Bitcoin and privacy!!!

[ShowOffoN]

On another note, I think it's time that AIs are used to create an untraceable blockchain. Many might not realize it but AIs already co exists with us simply because mobile phones do and almost all high end mobile phones and computers has AIs in it. Not the scifi robotic kind of AI but the chip forms or whatever other forms.

[Pan Troglodytes]

Satoshi created Bitcoin to be pseudo anonymous to grant people enough anonymity to keep their financial matters private. So, by not re-using Bitcoin addresses, people will be able to protect their financial privacy. <You do not want someone to know how much money you have, when you pay for some service with your Bitcoin address, right?>

Bitcoin does not offer you more anonymity than what you are granted with cash and that is exactly what Satoshi wanted, when he created this technology.

If you want more anonymity, use mixer services. 

You are right, it is offering much less anonymity than cash, not all my cash transactions get to be visible in a public ledger.

I support the view of the OP that the current level of pseudonymity is not satisfactory, that with every transaction you leak vital personal data like the IP addresses, KYC records, even CCTV footages. For a dedicated individual or a group with enough time and other resources to deeply analyse the blockchain and link it with other records it may be possible to get a close to exact picture of all your transactions, your account balances etc.

[dothebeats]

It does not directly point out your identity, though there are some people who specialize in snooping 'taints' which leads to identifying a certain person who might have posted the address somewhere. Besides, the goal of the blockchain is to provide a ledger of transactions that is verifiable and can be viewed at any time, while still providing some sort of privacy and anonymity to those who are involved in the transaction. If we are to make the blockchain private, how sure are we that everything is credible and how are we going to check transactions when we need to?

[Pan Troglodytes]

It does not directly point out your identity, though there are some people who specialize in snooping 'taints' which leads to identifying a certain person who might have posted the address somewhere. Besides, the goal of the blockchain is to provide a ledger of transactions that is verifiable and can be viewed at any time, while still providing some sort of privacy and anonymity to those who are involved in the transaction. If we are to make the blockchain private, how sure are we that everything is credible and how are we going to check transactions when we need to?

Well this is a naive question. Just the same as you don't have to publicize your first and last name to be able to claim ownership of the bitcoin amount stored in an address (you use your private key, don't you) just the same you don't have to publicize the transaction amount and information making it possible to link adresses and create transaction history. There are cryptographic ways that make it possible to prove information is correct while no information is in fact revealed publicly. Read about zero knowledge proofs.

And there are already some other cryptocurrency coins that are more private than bitcoin. Why can't bitcoin evolve in this direction too is beyond me. It is like making it easier for smaller altcoins to replace bitcoin eventually.

[131tc01n]

Bitcoin was created without being centralized, but maybe developers have other reasons so that the lack of anonymity in bitcoin transactions. If you want to trade with high anonymity, of course there are still many coins that have that feature, you just convert it to the coin and then start trading

[TobiasVR]

it should be able to be used as an example to increase the privacy of bitcoin users. when the transaction is running the public can see how much bitcoin and where bitcoin will be transferred. so I think privacy is important to use for security in use.

[Micronometer]

It's a widespread common mistake that people frequently make. Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous. It's not completely anonymous, which means, the transactions are crystal clear but the identity is, unless revealed, unknown.

[khaled0111]

The public ledger don't store any private data, all it contains are block of transactions.
Theorically, it is possible to know both of the sender and the receiver, but this process can't be done by any one who want's to. It requires a lot of experience and reseach.
Besides, using mixers and vpns will make it harder.

[ngm22585]

On another note, I think it's time that AIs are used to create an untraceable blockchain. Many might not realize it but AIs already co exists with us simply because mobile phones do and almost all high end mobile phones and computers has AIs in it. Not the scifi robotic kind of AI but the chip forms or whatever other forms.

Yep, machine learning is everywhere.

[Cajor]

It serves a purpose otherwise any scammer can get away without being tracked. You can utilize mixing services. I think it will remain like that even in the future.

[pooya87]

Satoshi created Bitcoin to be pseudo anonymous to grant people enough anonymity to keep their financial matters private. So, by not re-using Bitcoin addresses, people will be able to protect their financial privacy. <You do not want someone to know how much money you have, when you pay for some service with your Bitcoin address, right?>

Bitcoin does not offer you more anonymity than what you are granted with cash and that is exactly what Satoshi wanted, when he created this technology.

