Bitcoin and anonymity

[TimtheYoutuber]

To learn more about Bitcoin and its Anonymity features, check out my Medium post: Bitcoin and Anonymity



Is privacy really a big deal? I created a thread a little while ago to see some peoples opinion : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2479788.msg25386090#msg25386090

And it seems that it is a huge deal, however we can see that Bitcoin is not really that anonymous  . So the question is, why aren't privacy coins much bigger in terms of market cap? If people really value privacy, and there a ton of better options, why are we still stuck on Bitcoin that in some ways is inefficient?


Thoughts?

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[LeGaulois]

The majority of people don't use cryptos for a privacy purpose,. Sadly, most use them to speculate only. If you tell them about cryptography, blockchain they don't understand and don't give a fuck about it.
Those concerned with their privacy are using the anon coins but as the percentage of people isn't big, the market isn't big neither.

I believe this is going to change in 2-3 years and the anon coins will be more recognized and more used only when people will realize how their privacy has been taken over and what were the real reasons for creating Bitcoin

[bigvito19]

I love the anonymity

[baradfo]

Anon coins aren't used that much by the majority of sheeple due to the lack of knowledge. Most of the people using anon coins are those that either have a need to do so for business reasons or are people that don't trust their governments. The rest of the sheeple that have come in this year are in just as a way to invest and view cryptos as an investment rather than currencies, the way they were supposed to be. Of course with Bitcoin being the most widely recognized coin out there that is what people are flocking to. I do believe that 2018 will see a different course of action, though there will be more coming in as well so will flock to what is well known.

[CrimsonKitties]

I think the biggest issue with privacy is a large percentage of people think its only for criminals. No matter how many servers get hacked.  They often hold an irrational thought that if there's nothing to hide there's no need for privacy. This will change but not anytime soon.

[tomahawk9]

So the question is, why aren't privacy coins much bigger in terms of market cap? If people really value privacy, and there a ton of better options, why are we still stuck on Bitcoin that in some ways is inefficient?

Thoughts?

Most of the cryptocurrency users (especially newcomers) don't care about privacy or anonymity, they just want to invest in a crypto that garantees high profits in a short amount of time. People no longer care about the tech behind a cryptocurrency, except for those who have been in the crypto community for a long time, or those tech savvy people.
Also, in order for a privacy coin to grow exponentially, it needs investors, but it is very risky to invest in a altcoin that barely no one uses, that's why their market cap is low.

And we aren't stuck with Bitcoin since anyone can choose another crypto for privacy reasons (and there are a lot of better options) but it is too much of hazzle for the average joe to start reading about altcoins and try to find out which one of the +1300 cryptos provides the optimous level or privacy/anonymity. And when you find one, you discover that 'X' crypto doesn't have any real usage other than for trading or speculation.

That's why people choose Bitcoin, it offers more than fine levels of privacy, and it is the most popular cryptocurrency. Simple as that.

[TimtheYoutuber]

The majority of people don't use cryptos for a privacy purpose,. Sadly, most use them to speculate only. If you tell them about cryptography, blockchain they don't understand and don't give a fuck about it.
Those concerned with their privacy are using the anon coins but as the percentage of people isn't big, the market isn't big neither.

I believe this is going to change in 2-3 years and the anon coins will be more recognized and more used only when people will realize how their privacy has been taken over and what were the real reasons for creating Bitcoin

That is a very true, and a huge problem. If coins are not used, the whole ecosystem can be screwed.

I love the anonymity

I like them too, however I was just talking generally with this thread.

Anon coins aren't used that much by the majority of sheeple due to the lack of knowledge. Most of the people using anon coins are those that either have a need to do so for business reasons or are people that don't trust their governments. The rest of the sheeple that have come in this year are in just as a way to invest and view cryptos as an investment rather than currencies, the way they were supposed to be. Of course with Bitcoin being the most widely recognized coin out there that is what people are flocking to. I do believe that 2018 will see a different course of action, though there will be more coming in as well so will flock to what is well known.

Yeah I have noticed a lot of coins in 2017 have been building around privacy, and I think we might see a change into more private coins.

I think the biggest issue with privacy is a large percentage of people think its only for criminals. No matter how many servers get hacked.  They often hold an irrational thought that if there's nothing to hide there's no need for privacy. This will change but not anytime soon.

This is also a good point. Lots of people still think Bitcoin is only for hackers.

Most of the cryptocurrency users (especially newcomers) don't care about privacy or anonymity, they just want to invest in a crypto that garantees high profits in a short amount of time. People no longer care about the tech behind a cryptocurrency, except for those who have been in the crypto community for a long time, or those tech savvy people.
Also, in order for a privacy coin to grow exponentially, it needs investors, but it is very risky to invest in a altcoin that barely no one uses, that's why their market cap is low.

