So how much privacy do we really need?

[FLUZFLUZGLOBAL]

We dont need privacy, we need to be smarter.

[1715204819]

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[1715204819]

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[nagatraju]

The most wanted privacy are those who have something to hide - swindlers ... they are the first insists on this I think ... if come up with some kind of normal way to pay taxes, acceptable taxes, then, I think, no one will be against... besides, it will be able to be protected against scammers

[cryptominingltd]

IMHO zk-snark would be highly appreciated like it is in other cryptos.

[usuallywealthyy]

We all know that Bitcoin transactions are not anonymous but pseudo-anonymous, resulting in many problems like tainted coins etc.
Some cryptocurrencies offer significant more privacy (Monero, Zcash etc) but at a cost.
However my question is more fundamental: How 'much' privacy do we really need for a widely-adopted cryptocurrency?
I believe Bitcoin as-is won't get adopted for everyday transactions. Nobody would want showing his buying habits to the whole world (imagine how many ads and flyers you would get).
On the other hand, I don't believe cryptocurrencies that offer too much privacy will get adopted either, since they will be used for criminal activities and eventually get banned.
My feeling is that we want a currency that offers privacy to some extent, without revealing our transaction to the world but still be possible for law-enforcement to track illegal activities.
What do you think?

Not even nearly the level provided by bitcoin mixer services and such.  Too much is how much we currently have.

[dejectedstream]

We need less anonymity to stop the bad guys imo.

[tmaleha]

If we have good things for sure there will be few unexpected things also created by default but we have to just ignore any try to filter it. What I understand is at present the what we have is sufficient enough at the same time future will bring more changes that we can expect.

[vv181]

We need less anonymity to stop the bad guys imo.

less anonymity? you mean throwing our privacy? Bitcoin itself can be de-anonymize easily if we not careful enough with it. and I bet people who do illegal transactions already use cryptocurrencies who offer better anonymity and privacy.

[adChain]

The amount of privacy needed by Bitcoin is fine as is. You mention getting flyers in the mail from advertisers etc who track your spending habits but in order to do that the Bitcoin address would need to be tied to some other form of identification. Like an email address or an address of an actual person. Otherwise, where would ads get sent to? You can't send a flyer to a Bitcoin wallet address. People who require additional layers of anonymity can use alternative blockchains/cryptocurrencies that satisfy that use case.

[summer209]

If what you do is legal, why do you need privacy?

[chennan]

If what you do is legal, why do you need privacy?

Saying that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is the same as saying that you don’t care about freedom of speech because you don’t have anything to say... it’s a popular thought exercise for this type of ideologically problem.

There is however a difference between privacy and secrecy though... privacy is the right people have and should have to go to the toilet without other people watching them. Secrecy is more along the line of doing drug deals or any other sketchy/illegal business. The fact people could potentially be doing blow off the back of a toilet shouldn’t mean we should be monitored while we take a shit.

[Erelas]

If what you do is legal, why do you need privacy?

Not to be offensive, but I can't even wrap my head around that question.  It is perfectly legal to buy pornography, does that mean I want my porno charges posted all over the place?

ANother case, say I am in a very competitive business model and need a specific ingredient for an upcoming release.  Would it be sensible from a corporate espionage standpoint to broadcast my purchases and amounts (metadata that could be used to expose my business plan and more effectively compete with me) or would it make sense to hold my supplier to an NDA and keep my transactions as private as possible?

It's not a matter of legality, it's a matter of, it's no one elses damned business.

[Boseda]

We all know that Bitcoin transactions are not anonymous but pseudo-anonymous, resulting in many problems like tainted coins etc.
Some cryptocurrencies offer significant more privacy (Monero, Zcash etc) but at a cost.
However my question is more fundamental: How 'much' privacy do we really need for a widely-adopted cryptocurrency?
I believe Bitcoin as-is won't get adopted for everyday transactions. Nobody would want showing his buying habits to the whole world (imagine how many ads and flyers you would get).
On the other hand, I don't believe cryptocurrencies that offer too much privacy will get adopted either, since they will be used for criminal activities and eventually get banned.
My feeling is that we want a currency that offers privacy to some extent, without revealing our transaction to the world but still be possible for law-enforcement to track illegal activities.
What do you think?