If you want more anonymity, use mixer services. 

You are right, it is offering much less anonymity than cash, not all my cash transactions get to be visible in a public ledger.

I support the view of the OP that the current level of pseudonymity is not satisfactory, that with every transaction you leak vital personal data like the IP addresses, KYC records, even CCTV footages. For a dedicated individual or a group with enough time and other resources to deeply analyse the blockchain and link it with other records it may be possible to get a close to exact picture of all your transactions, your account balances etc.

not exactly right. it is not with every transaction that you leak these things. for instance when i am sending a tx from my wallet i am not leaking CCTV footage! and regarding IP there is no concrete way of proving that when you (as a node) send a transaction to the network that tx belongs to you or you are just relaying it after receiving from someone else.
not to mention that your comment is confusing because you continue with "analyzing blockchain" whereas none of the things you said are even going in the blockchain (like your IP). there needs to be a network analysis and a huge number of nodes that connect to nearly all the nodes in the network to analyze who is sending what and it is extremely hard and it gets harder as the network grows.

[Vernfwiles]

Bitcoin is not really annonymous; its pseudonymous. If it really was annonymous, it would be quiet impossible to track down the scammers. I am happy with the way it is.

[SpiderDS]

Bitcoin is very important currency in the world.So bitcoin use many privacy side.there are many people are not use privacy system and they are not concious for btc or cryptocurrency market.

[Slow death]

[...]

People have the habit of always complaining, it does not matter if something is right that they will always look for a defect. Cara bitcoin needs adoption and we do not need more anonymity to have problems with governments and banks, anonymity = problems with governments and banks and we do not want this. Yes it would be a good suggestion that bitcoin is faster and cheaper, but we do not need that bitcoin be more anonymous because it will not bring benefits. If someone needs something anonymous, then use mixer and anonymous altcoins that will have your problem solved

[xtrump101]

for me ill leave that way bitcoin being psseudoanonymous if in exchange is mass adoption and embrce of the bank and government institution and also criminal are trackable, but you realy wanna use absolute anonimity there is a lot of privacy coin out there to choose such as deep onion, monero, cloackchain etc... its just a matter of choice

[coin8coin8]

In fact, I think Bitcoin has been able to make most users "anonymous" compared to traditional currencies. We often hear that Bitcoin is used by some criminal groups for money laundering, although it can still be traced to them, but compared Traditional banking, it is obviously more difficult to track the real traders of the blockchain.

[eternalgloom]

-snip-

In the light of above explanation, should Bitcoin be upgraded by a confidential blockchain system which is scalable too?

Quite a few mistakes in your explanation, as pooya87 explained in his reply, but your question is legitimate in my opinion.

I'm very much in favour of keeping all records public, as they are now. Bitcoin was never meant to be a privacy focused coin.
There are far better alternatives if you want privacy. Now I don't have too much knowledge about the technical side of things, but I would think that there are far more interesting features to add, besides privacy.

As others have said, you can also use TOR, so that's already one way that you can greatly improve your privacy when using Bitcoin.

I'd put all the time and effort in getting schnorr signatures added for example. Seems way more useful than adding more privacy measures.

[RileyPeterson]

Bitcoin is a decentralized system and people loved it for this. Though the tracking is a good thing as it will also track the scammers, it breaches transactor's privacy. This news is unknown to many. Don't know how others will take this news.

[celtic99]

Most people have already moved to privacy coins on the dark web because it's very difficult to mix bitcoins and you never really can be sure if it was done right and the trail is gone.

[danherbias07]

It's the best you can get.
Tell me one thing that makes you anonymous when it comes to transacting money?
Banks need your information.
Western Union does too.
Moneygram is the same.
So where will you go? There is nothing more secured than bitcoin for now. So better use it instead of the companies that I listed or else all your information will be leaked throughout the world.

Something to change? None. It is perfect in my sight. Better just change the way you use it.

Hackers will not get anything from you if you will not provide anything to them. Specially your private keys or any passwords that will lead to where you stored your private key.

That is why from the start I just jot down my private keys in a piece of paper. Actually, 2 pieces of paper, one for my wife. Voila! you are secured thru infinity and beyond.