees to). where it still allows segwit transactions and confidential payments.
but where all of this is done by an actual node followed by pool vote. rather than blockstreams half baked method.
allowing transactions upto 10,000 native transactions(without CPC). all without going beyond blockstreams new 4mb happy bloat number.

as for the empty doom of fear of altcoin creation.. blockstream have already openly threatened they would happily bilaterally fork the network to get their segwit activated. so going soft is not even preventing that doom(i laughed and facepalmed when that strategy was revealed)

thus just a 4mb blocksize allows native transactions to have more transaction count ability. thus a real onchain scaling. and all the other stuff all within the same metric.

but this ofcourse means blockstream have to back down on their power grab of moving people away from native bitcoin transaction. and trying to be the upstream filter gate keepers.. and instead start playing with the other bitcoin teams and be on an equal playing field and allow real onchain growth.

thus they still get their transaction features and the rest of the community get the native transaction scaling..
thus both get to have the cake and eat it.

do you technically know what verge is? just that alone will answer your question. Their privacy is "tor" which is no better than what people have been doing for years which is using bitcoin + tor. Verge is literally vaporware, useless, offers absolutely nothing novel or unique.

Monero might be dominating the crypto world of "Anonymity", But take a look at DeepOnion which offers Privacy and anonymity and provides a lot many features including DeepSend, DeepVault, Desktop wallets and there are new features which are lined up (DeepProtocol, VoteCentral and Mobile wallet). So if you're a big fan of privacy and looking for other options. Please check Deeponion, It has a great potential and can easily x30 your profits by the end of the year.