I agree with your point of view. The fact there are so many coins is indeed a pro since different people can use different coins for different purposes. Regarding Bitcoin, I think privacy level depends much on user's activities and habits. If someone is skilled enough, he is able to never link his true identity with his address(es).

About your question, Bitcoin won't be adopted for everyday transactions not only because of its lack of privacy but mainly because of high fees and long confirmation time. I think many people don't care so much about their privacy, they just want cheap and fast payment system (like paypal, for example...)

[sakkerso]

Bitcoin is anonymous because there is no personal information linked to the wallet address (if you don't use third party services like coinbase).
You're also not restricted to creating only one wallet per person.
The only privacy leak for Bitcoin is the meta data you send when you broadcast a transaction, this could be linked to your physical address.
I think it's comparable to cash, which is also anonymous but has your DNA on it

Completely agree. I feel like anonymity is necessary but   pushing anonymity to the extreme is not the way to go either. We should meet somewhere in the middle and that's where bitcoin nails it right on the head. Pseudo-anonymity is a lot better. Because having complete anonymity can be dangerous.

its all be useless. because trying hard to hide identity at least will be caught. some media social account maybe will link to the other account.

[Jedzkie050617]

We all know that Bitcoin transactions are not anonymous but pseudo-anonymous, resulting in many problems like tainted coins etc.
Some cryptocurrencies offer significant more privacy (Monero, Zcash etc) but at a cost.
However my question is more fundamental: How 'much' privacy do we really need for a widely-adopted cryptocurrency?
I believe Bitcoin as-is won't get adopted for everyday transactions. Nobody would want showing his buying habits to the whole world (imagine how many ads and flyers you would get).
On the other hand, I don't believe cryptocurrencies that offer too much privacy will get adopted either, since they will be used for criminal activities and eventually get banned.
My feeling is that we want a currency that offers privacy to some extent, without revealing our transaction to the world but still be possible for law-enforcement to track illegal activities.
What do you think?

I think the government should be the one to implement the regulation of the use of bitcoins.  It is not far that bitcoins can be used for crimes, howbeit, the government should spearhead the security of using bitcoins.  Currency is the most liquid asset like fiat cash... I guess what you mean is security and regulation of using so to track down illegal transfer using this cryptocurrency...

Some countries already know about bitcoin but due to there government having lacks of knowledge they didn't mind it. I would say that privacy right now in the bitcoin is good enough since its been already proven many years but as the time passes by due to the value of bitcoin getting high, its privacy might be interrogated by some computer wizards like hackers. It should have strong security implemented, so that our privacy will remain safe.

[jekjekman]

We need less anonymity to stop the bad guys imo.

less anonymity? you mean throwing our privacy? Bitcoin itself can be de-anonymize easily if we not careful enough with it. and I bet people who do illegal transactions already use cryptocurrencies who offer better anonymity and privacy.

Being less anonymous doesn't mean bad guys will stop doing their bad doings though because no matter what Bitcoin will do in terms of its privacy bad people will still do what they want in able to take advantage of someones ignorance so it is much way better for the people who uses Bitcoin to take the full responsibility in their security.

Take note that in the history of Bitcoin there is no single hack happened in it, it is just that there is a Bitcoin exchange that has been hacked and it is centralized by someone so meaning it's not Bitcoin itself that has been breached back then.

[Angi]

Privacy is important  it depends the kind of   our businesses but in bitcoin  we need privacy specially our persoal account like  ethwallet becsuse  if someone know your personal  documents i dont know what happen.

[jdole]

The more privacy the better.

[JayT22]

i think we will need a lot more of privacy in the future!
only anonymity coins will be bigplayers soon!

[dess07]

All of us would like to keep our confidentiality during financial transactions.It is better that bitcoin are pseudo-anonymous and concern the bitcoin privacy issue.That is why is very important our privacy.

[achow101]

This thread has become a place for spammers to spam. There is little to no meaningful discussion here, so it will be locked.