And we aren't stuck with Bitcoin since anyone can choose another crypto for privacy reasons (and there are a lot of better options) but it is too much of hazzle for the average joe to start reading about altcoins and try to find out which one of the +1300 cryptos provides the optimous level or privacy/anonymity. And when you find one, you discover that 'X' crypto doesn't have any real usage other than for trading or speculation.

That's why people choose Bitcoin, it offers more than fine levels of privacy, and it is the most popular cryptocurrency. Simple as that.

This is very true, I just wonder how long pushing it aside and sticking with bitcoin since "it is good enough" will last. If more people are educated around cryptocurrency and understand to invest in better coins with solid backgrounds, I still dont know if privacy would be a huge deal. If the majority of people dont care about it, then privacy coins that are specific, might not be the best choice.

[BitcoinHomework]

Hello Everyone,

Anyone interested in s FREE educational course about this topic?

https://bitcoinhomework.com/course/bitcoin-and-anonymity-part-1/

[HeRetiK]

[...]

And it seems that it is a huge deal, however we can see that Bitcoin is not really that anonymous  . So the question is, why aren't privacy coins much bigger in terms of market cap? If people really value privacy, and there a ton of better options, why are we still stuck on Bitcoin that in some ways is inefficient?

Maybe the amount of pseudo-anonymity is already enough for most people? In general, people care more about convenience than privacy. Hell, there's little people don't give up for convenience.

Of the options that I'm aware of, all have downsides on other fronts (BTC being the baseline):

XMR -- High fees, low scalability
ZEC -- Single point of failure in the form of a central corporate entity
GBYTE Blackbytes -- Centralized token issuance and trust-dependent consensus

Of course the respective tradeoffs may be seen as worthwhile, but the point is that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

I'd be curious to know what other privacy focused alts there are currently available though.

[...]

I believe this is going to change in 2-3 years and the anon coins will be more recognized and more used only when people will realize how their privacy has been taken over and what were the real reasons for creating Bitcoin

I'd argue that the main value proposition of Bitcoin is being permissionless, with pseudo-anonymity being only a side-effect. Also I'd love to believe that people will become more privacy conscious in the next 2-3 years, but I've honestly given hopes up on that. Privacy has long been dead and people embraced its death with open arms.

[gantez]

The majority of people don't use cryptos for a privacy purpose,. Sadly, most use them to speculate only. If you tell them about cryptography, blockchain they don't understand and don't give a fuck about it.
Those concerned with their privacy are using the anon coins but as the percentage of people isn't big, the market isn't big neither.

I believe this is going to change in 2-3 years and the anon coins will be more recognized and more used only when people will realize how their privacy has been taken over and what were the real reasons for creating Bitcoin

That is a very true, and a huge problem. If coins are not used, the whole ecosystem can be screwed.

I love the anonymity

I like them too, however I was just talking generally with this thread.

Anon coins aren't used that much by the majority of sheeple due to the lack of knowledge. Most of the people using anon coins are those that either have a need to do so for business reasons or are people that don't trust their governments. The rest of the sheeple that have come in this year are in just as a way to invest and view cryptos as an investment rather than currencies, the way they were supposed to be. Of course with Bitcoin being the most widely recognized coin out there that is what people are flocking to. I do believe that 2018 will see a different course of action, though there will be more coming in as well so will flock to what is well known.

Yeah I have noticed a lot of coins in 2017 have been building around privacy, and I think we might see a change into more private coins.

I think the biggest issue with privacy is a large percentage of people think its only for criminals. No matter how many servers get hacked.  They often hold an irrational thought that if there's nothing to hide there's no need for privacy. This will change but not anytime soon.

This is also a good point. Lots of people still think Bitcoin is only for hackers.

Most of the cryptocurrency users (especially newcomers) don't care about privacy or anonymity, they just want to invest in a crypto that garantees high profits in a short amount of time. People no longer care about the tech behind a cryptocurrency, except for those who have been in the crypto community for a long time, or those tech savvy people.
Also, in order for a privacy coin to grow exponentially, it needs investors, but it is very risky to invest in a altcoin that barely no one uses, that's why their market cap is low.

And we aren't stuck with Bitcoin since anyone can choose another crypto for privacy reasons (and there are a lot of better options) but it is too much of hazzle for the average joe to start reading about altcoins and try to find out which one of the +1300 cryptos provides the optimous level or privacy/anonymity. And when you find one, you discover that 'X' crypto doesn't have any real usage other than for trading or speculation.

That's why people choose Bitcoin, it offers more than fine levels of privacy, and it is the most popular cryptocurrency. Simple as that.

This is very true, I just wonder how long pushing it aside and sticking with bitcoin since "it is good enough" will last. If more people are educated around cryptocurrency and understand to invest in better coins with solid backgrounds, I still dont know if privacy would be a huge deal. If the majority of people dont care about it, then privacy coins that are specific, might not be the best choice.

