Anonymity VS tracing transactions.

[javadsalehi]

Whenever bitcoin transactions anonymity is discussed, there are two groups of people. The first group think of privacy of users and the second group think of those bitcoins have been stolen or have been used for illegal transactions.
We cannot have both anonymity and possibility of returning stolen bitcoin to their real owners.
Which one do you choose if you have to choose only of them?
If you choose the second option, please answer the question below.
Now, what's the difference between bitcoin and fiat?

[Hamphser]

I will choose anonymity than tracing transactions because tracing transactions sounded like a centralized thing which is the government is always doing. Making a path of all of your expenses that somehow could be altered with someone who has the power to see the transaction records of a certain person.
Anonymity is better since no one will know if what addresses you are using for trading and for savings.

[pakhitheboss]

We love Bitcoin over Fiat because it provides to a certain extent anonymous transaction. Therefore I will always favor anonymity. Tracing transaction is for FIAT transaction and that is what the government wants.

Just read a few minutes back that Microsoft has already launched a software that will remove the anonymity part of cryptocurrency. With this product, the governments will be benefited and those who are looking to trace those stolen Bitcoin.

Read - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2099841.0

[hulla]

Whenever bitcoin transactions anonymity is discussed, there are two groups of people. The first group think of privacy of users and the second group think of those bitcoins have been stolen or have been used for illegal transactions.
We cannot have both anonymity and possibility of returning stolen bitcoin to their real owners.
Which one do you choose if you have to choose only of them?
If you choose the second option, please answer the question below.
Now, what's the difference between bitcoin and fiat?

The difference between bitcoin and fiat are the visibility, unheld and decentralized. But, there are something people seems not to understand especially the institutions whenever they want to say negative things about bitcoin, what they said is that it was used for illegal transactions or they didn't support because of money launder and we both know bitcoin was not created when money launder started and when the 9/11 happened.
The anonymity of bitcoin is not a curse and everything which use as legal tender will always abuse by the scammer and theft.

[pawanjain]

Bitcoin is not actually completely anonymous. Bitcoin transactions are considered as pseudonymous and it can be traced back to the owner with some effort.
Though it would be really difficult if the transaction was been through a mixer. Anyway, I would consider privacy to be the prime factor as I always do.

[Botnake]

Bitcoin if we will only use the blockchain with coverting it in exchange, that will make us anonymous, but, the moment we send it in exchange, we loss that anonymity already because exchanges are centralized, hence they are required by law to conduct KYC on their clients, and because of KYC, it will make our transactions in blockchain easily to be trace.

[Darker45]

Whenever bitcoin transactions anonymity is discussed, there are two groups of people. The first group think of privacy of users and the second group think of those bitcoins have been stolen or have been used for illegal transactions.
We cannot have both anonymity and possibility of returning stolen bitcoin to their real owners.
Which one do you choose if you have to choose only of them?
If you choose the second option, please answer the question below.
Now, what's the difference between bitcoin and fiat?

I think privacy and anonymity do no automatically mean that every BTC stolen couldn't be recovered anymore. Nor does it mean that since one is using Bitcoin, he or she cannot anymore get caught and be brought to justice if he or she is involved in illegal transactions.

Although the largest portion of stolen crypto funds are not recovered, there were a few successful recoveries I believe. But it is enough to say that there is a little opening to the possibility of recovering stolen funds.

As far as Bitcoin users' involvement in illegal transactions are concerned, the silk road is the first thing that comes to mind. There were many arrests done all over the world. Again, this means to say that using Bitcoin is not a haven for criminal minds.   

[fullhdpixel]

Everyone will mostly go for the anonymity of bitcoin, and this is the major part of the coin that are even of threat to the government itself, and that is why they are running everything possible with Microsoft to see how they can crack the code and destroy the anonymity of the coin.

 I understand that it can also be tempting though, I mean tracing of transaction, because right now, I am looking for any system that would deal with those scammers that has used the system to defraud lots of people of their hard earned money, which makes me want to belong to the second group sometimes, but anonymity can be so much tempting, and I think I am sorry to those that is losing their fund, I still represent anonymity and this is what I liked the system for.

[NeuroticFish]

We cannot have both anonymity and possibility of returning stolen bitcoin to their real owners.

Even if the "bad guys" are sloppy and you can link their addresses to their identity (which is not very likely), unless they give you their private key the stolen Bitcoins cannot be returned.
So... what are we talking about?

