Bitcoin Forum

What are the major reasons behind for making the bitcoin transactions public for everyone to see?
I know during the early days of bitcoin there are so many things to analyze and improve later by the developers.
After Bitcoin hit the mainstream adoption by the people around the world, then the watchful eyes started joining the race too.
Because of that now people have to use the bitcoin mixing service to cover their tracks while using bitcoin for an anonymous transaction.

Don't you think the ideology of making bitcoin transactions public is not that important anymore? any thoughts? #MakeBitcoinGreatAgain

The 'reason' is to have a fully decentralized and secured system.
It can only be truly decentralized if every participating actor can independently verify each transaction himself without needing to trust anyone.

Storing them in a public immutable ledger is a pretty elegant way to achieve that.




Bitcoin did - by far - not hit mainstream adoption yet.
Only a small percentage does know what bitcoin is. And an even lower percentage does own/use BTC's.

We are stil far away from mainstream adoption.




Bitcoin never was anonymous, and also never was intended to be so.
It is pseudonymous. And this usually should be enough for real-world-purposes.

For people who insist on having a better privacy, mixers are available. But noone HAS TO use a mixer.
Addresses can not be linked to real life identities. Only pseudonyms (the addresses) are visible.

Why do the people have to cover their tracks while using bitcoin?If they want to cover their tracks,I assume that they are using btc for something illegal,which is the main reason for haters to hate on bitcoin.
I'm against btc mixer services.If the people want anyonymous transactions,there's no problem for them to just use monero.

This is what distinguishes this technique and this world as a whole
Any individual can check for any transaction without contraindications
Add to this the inability to change or delete
This property adds very high confidence.

Anonymity is privacy. Privacy is freedom.
Decentralization is a freedom too but not as privacy.
For people to be fully free they need to take control of their own privacy.
Anonymizing your personal activities is called privacy too. in fact, covering your tracks too it is called privacy.
People don't need to only cover their tracks when doing something illegal but rather to protect their own privacy from falling into the wrong hands.

I really think it is OK for the public to see your transaction and the only thing that is visible are your address and not your identity that has made the transaction, the safety of the user is the one that is anonymous and the ledger is really public for everyone to see, But I guess that's the way it works and No need to keep your tracks private if you don't have any illegal transactions and your motive doesn't really mean for evil purpose no need to be a shame of this.

the aim of bitcoin has never been to be anonymous. the main goals have always been to be decentralized and be a transparent ledger that has all the transactions on it. with a little care, even without usage of bitcoin mixers you can stay anonymous enough from the prying eyes. of course there is always the big question of who you are hiding from! and depending on that answer the methods are very different.

You can't achieve decentralization and trust-less network/cash system if you don't have any means to verify that the information you received and relayed is true. Bitcoin was never anonymous, and it also doesn't contain any of your private info, too, so why would someone watching addresses toss and flip coins would bother you? There are methods to obfuscate the taints if you really are into hiding your activity with the said cryptocurrency if that's your main concern; if that is, you can always use fiat and stay hidden in the shadows.

Bitcoin's main goal is to help the un-banked have some power within the global economy, and to also promote being one's own bank without the need for any third-party to hold their money for them. Privacy is just a feature, but was never the main goal.

This particular feature is one of the major difference of bitcoin compared to the traditional banking system. In banking system, only the sender and receiver can verify a transaction but in bitcoin anyone with a transaction hash can do it. That's where the transparency comes from! That's exactly the meaning of Distributed "public" ledger - nothing is hidden within the network and everything is transparent.

If we loose this feature, there will be no basic difference between bitcoin and traditional banking!

Hello,

For me it is one of the best feature of BTC. To ensure a total decentralized system that we could trust and use it as a storage of data without possible falsification or hidding you need it. And nothing oblige you to put public your name associated to the adress so partial public information.

The bitcoin ledger is public because it was designed to stay publicly open for everyone to verify the chain of transactions. It doesn't hinder the anonymity at all. In fact, bitcoin transactions were meant to stay anonymous and making it publicly open to verify doesn't mean that it is easy to crack down the owner of the transaction. Even if you find out the particular address of a person, it will still be almost impossible for you to trace the owner's identity since a truly decentralized wallet has no link with the identity of the person.

I think the ledger or blockchain was made open so that any interested person or authority can see what transaction that has been done and where it is coming from and where it is going. This will douse the tention created around bitcoin that is support and support criminal and clandestine activities like drug peddling, money laundry and also terror sponsoring. Those who are against bitcoin will always  fore mentioned crimes to indicts bitcoin. This notion is not correct.

To be candid, the bitcoin public ledger is still open because of transparency and credibility around the breath and length of it transactions. Though there are some element of indictment when it come to anonymity in it transactions as this will intend to give a bad lotion to outsiders. 

anonymity and privacy are two different concepts that only have some similarities. regular people don't seek anonymity they seek privacy and bitcoin provides enough privacy for them to use. you talk about "covering your tracks", when you use bitcoin there is a track (transactions on the blockchain) but that track doesn't have to be linked to you if you don't connect it yourself intentionally and that is enough privacy unless you want to do something illegal. which is why majority of users don't mind it.

it is always easy to ask for a different thing that you like but have you thought about how would that work?
for example if what you want were implemented then how would bitcoin work? and most importantly what would be the downsides of that?

I think that bitcoin cannot be used as a general transaction but transactions can only be known by each crypto user because this is a decentralized system.

public ledger is needed for bitcoin system to function as decentralized digital currency
bitcoin is never intended to be used for anonymous transactions but more for peer-to-peer transactions
however, the nature of the system, by default, creates pseudonymous transactions

If we both run a joint business,and only me is privy to transaction documents,and statements of account and the rest,can you truthfully claim you have control of that business as much as I do..

The bitcoin was created to be a decentralized system and work through a public ledger known as the blockchain,and the reason is so that users/investors/enthusiast can have the feeling that of a truth the network is open to all, but that doesn't take away it's anonymity,the system is fairly anonymous as well as decentralized as you're only privy to the transactions carried out on the system through the b.chain technology