One of the major reason why people just simply stick with bitcoin is that it has been tasted and trusted.

Many people don't actually mind to invest in an altcoin and wait for a longer time but some of the altcoins end up being fraudulent - Imagine a coin after raising fund from ico would have the site crashing up and won't come back - this is pathetic and one reason people hook up with bitcoin because of its guarantee.

[OROBTC]

The majority of people don't use cryptos for a privacy purpose,. Sadly, most use them to speculate only. If you tell them about cryptography, blockchain they don't understand and don't give a fuck about it.
Those concerned with their privacy are using the anon coins but as the percentage of people isn't big, the market isn't big neither.

I believe this is going to change in 2-3 years and the anon coins will be more recognized and more used only when people will realize how their privacy has been taken over and what were the real reasons for creating Bitcoin

That is a very true, and a huge problem. If coins are not used, the whole ecosystem can be screwed.

I love the anonymity

I like them too, however I was just talking generally with this thread.

Anon coins aren't used that much by the majority of sheeple due to the lack of knowledge. Most of the people using anon coins are those that either have a need to do so for business reasons or are people that don't trust their governments. The rest of the sheeple that have come in this year are in just as a way to invest and view cryptos as an investment rather than currencies, the way they were supposed to be. Of course with Bitcoin being the most widely recognized coin out there that is what people are flocking to. I do believe that 2018 will see a different course of action, though there will be more coming in as well so will flock to what is well known.

Yeah I have noticed a lot of coins in 2017 have been building around privacy, and I think we might see a change into more private coins.

I think the biggest issue with privacy is a large percentage of people think its only for criminals. No matter how many servers get hacked.  They often hold an irrational thought that if there's nothing to hide there's no need for privacy. This will change but not anytime soon.

This is also a good point. Lots of people still think Bitcoin is only for hackers.

Most of the cryptocurrency users (especially newcomers) don't care about privacy or anonymity, they just want to invest in a crypto that garantees high profits in a short amount of time. People no longer care about the tech behind a cryptocurrency, except for those who have been in the crypto community for a long time, or those tech savvy people.
Also, in order for a privacy coin to grow exponentially, it needs investors, but it is very risky to invest in a altcoin that barely no one uses, that's why their market cap is low.

And we aren't stuck with Bitcoin since anyone can choose another crypto for privacy reasons (and there are a lot of better options) but it is too much of hazzle for the average joe to start reading about altcoins and try to find out which one of the +1300 cryptos provides the optimous level or privacy/anonymity. And when you find one, you discover that 'X' crypto doesn't have any real usage other than for trading or speculation.

That's why people choose Bitcoin, it offers more than fine levels of privacy, and it is the most popular cryptocurrency. Simple as that.

This is very true, I just wonder how long pushing it aside and sticking with bitcoin since "it is good enough" will last. If more people are educated around cryptocurrency and understand to invest in better coins with solid backgrounds, I still dont know if privacy would be a huge deal. If the majority of people dont care about it, then privacy coins that are specific, might not be the best choice.

With some thought you can get "Pretty Good Anonymity" if you are careful (cautious) here in Bitcoinistan.  The biggest problem re privacy IMO is that the Entrance & Exit Ramps can be easily monitored (buying something with BTC for example, well, they have to SHIP it to you...).

Still:

-- Bitcoin mixing
-- Buying from localbitcoins and/or other places (many BTC ATMs in Europe do not require ID)
-- Using TOR and/or VPN
-- Getting a used laptop from a pawnshop and only using it at places (w/ wifi) where you normally do NOT go...

There are other ways to run silent and run deep even with Bitcoin.  Bitcoin is accepted by so many merchants that it is useful to have some BTC to buy something if necessary.

[EcoChavCrypto]

The majority of people don't use cryptos for a privacy purpose,. Sadly, most use them to speculate only. If you tell them about cryptography, blockchain they don't understand and don't give a fuck about it.

And they are the shit of cryptos, all those people who are only speculating or just using bitcoin or any other crypto just for profit purposes or just to make a x2 x3 x100 x1000 from their money are the ones who deserve to lose everything.

I hate them all, i dont know why they are still considering bitcoin as a "fast rich scheme" instead of a good solution to stop using banks as a third party.

I dont know, and we dont know what is going to happen, but those who are doing exactly that, are the ones who do not care a shit about privacy

[dzkazmi]

Its not that much anonymous anymore specially how governments wants the exchanges to give the data for tax reasons.

[BitHodler]

Its not that much anonymous anymore specially how governments wants the exchanges to give the data for tax reasons.

It has never been that anonymous anyway, but I do agree that with how exchanges more and more force people to verify themselves, the "anonymity" that people were enjoying, has decreased to the absolute bottom.