[rdluffy]

Almost everyone, including me, will choose anonymity
One of the most reasons we are here, supporting cryptos, is because we like to have control of our money, and even if BTC is not totally anonymous, we don't like the idea of people tracing us

[Herbert2020]

We cannot have both anonymity and possibility of returning stolen bitcoin to their real owners.

since bitcoin transactions are not reversible (unlike fiat systems that have easy charge back that leads to a lot of other types of scams), there is no way of returning stolen bitcoins to their owners. not to mention that the owners have a hard time proving their coins were actually stolen. having more privacy in this case doesn't really change that much.

[Kakmakr]

                                                         "Do not throw out the baby with the bath water."

Remember, all technologies have their advantages and disadvantages and the same goes for Bitcoin. On the one hand you have pseudo anonymity to protect people's financial privacy, but on the other hand, this anonymity are used by criminals to hide their criminal activities.

Take the Internet as an example, when it started people were saying the Internet was a cestpool of pedophiles and money launderers and look how many legal things are being done with the Internet now. We still have scammers and criminals using the Internet, but more people use it for legal uses now. 

[jseverson]

We cannot have both anonymity and possibility of returning stolen bitcoin to their real owners.

Um, who's asking for the latter option? That's a feature, not an oversight. If you own Bitcoin, you have to assume full responsibility of what happens to your holdings. If you want to retrieve your stolen coins, you look for other avenues to do so (law enforcement, etc.), and not a change in the roadmap.

Having an option for anonymity is always better than not having it, and anyone who tells you otherwise a) doesn't use Bitcoin or b) is shooting themselves in the foot.

[dkbit98]

Optional anonymity is much better solution for Bitcoin, because
if Bitcoin was 100% with private transactions from start I am sure
that Law enforcement would do much more to ban any use of it.

Some second layer solution or wallet with privacy function is good solution looking long term.

[Duzter]

Optional anonymity is much better solution for Bitcoin, because
if Bitcoin was 100% with private transactions from start I am sure
that Law enforcement would do much more to ban any use of it.

Some second layer solution or wallet with privacy function is good solution looking long term.

Maybe there are few governments that take anonymity as a reason to ban. Bitcoin isn't 100% anonymous, it is pseudo anonymous with possible chances of knowing one's wallet balance if a particular users identity is known. This transparency is good for any network, another thing is the irreversible feature of a transaction. This will make users more responsible, but at the same time the risk is very big.

[Slow death]

Whenever bitcoin transactions anonymity is discussed, there are two groups of people. The first group think of privacy of users and the second group think of those bitcoins have been stolen or have been used for illegal transactions.
We cannot have both anonymity and possibility of returning stolen bitcoin to their real owners.
Which one do you choose if you have to choose only of them?

I choose the first option, but I must say that this is a very complicated subject. Because the government's obliges financial institutions require their clients to do KYC, this is for them to be able to monitor people and when anonymous ( Like monero for example ) currencies appear , it's like if they are declaring a war against governments, a war that cannot win. Bitcoin is fine as it is

Now, what's the difference between bitcoin and fiat?

people have control of their private keys, I think this is something very good that bitcoin has and fiat doesn't have

[arpon11]

When I read Bitcoin white paper in 2015 I am happy for us to have a system that the transactions cannot be traced by tax official who is bend to collect tax and embezzled the same funds without taking care of the social amenities that will help the entire populace and as such I am in favor of anonymous or privacy. We should be able to transact with one another without governments involvement or bank involvement. However, criminal and criminality are hiding under this Anonymous to commit a crime against the populace that it should protect and as such government has to come in to secure people investments in crypto currency.

[jdarren]

I mean if my funds got stolen especially a large amount I would enjoy to have them return. I believe users can still remain anonymous if there are companies in place like Ciphertrace that offer blockchain forensics. The difference is that companies that offer privacy protecting technology are helping the ecosystem from money laundering. I think they could help with large amounts of loses rather than just small bits here and there.

Idk I go back and forth though because anonymity is ultimately the goal cypto put out. I just don't know if we will be able to remain completely anonymous with governments around the globe stepping in.

[The3max]

I wish that your thoughts could be resolved. As we all know, sending on the blockchain cannot come back. And if you can come back, guess what the problem is? Trust and safety are not taken first. But for companies or their own platform, for example, Binance, you can ask for assistance to get your money back.

[taufik0911]

I have one thought with Bitcoin being used for illegal transactions
in my opinion the difference is very clear that fiat uses a centralized system so that it is regulated by printing fiat etc. so that it can be populated by certain groups different from bitcoin which is not regulated by anyone