I however don't see this as being much of a problem since there are decentralized exchanges you can use, mixers, and even directly certain on anonymity focused altcoins to largely get rid of your personal taint.

At the end of the day, it's not for nothing that the peer to peer markets have all been increasing in usage significantly. It was quite a thin market back in the days, and somewhat still is, but it's growing rapidly, and that's important.

The more volume, the more utility the peer to peer markets will have.

[eaLiTy]

I'd argue that the main value proposition of Bitcoin is being permissionless, with pseudo-anonymity being only a side-effect. Also I'd love to believe that people will become more privacy conscious in the next 2-3 years, but I've honestly given hopes up on that. Privacy has long been dead and people embraced its death with open arms.

Majority of the anon coins are just pseudo anonymity and in order to have a free trade in compliance with the government and to run an exchange ,i think it is really difficult if a coin is truly anonymous and so is the reason we are seeing all these anon coins but with a back door  I really would like to deal things and have my privacy but the world has changed and governments are least bothered about their citizens privacy as they want to have a tab on each and every individual.

[icanscript]

Each level of anonymity has its own cost.
There is a certain level of costs that would cover its anonymity.
Each person, he decides for himself what level of anonymity he needs.

[desi92]

The role of Anonymity in Bitcoin. is a course built around the question, "Is bitcoin really anonymous? " and it is a question that a lot of people are starting to ask as they enter the market. Some of you who may have been interested in cryptocurrency for a while might not even know that Bitcoin is not very anonymous. Now you might be thinking, what if I use mixers/tangles etc? The fact is, technology is being built, and some has already been built to figure out the path of transactions. Which can lead to your individual identity if you ever try to actually utilize the value of bitcoin.

Is privacy really a big deal? I created a thread a little while ago to see some peoples opinion : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2479788.msg25386090#msg25386090

And it seems that it is a huge deal, however we can see that Bitcoin is not really that anonymous  . So the question is, why aren't privacy coins much bigger in terms of market cap? If people really value privacy, and there a ton of better options, why are we still stuck on Bitcoin that in some ways is inefficient?


Thoughts?

Well, so many people concern about the anonymity of bitcoin. They like to get anonymous when they have transaction with bitcoin. I know bitcoin is true not really anonymous but for me it does not matter. I dont mind bitcoin anonymous or not. I am joining in this cryptocurrency have 2 goal. Frist goal as anyone want that is profit from trading or investing.
Second, i want to learn or at least  i know about this great technology.

[Scallywag]

The hard part is to sell anonymously , when you want to get money to your bank account you are gonna have to trust some people with your information.

[TimtheYoutuber]

Maybe the amount of pseudo-anonymity is already enough for most people? In general, people care more about convenience than privacy. Hell, there's little people don't give up for convenience.

Of the options that I'm aware of, all have downsides on other fronts (BTC being the baseline):

XMR -- High fees, low scalability
ZEC -- Single point of failure in the form of a central corporate entity
GBYTE Blackbytes -- Centralized token issuance and trust-dependent consensus

Of course the respective tradeoffs may be seen as worthwhile, but the point is that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

I'd be curious to know what other privacy focused alts there are currently available though.

[...]

I believe this is going to change in 2-3 years and the anon coins will be more recognized and more used only when people will realize how their privacy has been taken over and what were the real reasons for creating Bitcoin

I'd argue that the main value proposition of Bitcoin is being permissionless, with pseudo-anonymity being only a side-effect. Also I'd love to believe that people will become more privacy conscious in the next 2-3 years, but I've honestly given hopes up on that. Privacy has long been dead and people embraced its death with open arms.

That is certainly a good argument, pseudo-anonymity is certainly enough for more people. However businesses certainly would need something more anonymous, I think the biggest thing for people to understand is that bitcoin is pseudo anonymous and not fully anonymous.

[TheGodFather]

The role of Anonymity in Bitcoin. is a course built around the question, "Is bitcoin really anonymous? " and it is a question that a lot of people are starting to ask as they enter the market. Some of you who may have been interested in cryptocurrency for a while might not even know that Bitcoin is not very anonymous. Now you might be thinking, what if I use mixers/tangles etc? The fact is, technology is being built, and some has already been built to figure out the path of transactions. Which can lead to your individual identity if you ever try to actually utilize the value of bitcoin.

Is privacy really a big deal? I created a thread a little while ago to see some peoples opinion : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2479788.msg25386090#msg25386090

And it seems that it is a huge deal, however we can see that Bitcoin is not really that anonymous  . So the question is, why aren't privacy coins much bigger in terms of market cap? If people really value privacy, and there a ton of better options, why are we still stuck on Bitcoin that in some ways is inefficient?


Thoughts?

Normally people use cryptocurrency and bitcoins more specifically to facilitate trading or to generate an income. Howerver there are some cases wherein bitcoin is used to make transactions more private and anonymous and that’s where the strength of bitcojn is too